Radio host and author Dave Ramsey frequently discusses ways to coach the young about handling money issues.
One major topic that comes up in this regard is the question of teaching young adults about what it takes to pay for their living space.
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A Texas couple, who said they were fans of Dave Ramsey, appeared on Fox News to talk about why they charged their 19-year-old daughter rent to continue to live at home.
Host Steve Doocy interviewed Ramsey about the story.
"What do you, the guy who inspired the parents, think about this?" Doocy asked.
"As parents, it's our job to teach kids to brush their teeth, and to learn how to work, and to learn how to give and learn how to save and learn how to spend," Ramsey said. "And so this 19-year-old daughter was well prepared for life by some parents who had some good, loving, kind common sense."
Ramsey talked about the reasons for asking their daughter to pay them to continue living at home.
"They were using the rent not as a method of making money off their kid," he said. "They were using the rent as a reason to give her a reason to go ahead and leave the nest. And she did. She was there for just a few months, went to set up her own house. And she was capable of doing that because she had a good mom and dad who coached her."
The personal finance personality discussed the reality of adult children living with their parents in general.
"We've got a group of people that have 29-year-olds living in their basement, a helicopter mom is taking care of everything," he said. "They're sitting amidst their participation trophies and in a great irony, playing Call Of Duty."
"You're not doing your child a favor when you allow them to have a hammock in your house," he continued. "You are doing them a favor when they have a safety net. Sometimes grown kids go through hard times and need to return home for a little bit. I would take care of my kids that way. But they are not going to live with me indefinitely because they don't have dignity when they're doing that. They don't have the sense of confidence on how to tackle the world."
Doocy then asked Ramsey about a system he recommends involving putting money into three different envelopes.
"It's a give envelope, a save envelope and a spend envelope," Ramsey explained. "And it's not that the child is going to change the world with any one of those things, but we're just developing their muscles. We make them do their homework, we make them brush their teeth, we make them put dishes in the dishwasher, hopefully, and so we're going to build their muscles of things that give them life skills."
"My job as a parent is not to create great kids," he added. "It's to grow kids in such a way that they become great adults."
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