Life with a boomerang baby

    Increasingly, adult children are returning home to live with - or, in some case, live off - their parents. One online job service surveyed college students in 2003 and found that 61% of them said they planned to live with their parents after graduation. In an earlier survey, 24% said they planned to live at home for more than a year.

    Some experts say the slowdown in the economy is leading to an increase in the number of these "boomerang" adult children. And mounds of debt is a major reason why young adults are moving back home. According to Nellie Mae, a subsidiary of Sallie Mae that originates post-secondary education loans, the average undergraduate debt was $18,900 in 2002, up 66% from $1998 to 2000, to $2,748; nearly 10% of students owe more than $7,000.

Know your child

    So what should you do if Junior or Princess wants to move back home? Charge rent? Share utility bills? Scream? The advice on this particular topic varies greatly, as it should. But you know your child. So act accordingly. If your adult child is living beyond his or her means, you shouldn't feel guilty about asking for a financial contribution in return for accommodations. Why should you struggle or put off your retirement while this grown person happily lives as a spendthrift?

    On the other hand, if your child has always been responsible, you could use the request to move home as an opportunity to help ease him into what will be a lifetime of financial obligations.

    I moved back home to live with my grandmother after I graduated from college. She didn't charge me rent. "Baby, just save your money," she said. Even so, I would slip cash into her handbag. I paid some of the utilities and bought groceries.

    And she had a long list of rules. For instance, she demanded that I save a set amount of money from my paycheck every week. I couldn't park in her space in front of the house. I couldn't leave shoes under my bed. If I was going to be late, I had to call. Actually, she would put the chain on the door if I didn't come home at what she considered to be a decent hour.

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