Living With Family Saves Me More Than $1,000 per Month. Here’s What I Do With the Extra Cash

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How much could you save by living with family after college? Find out from a 26-year-old who does. 

I’m one of the growing number of young adults who choose to live with family. After graduating college, I moved in with my parents, and then with some extended family members. One thing’s for sure: The whole living-with-family thing has its pros and cons.

The biggest pro: Living with family saves me more than $1,000 per month. I’ll dig a little deeper into what I do with that extra cash.

I save $1,000 per month on rent

Rent is my biggest expense. I live in Torrance, California, a nice suburban neighborhood in Los Angeles County. It’s expensive to live here on your own. According to Zillow, the median sticker price for a studio apartment is $1,673 monthly. When I graduated, I couldn’t afford that.

My extended family only charges me $700 per month. Combined with gas, water, and electricity savings, I pay at least $1,000 less than I would for a studio apartment of similar size to my current living space. That’s huge. I can do a lot with that extra cash.

Other ways living with family saves me money: Parking is free, the laundry machines are fast and free, I can carpool to family events, and most of my family is within a one-hour driving distance. By living with extended family, I save a lot of time and money.

What I do with the extra cash

I’ve spent a lot of cash buying stocks through a brokerage account. Since the slowing of the market in 2023, I’m still purchasing stock, but at a slower pace. That’s partly because I doubled down on being a responsible saver by paying off my misguided margin loans.

Recently, I’ve been putting money into a savings account so I can afford to move out. Much as I enjoy saving money by living this way, I’d like to be able to move out on my own terms. I plan on staying longer, but knowing that I can move out whenever will bring me peace of mind.

When deciding whether to live with family, it’s worth considering the costs of doing so. The best-case scenario is you become wealthier and more connected with your family. I’d like to be wealthier, but only if it doesn’t bankrupt me in other areas of life…including my relationships.

Downsides to living with family

Living with family saves me money that I’ve used to invest and save toward my own apartment, but it’s not all rainbows and unicorns. For starters, I have limited privacy. Despite having my own room, family has a way of inserting its nose into your personal life.

Example: Want to bring over a special someone? Hold up. You’ve got two teenagers occupying the living room, a frantic mom folding laundry, and various callers ringing the doorbell. Living with family may require you to compromise on privacy.

But I think the tradeoff — personal space for saving money — is worth it (for now). One nice perk about living with family is you’re not beholden to a 12-month rent contract. You can choose to move out anytime, so long as you can afford it. It’s not easy, but it’s doable, and you have the choice.

Is it worth living with family as a 20-something?

If you think you can save money and remain healthy by living with your family, then go for it. Just be sure to align incentives so that you and your family are happy to have you.

Here are three ways to align incentives and create a “your success is my success” mindset:

Pay rent. That way, your family can expect you to support them financially.Share success. I got a new job, so I offered to bump my rent payments by $100.Figure out what’s hard for your family and easy for you. Make it your thing. In my case, a big part of living with my extended family is taking care of the animals.

When “your success is my success,” it becomes a lot easier to live with family. Everyone likes a win-win situation, and with a little practice, you can make living with relatives benefit not just you, but your whole family. It’s practical to live with family as an adult, and sometimes, it’s worth doing.

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The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.Cole Tretheway has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Zillow Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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