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Message
How did you handle expenses/vehicles when your kid started driving?
Posted on 9/17/20 at 10:02 am
Posted on 9/17/20 at 10:02 am
I've been thinking through some scenarios for when my son starts driving in about 3 years. Anybody who has recently been through this, I'd love to have your feedback and your philosophies on this.
We absolutely want him to have some responsibility for expenses but don't want to irrationally overburden him and get his priorities out of whack during the school year. He's proven to be a good, responsible kid so far, and I'm more concerned with him maintaining good discipline and study habits as opposed to getting out of balance and working too much. I have no problem with him working full time during the summer.
ETA: Ideally, his priorities will continue to be schoolwork, youth group, 1 sport, then work. (and wherever girls can fit in to that)
I think we'd want to allow use to him of my current truck (which will be paid off and probably have right around 100K miles at that time) for something like a flat $1,000. Should absolutely be attainable, but would require some sacrifice and discipline and thus, give the kid some buy-in. He'd still have to share it with me to tow the boat on the weekends, but it would be his to drive to school/work/friends' houses, etc at least through high school, maybe college.
My other thought would be that he pays his share of insurance and provides gas money, but I have ZERO idea what it would actually cost for him to be a driver on our policies. It seems like those 2 expenses could add up very quickly. For reference (if it would be useful for providing a ballpark estimate), we're with USAA and currently paying 119/month for my wife and I to have full coverage with 1,000 deductibles on both of our vehicles.
TIA
We absolutely want him to have some responsibility for expenses but don't want to irrationally overburden him and get his priorities out of whack during the school year. He's proven to be a good, responsible kid so far, and I'm more concerned with him maintaining good discipline and study habits as opposed to getting out of balance and working too much. I have no problem with him working full time during the summer.
ETA: Ideally, his priorities will continue to be schoolwork, youth group, 1 sport, then work. (and wherever girls can fit in to that)
I think we'd want to allow use to him of my current truck (which will be paid off and probably have right around 100K miles at that time) for something like a flat $1,000. Should absolutely be attainable, but would require some sacrifice and discipline and thus, give the kid some buy-in. He'd still have to share it with me to tow the boat on the weekends, but it would be his to drive to school/work/friends' houses, etc at least through high school, maybe college.
My other thought would be that he pays his share of insurance and provides gas money, but I have ZERO idea what it would actually cost for him to be a driver on our policies. It seems like those 2 expenses could add up very quickly. For reference (if it would be useful for providing a ballpark estimate), we're with USAA and currently paying 119/month for my wife and I to have full coverage with 1,000 deductibles on both of our vehicles.
TIA
This post was edited on 9/17/20 at 10:05 am
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Posted on 9/17/20 at 10:20 am to AUjim
My daughter just bought her car with her own money and prepaid 6 months of car insurance.
she started working at Chic-fil-a at April of her Junior year. (worked 16-20ish hrs wk) through work and saving birthday money, she had about $9600.
she bought an 09 corolla.
Car is in her name, insurance is in her name also
louisiana insurance - just under $2k for 6 months
25/50/50 and $500 ded coll/comp
she started working at Chic-fil-a at April of her Junior year. (worked 16-20ish hrs wk) through work and saving birthday money, she had about $9600.
she bought an 09 corolla.
Car is in her name, insurance is in her name also
louisiana insurance - just under $2k for 6 months
25/50/50 and $500 ded coll/comp
Posted on 9/17/20 at 10:34 am to AUjim
Insuring young drivers through USAA is expensive. Consider switching to another provider during that phase of your life.
Usaa does have a feature in their desktop website that enables you to get cost increase estimates for adding a new driver.
With my kids, I set up a matching funds promise. For every dollar they saved for a down payment toward a new vehicle, I would match them dollar for dollar and would of course co-sign in a loan. They would then carry the loan payments. One saved only a couple grand, but another saved close to 9 grand (bastard). I think it gave them skin in the game to take care of what they sacrificed for.
Usaa does have a feature in their desktop website that enables you to get cost increase estimates for adding a new driver.
With my kids, I set up a matching funds promise. For every dollar they saved for a down payment toward a new vehicle, I would match them dollar for dollar and would of course co-sign in a loan. They would then carry the loan payments. One saved only a couple grand, but another saved close to 9 grand (bastard). I think it gave them skin in the game to take care of what they sacrificed for.
