Rebecca Meyer
This 43-year-old man and his wife have been paying some of his 19-year-old stepson’s bills for seven years.
“We haven’t made my son pay for his car, phone, or laptop. He even runs a server farm in my basement that I haven’t made him pay for,” he said.
At 16, his stepson got a job, so he and his wife had a talk with his stepson about how he needs to be careful with money management.
They advised him to be practical and not spend all his money on computer-related items or other non-essential hobbies when his stepson said that he wanted to buy a drone, which was $1,000.
In his and his wife’s view, if his stepson had enough money to buy a drone, this meant that he had enough money to afford his car payment and other expenses. A drone wasn’t just a small, inexpensive toy.
“He’s always been able to spend his money as he wishes; he goes out with friends, buys food, and goes to the movies, but irresponsible purchases were always discouraged,” he explained.
This summer, his stepson moved in with him and his wife. His stepson had a difficult freshman year of college, so he and his wife told his stepson that he could work part-time and have a fun summer before going back to college.
The assumption was that even though his stepson wouldn’t be working full-time during the summer, he would still be saving all of his money for his sophomore year.
His stepson was planning to live in an apartment this fall, and even though he would talk about how he wished he could buy things for his computer, he’d add that he was going to make sure to save up for his expenses. He had hoped that his stepson was growing up and making more responsible decisions.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
