Mastodawn

Jonathan Kamens 86 47

My son has a nascent photography business. He's talented and something may actually come of it. Right now he's storing all of his raw and processed images on our family NAS, which means they're being backed up nightly into the cloud. I just calculated that they're currently about $2 of our monthly backup storage cost, and slowly growing.
Do I charge his business for the storage?
#parenting #finance #gigWork

Yes, it's a low-stakes business lesson

45.2%

No, it's dumb nickel-and-diming

45.2%

Nuance see reply yadda yadda

9.5%

Poll ended at Nov 23 at 4:13pm.

Jonathan Kamens 86 47 Nov 23

Wow, a tie. I'm going to cast the tie-breaking vote and start charging him for the backup storage costs.
It came out to $1.79 this month. 😉

Venya (he/him/dude) 🇺🇦Nov 22

I charge my kids for almost nothing and subsidize an awful lot of their activities

but they are keenly aware of what things cost and what trade-offs we are making by doing one thing over another

(to the point that sometimes I have to argue them into letting me pay for some things because they "feel bad" that they cost us money in upkeep)

I don't know the "right" answer (if any), but this approach has helped us as they get older.

Jonathan Kamens 86 47 Nov 22

@venya My youngest kid is 18, and the son with the photography business is 23 and making his own money, and he understands that there's a difference between the stuff we pay for and the stuff he's expected to pay for, so I'm guessing my circumstances may be somewhat different than yours.

Venya (he/him/dude) 🇺🇦Nov 22

Ha, yeah, it may be time to charge for infrastructure. Mine are 15 and 17 and don't yet have any independent incomes.

juliette Nov 22

@jik that depends on your son’s age. 12 years old? no, give him a break. 17? yes, he needs to start thinking about business expenses as a normal thing.

Jonathan Kamens 86 47 Nov 22

@juliette Yup, I posted https://federate.social/@jik/115594266796067452 while you were posting your reply. He's 23.

juliette Nov 22

@jik 23, absolutely you should charge him or encourage him to get his own storage if this is more than a hobby that pays for itself a little bit.

edhaswell Nov 22

My thought is for now, no, it's a way to support him, but as/when "something comes of it", and/or the stored stuff becomes large, yes. Perhaps with a brief low-key conversation about it.

You Have My Keyboard Nov 22

@jik Charge him. But put it in a piggy bank and give it back to him when the time is right for such a thing.

He gets a cheap business lesson. You get to do something special for him down the road. Win-win.

Jonathan Kamens 86 47 Nov 22

@djwfyi I don't think I see the value in this. If I'm trying to teach him how to run a business then what is the lesson if I just give the money back? Also, the total amount of money involved is ultimately going to be sufficiently small that it doesn't seem worth the hassle to calculate it and charge him every month if I'm just going to end up giving it back.

You Have My Keyboard Nov 22

@jik Fair enough. It was just an idea. It's my plans for my kids when they get to an age I start charging them rent. But that is a significantly different amount than what you're talking about here.

My kids won't know I plan to give it back to them. I'll just surprise them with it when they need it.

Jonathan Kamens 86 47 Nov 22

@djwfyi 100% a great idea for rent.

@jik depending on his age and finances you could show him the amount and teach him how to track his expenses and run a profit and loss statement.

Wendy M. Grossman Nov 22

@jik Give him a dollar and/or storage limit after which you'll charge?

Paul_IPv6 Nov 22

is he getting enough revenue to itemize his expenses? if so, charge. helps you and lowers his taxes.

Jonathan Kamens 86 47 Nov 22

@paul_ipv6 businesses (self employed or otherwise) can always deduct expenses from revenue, there's no threshold they need to cross before they can do that.
But while charging him may lower his taxes it would still mean lower net income, so that's not really a good reason to do it.