Posted on 9/17/20 at 10:56 am to AUjim
I don't have any kids, but I can just tell you what my parents did:
Similar to you, my dad had me drive an older truck that he would use to pull boats, etc when he needed it. He paid the insurance, but I had to pay for gas (it was near $4 / gallon at the time on a V8 truck) and any weekend money. I found a part-time job at a little clothing store helping clean up around the store, run errands, attempt to sell stuff, etc. The owner allowed me to work around my school/sports schedule and work more when school was not in.
One option I would look into that I found out about after the fact, try and get him to be a runner for a law firm. Usually the runners sit around and study while they await a task plus law firms close earlier than say a chik fil a or some sort of fastfood / mall job so they aren't working late.
Similar to you, my dad had me drive an older truck that he would use to pull boats, etc when he needed it. He paid the insurance, but I had to pay for gas (it was near $4 / gallon at the time on a V8 truck) and any weekend money. I found a part-time job at a little clothing store helping clean up around the store, run errands, attempt to sell stuff, etc. The owner allowed me to work around my school/sports schedule and work more when school was not in.
One option I would look into that I found out about after the fact, try and get him to be a runner for a law firm. Usually the runners sit around and study while they await a task plus law firms close earlier than say a chik fil a or some sort of fastfood / mall job so they aren't working late.
Posted on 9/17/20 at 11:23 am to AUjim
Son turned 16 last year. We bought him a bit of a beater. It's not a POS, just a 2005 Honda Accord that only had 105,000 miles on it, but it's far from what he wanted. He's expected to work to earn his own gas money, but we cover the insurance. It's only liability coverage so the insurance isn't that much each month. He's expected to help out on maintenance and repairs, but we also help him out a little. Just had to get new tires and we paid half. He's covered all the oil changes and car washes so far, and he covered new brake pads a few months ago. Haven't had a major repair bill yet.
He understands it's our car and we reserve the right to relinquish it if he's irresponsible with it. So far, so good. Our three biggest rules are:
1. Absolutely NO drinking and driving. He understands if he's somewhere he's been drinking and there's no sober driver, he can call us no questions asked.
2. No texting and driving. This one is hard to enforce though, because we're not always in the car with him.
3. No blown curfews. We'll give him 5 or 10 minutes sometimes, but absolutely no getting in 30+ minutes after curfew. He breaks curfew, we take the keys. He also has to leave the keys in our bedroom when he gets home.
He understands it's our car and we reserve the right to relinquish it if he's irresponsible with it. So far, so good. Our three biggest rules are:
1. Absolutely NO drinking and driving. He understands if he's somewhere he's been drinking and there's no sober driver, he can call us no questions asked.
2. No texting and driving. This one is hard to enforce though, because we're not always in the car with him.
3. No blown curfews. We'll give him 5 or 10 minutes sometimes, but absolutely no getting in 30+ minutes after curfew. He breaks curfew, we take the keys. He also has to leave the keys in our bedroom when he gets home.
Posted on 9/17/20 at 11:34 am to AUjim
Good topic. My oldest is 12 and I'm already starting to think ahead.
My parents did absolutely nothing for me. My grandfather hardly drove anymore and when I was 16 and 17, he would let me use his car but it stayed at his house overnight (he lived a block away). I basically paid all the gas and maintenance on it, and I paid my share of the insurance to have me added.
When I went to college, I bought a car for $3500. Everything was my responsibility.
For my 12 year old, when she turns 16, I'm thinking this...
1) Give her my current car (Camry, will be about 10 years old / 140K miles probably by that time). I'll buy something else for me.
2) She pays all gas / oil changes / minor things.
3) I'll cover any major repair issues.
4) She pays for half of her insurance.
For the first six months she has her license, I might not just give her the car yet... I might keep it and just let her use it from time to time, so I can see how she does with it.
My parents did absolutely nothing for me. My grandfather hardly drove anymore and when I was 16 and 17, he would let me use his car but it stayed at his house overnight (he lived a block away). I basically paid all the gas and maintenance on it, and I paid my share of the insurance to have me added.
When I went to college, I bought a car for $3500. Everything was my responsibility.
For my 12 year old, when she turns 16, I'm thinking this...
1) Give her my current car (Camry, will be about 10 years old / 140K miles probably by that time). I'll buy something else for me.
2) She pays all gas / oil changes / minor things.
3) I'll cover any major repair issues.
4) She pays for half of her insurance.
