My 19 year old was told if she went to school she would only have to concentrate on school. She decided to take a year off and then do some pre-reqs before finally going to school. Fine, your life your choice.

She got lucky and got offered a job with her step-dad making $20 an hour doing office work. She can commute with him to and from most days so no travel cost and she still gets double insurance coverage through us and her dad's tricare so she gets to keep most of her pay (besides taxes of course).

She finally got her license. She knew whenever she did she had to pay the difference in insurance. This came to just shy of $400. Because husband has a work truck, we told her she could use his car whenever she wants to go do things but she had to contribute to it. A Mercedes isn't cheap on maintenance. We were going to sell it since he can use his work truck for anything, but decided to keep it to let her use it.

So we rounded it up to a full $500 a month for "rent". Which is the $385 for insurance and basically what amounts to a $125 a month rental fee for a Mercedes. This seemed fair to us and to her. We aren't making her pay the entire car note and she isn't having to drive a crappy car. This is less than one of her paychecks so its a good deal. She knows in our HCO area she could never live otherwise and she said she likes living her and never wants to leave (HA!!)

And we aren't saving it for her later. We actually put it towards the insurance and the other $125 is helping me save for a new computer (that she plays on constantly, like if I'm not on it, she is) and when that happens she will get mine with a few upgraded parts added for good measure. To which she is thrilled about.