I’ve got plenty of friends who left college and went back to their hometown and moved back in with their parents. I’m not so sure that the parents were happy about that, but most of them love it, because they get to collect a real paycheck and live rent free and get home-cooked meals. It sounds like a sweet deal, but is it really?
This is solely my personal opinion, but I think that you are doing yourself a disservice both financially and emotionally by living at home with your parents after college for an extended period of time. I understand if you want to crash back at home for a couple of months to get your feet under you before you tackle the real world, but if you’ve lived with your parents for over 6 months now, something is wrong!
We need to think in terms of what kind of habits it helping you to form as an adult. When living at home, your budget will never be the same as when you live on your own. You won’t start learning to budget your money properly and you won’t even get in the habit of paying your bills in a timely manner. This will hurt your wallet and your credit in the future if you don’t establish good financial habits early on in your twenties. And let’s be honest, your parents don’t want you there! Sure, they’ll take you in, because they’re your parents! But do you really think they want you back after having 4 years of getting to do whateve they want without kids in the way? Is your room still your room, or did they turn it into an office or a personal gym? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Anyway, think twice before you decide to call your parent’s house “home” again. It could have a big straing on your finances in the future and on your relationship with your parents.
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2 Responses
finance ninja
March 12th, 2007 at 1:27 am
1I have to disagree with you. Living with my parents was awesome! They are so cool and way better roommates then all the ones I go through. As for becoming an adult and making adult decions you are right. You also shouldn’t get “comfortable” not paying rent. I think most parents, and my own, want you to pay some rent or usually help out more then when you were a child. I think most bumming college kids get away with getting free rent just because their parents do miss them unless you have family issues that were never resolved in that case you probably don’t even want to live back at home. I miss living at my parents house. One big bedroom to myself, a guaranteed parking spot, healthy fresh meals, tons of food in the fridge, solid internet, cable tv, the list goes on, and did I mention my sweetie kitty is still waiting for me to come back???
Although many college students fall into a trap going back home to distress and recharge their batteries for the real world you should keep in mind that I need to save up and move out and be an adult. If your cat is still at home and you couldn’t bring it because you moved to some exotic island destination be sure to see it regular when you move back and hug it.
-the finance ninja
i write a personal stock market blog and i miss my cat
erik.folgate
March 12th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
2Yeah, I took a hard stance on this to prove a point. Most people don’t like reading something that says, “well, you could do this, or you could do that” Wishy-washyness doesn’t help anyone in the long run.
Again, i’m not opposed to living with the parents for a little while to get your feet off the ground, pay off debt, etc. But the least that someone can do as an adult coming back to live with their parents is do extra chores around the house, pay some rent, or buy some groceries on a monthly basis.