Just a 48-year-old mom of 2 in Northern California. My kids are Monkey Monkey(MM) and Drama Llama (DL). I am married to Monkey Hubby (MH). MM(22) will end the summer with about $15,000, as I expected.
I am advising him to keep $10,000 set aside for a car replacement.
I presume that $5,000 will cover his expenses this next school year. I just looked it up and he spent $3,500 the past 12 months. Considering that he has a car now (for the last 8 months or so), I will just round up to $4,000. Realistically he will spend $4,000 this last school year. But for planning purposes we can round up and add some buffer. $5K is a nice and safe round number for planning.
I am unclear on the details, but he told me his job is extended through the fall quarter. This is surprising because his schedule is so jam packed in the Fall. He told me, "It's only 6 hours per week". Still, I wouldn't hold my breath that he keeps this job. But a few thousand extra dollars is probably good re: the 'running out of money' factor. If we are short $1,000 re: his last month of rent (July 2026), MH and I may just agree to gift that money to him. But for the most part we have closed our pocket book and are done using our own money to pay for MM(22)'s college expenses. It's possible he will have a month or two of rent to cover at the end.
There is no long-term financial planning in MM(22)'s world. He chose to take a full 3 years off of working, so this is what he is left with. Long-term financial planning will be a post-college discussion.
Edited to add: Oh yeah, and all my kids' CUs keep sending MM(22) 'pre-approvals' for $60,000 car loans. 🙄 I got another offer in my email the other day.
Second edit: MM just told me that he will be a paid research assistant for the entire school year and there was something like $17,000 in the budget to pay him. It will be interesting to see what he ends up with. Maybe I can do a 2-for-1 investing lesson when he is back in town in a couple of weeks. If he's got a year-round job (for the first time) it would be wise to start contributing some percentage to retirement. That changes the equation considerably.
August 17th, 2025 at 12:17 am 1755386251
They aren't I want, I need money, gimme. It's more they are happy with what they have but have no realization they want for nothing.
August 18th, 2025 at 11:35 pm 1755556554
That's great if there is the $17K as a paid research assistant. Hope it works out.