When should parents stop giving allowances to their children?

[russ_watters]

I don't call jobs that pay $20,000 big job openings, like I said. I wouldn't call those jobs. They are dead end. Jobs you had before actually had a route you can take. All you have now is like... manager of a small little place for $22,000. $2000 was your fat raise.

I don't know what you studied in college, but if you don't like the available choices, you should have studied something else. Heck, regardless of what you studied, there are things you can do that will in just a few months land you a much, much better job than that. After several years of wallowing in self-pity at the uselessness of his "liberal studies" degree, a buddy of mine went and got himself a paralegal certificate. It took something like 3 months and he immediately found a job paying $40k (and has gotten raises relatively quickly since then).

I don't pay rent and I think I'm self-sufficient.

Sorry, but that's self-contradictory. The definition of self-sufficient is that you provide for your own needs. If you rely on someone else to provide you with a place to live, then you are not self-sufficient.

For the small amount of debt that I owe after years of paying for school, it's a clear indication that I know what to do with money.

Nice to know, but being responsible and being self-sufficient are not the same thing.

I really don't understand the mentality there. When I got out of the navy at 26 and needed to live at home for a few months while I looked for a job, I was really antsy. I hated the fact that I needed my parents. I felt like a loser. I have a friend who is 32 and still lives with his parents and though he doesn't like it, he doesn't hate it enough to make a serious effort at change in his life. His mother loves it, though - she treats him pretty much the same as the family dog (and always has).

 

[russ_watters]

Hippies are self-sufficient. Silicon Valley is full of hippy entrepreneurs.

Both of those sentences are contradictions in terms. Long hair or not, Steve Jobs is not a hippie. Maybe the distinction is subtle, but the difference between a hippie and an offbeat visionary is that the the hippie's visions are pot-induced incoherent ramblings while the visionary's are acutally good ideas and actually work. That, plus the entrepreneur has the motivation do things, while the hippie just sits around a campfire smoking pot and talking about doing things (things that make no sense).

There are plenty of Republicans/conservatives who thrive on government 'grants' and subsidies - welfare for the rich. And there are plenty of bureaucrats (both democrat and republican) who get paid for administering ineffective programs.

Certainly. They're wrong too, but this thread isn't about corporate welfare, it's about slacker hippies.

 

[Beeza]

I'm 21, living on my own, going to school full time, and pay all of my own bills including 1050$ a month in rent. I do struggle especially during the winter, but I still work atleast 30 hours a week between the physics labs and roofing. However, the only reason that I can manage this is because I spent 5 years as a roofer, 2 of those years as the foreman, and the company has allowed me to continue working part-time on weekends making more money than I will having graduated college and finding an entry-level job. I have no idea how other people manage to get by making10-15$ an hour. I'd need my parents help if I did not spend my weekends roofing.

On a side note, since I'm working really hard and doing everything on my own, I think it has made me a more motivated student and a better person. This leads me to consider whether or not to pay for my kids tuition when I have children.

 

[JasonRox]

I don't know what you studied in college, but if you don't like the available choices, you should have studied something else. Heck, regardless of what you studied, there are things you can do that will in just a few months land you a much, much better job than that.

I'm not done school.

Anyways, things have changed.

Around here you literally can not find a job, nevermind one that pays more than minimum wage!

I don't plan on living at home forever. I have plans to move out by April of 2006. I'll be 23, so it isn't that bad in my opinion. Considering my sister is 25, making 50k, and living at home!

 

[russ_watters]

Well, I'm not really sure how this conversation got to be about you, specifically - I was pretty specific in saying that it is people who are out of school who should be self-sufficient (in a reasonable amount of time after leaving school).

 

[Moonbear]

Around here you literally can not find a job, nevermind one that pays more than minimum wage!

Then people need to move to where the jobs are. That's what the people I went to school with did...when we couldn't find jobs that would cover high prices of rent or homes in the town we grew up in, we moved. Some just moved to different parts of the state, others moved across the country. And, no things aren't that different. My sister started out with a $20,000/yr job out of college...I actually think it was a bit less than that...she was a social worker and that just doesn't pay well...the cost of living hasn't changed much since she was starting out. So, she got a second job as a lifeguard at a hotel to help pay the rent, lived in a cheap one-bedroom apartment, and managed to make ends meet. Or, you get a roommate to share the costs of an apartment until you earn enough to afford one on your own.

I'd have hated having to depend on my parents once I graduated college. It was bad enough having to live back home for summers while in college. There's a point where the kids are supposed to move out and be on their own, and make their own mistakes, and deal with their own problems, even if it means eating Ramen noodles for weeks at a time. Besides, it's kind of fun to think back to the first apartment or two when end tables were made out of a sheet thrown over cardboard boxes and you learned to cook meals with one saucepan and one frying pan you picked up at a garage sale somewhere.

On a side note, since I'm working really hard and doing everything on my own, I think it has made me a more motivated student and a better person. This leads me to consider whether or not to pay for my kids tuition when I have children.

Yes, I agree that it's good to have to work for what you get in life. I would expect my kids to work to pay at least part of their tuition. I wouldn't take it to the point where it would jeopardize their ability to go to college if they couldn't pay all of it, or if it would put their grades at risk if they had to work too many hours during the school year, but just learning to juggle work and school is a darned good life skill. Then again, they'll have free tuition wherever I'm working, but I think kids need to leave home when they go to college so they learn to fend for themselves, so I would never push them to attend where I'm working.