More rent guilt

Son earns 55K a year and lives with us. He has ASD and medical issues too. He helps around the house, a little bit. He mows the lawn. He does as much as the teens do basically. I am charging him $600 a month rent. This includes everything down to his shampoo (which is not cheap shampoo, we just get whatever he wants) and laundry detergent (his laundry is washed by us as it is easier to have it done in with everything). He gets to use my garage as I leave before him in the morning so my car blocks his. So I have to park outside now. So, we provide everything he needs in life except his car insurance and gas. He will also have to pay if his car needs repairs.​I had hoped son would take this time to pay off his student loans and make a nice padded savings. He is software developer and layoffs are common, you get the idea. Plus, with ASD, adults with ASD have a much higher chance of ending unemployed than the general population. Instead, he is using this time to shop. And now he has big plans to buy a project car rather than save for the future. There is no room for a project car here. I see no plan to pay off his student loans or to set up a savings.​Now, for some reason, as rent is due this upcoming week, I found out he thinks he owes me $1000 a month for rent. I have not told him he is wrong yet. Part of me thinks I should just not tell him and save the difference between what he owes me and what he pays. Then, when he does have that rainy day where he needs money, I will be able to just give it to him. And if that rainy day does not come, I could just give it to him otherwise, maybe when he buys his first house or something. Another part of me thinks he has not paid rent at all for the time he has lived here until just this past month when he started. And he did not even hold summer jobs to help pay for college and so on. He lost his scholarship three times and we had to bail him out. He always said he would pay us back.​So the question is..would you just not mention he has the rent amount off and be ready to help him out in the future when he has trouble? Or would you just tell him and then deal with his struggles again in the future from your own account? It is kind of eating me up to not tell him, but honestly, as I type out this post and look at the issues in front of me, I feel like I should just keep it to myself. He is a wonderful person who just has some special issues and struggles. My son is pure kind sweet gold in his heart. He just makes a lot of not so good decisions when it comes to school and finances. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2S9uS0n