How To Handle College Kids Moving Back In

With the rise in student loan debt, the difficulty of finding good-paying jobs and the high cost of living, more and more millennials and recent college graduates are moving back in with their parents to save money and make paying bills easier. If you have found yourself in this situation, make living with your boomerang kid easier with these three tips.

Create a Budget
Work out a household budget and determine how much extra money having your boomerang child will cost you each month, from the upkeep to the extra food you’ll need to buy. Make sure you have also taken into account your own retirement security. Having your child move back in will come with a cost, and you should budget for these extra expenses. If your child is employed, have them contribute to the home food budget or pay a few of the smaller bills to hold them accountable for some of the finances.

Discuss With Your Child
Have a conversation with your child and discuss how things have changed in your household since he or she last lived there. You should also discuss how long your child can continue living with you. Offer to help with a job search or an apartment search. Discuss rules such as curfew and spending with your child to help make the transition back home an easy one. If your child has a job, charge “rent” and save the money for when your child leaves permanently. Give him or her the savings then to help with the costs of starting a new household.

Don’t Enable
Everything you do should help your boomerang kid leave home as soon as possible. Don’t agree to cosign on a new car loan or give cash loans. The last thing you want is to give your child a free ride as he or she watches TV every day and doesn’t look for a job or help out around the house. Help your children, but don’t enable them to continue living at home and not live up to their full potential.

The Bottom Line
Open and honest communication is the key to making living with your boomerang kid easier and more comfortable. Set solid, easy-to-follow and reasonable rules for your child, and make sure you budget for the new addition to your household. Help your children in their time of need, but don’t enable them to continue living at home.

Is your child moving back in? What are your plans to handle the new member of your household?