For the first six months she has her license, I might not just give her the car yet... I might keep it and just let her use it from time to time, so I can see how she does with it.
Posted on 9/17/20 at 11:45 am to tigeraddict
quote:
louisiana insurance - just under $2k for 6 months
Kudos to your daughter paying for it herself.
My daughter is 15 and I'm damn sure not ready to fork out $4k a year just so she can drive. She might stay on a learner's permit until she's 18. My daughter goes to school at LSMSA and it's hard for her to work given the work load of the school and the commute during the breaks of going back and forth.
This post was edited on 9/17/20 at 11:48 am
Posted on 9/17/20 at 12:05 pm to AUjim
Make them pay for gas and any increase in insurance based on wreck, etc
Posted on 9/17/20 at 12:20 pm to Hammond Tiger Fan
I forget the exact numbers, but when we ran them on insurance it was going to take a large chunk of our son's income. We wanted him to be able to enjoy the fruits of his labor, so we opted to cover the insurance.
Posted on 9/17/20 at 12:46 pm to AUjim
No kids but my parents bought me a 12 year old truck with 150k miles on it. They paid all expenses. I was in sports.. so did not really have time for a job.
I was fortunate that they were in a position to pay for all of it for me while I was in HS and I am grateful for that. Hope to do the same for my future kids one day.
I was fortunate that they were in a position to pay for all of it for me while I was in HS and I am grateful for that. Hope to do the same for my future kids one day.
Posted on 9/17/20 at 2:20 pm to Willie Stroker
quote:
set up a matching funds promise
I did this, but whatever they saved up, that's the amount we have for the car, no loans. He ended up getting $12k for a car.
Posted on 9/17/20 at 2:26 pm to Hammond Tiger Fan
quote:
She might stay on a learner's permit until she's 18.
that is what we did. she turned 18 in august, and then we got her license. should would have been working 2 weeks just to pay insurance
meant we had to drive and pick up at work... sometime 10:30 if she worked a close shift
my daughter balanced baton rouge high and work
Posted on 9/17/20 at 3:49 pm to AUjim
When my daughter was about 6 months old, I started 2 savings accounts for her. I added $25 a week in one for her first car and $50 a week for college. Had it automatically withdrawn from my checking account every Monday. When she turned 16 she had right at $19,500 for her first car and when she graduated High School at 18, she had a little over $60,000 for college(she added birthday monies and most all of her graduation gifts to this fund). She is solely responsible for her insurance and gas. It was virtually painless saving that way for her and just the way my wife and I decided to it. Every situation and child is different, make the decision that you think is best for you and yours. 
Posted on 9/17/20 at 5:58 pm to AUjim
My 16 year old is buying his own car. Has about $3k saved from a summer job.
Car will be titled in my name to keep insurance cheap.
He will be paying his own insurance and gas. Early estimates on car insurance is $1100/yr for beaters and $2400/yr for some thing decent with full coverage.
He's paying for college. We may pitch in to help at that time, but I'm not telling him that right now.
Car will be titled in my name to keep insurance cheap.
He will be paying his own insurance and gas. Early estimates on car insurance is $1100/yr for beaters and $2400/yr for some thing decent with full coverage.
He's paying for college. We may pitch in to help at that time, but I'm not telling him that right now.
This post was edited on 9/17/20 at 5:59 pm
Posted on 9/17/20 at 6:02 pm to AUjim
Since you are planning ahead, you can add a vanishing deductible or deductible fund to your policy.
I did this 6 years ago at a cost of $35/yr.
I now have a $600 credit on my collision deductible.
If no accidents by January, it will be a $700 credit.
I've bumped up my deductible to $2000 on my 2 vehicles and I probably save about $500 a year in premium.
I did this 6 years ago at a cost of $35/yr.
I now have a $600 credit on my collision deductible.
If no accidents by January, it will be a $700 credit.
I've bumped up my deductible to $2000 on my 2 vehicles and I probably save about $500 a year in premium.
Posted on 9/17/20 at 6:50 pm to AUjim
I plan on buying a car with 30-50k miles for my oldest when they are of age. I'll also cover the insurance and will make her cover gas if she has a job. I don't want her missing out on events with friends, sports, and whatever else she will be into worry about paying for a car. She will have the rest of her life to worry about bills so I don't want to put that requirement on her while in high school. College will be different and she will need to pay for some expenses.
This post was edited on 9/17/20 at 7:59 pm
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