Question
We have our first child in college. We are giving her a monthly stipend to pay for incidentals. Room, board and tuition are paid for both with money we saved and a scholarship she earned. She also has her own money from working at a part time job both during the semester and in the summer. If she has a true required classroom expense as in an additional book rental, she sends the receipt and we reimburse her for that. She is now saying what we are giving her is not enough. We said we are willing to consider an increase but would like to sit down with her and look at her financials to see where the money is going. She flat out refused to show us her debit card transactions or phone bill and when we asked her if she was aware what her balance was and where her money was going, she literally covered her ears and said she refused to look as that would stress her out. We told her balancing her budget is a skill that will serve her in her adult life and that now is the time to start and that she could meet with us or a financial advisor but that we were not going to throw money at the problem until we had a clear financial picture. Your thoughts?
