What would you do...`

[A Quiet Boom]

Mike after reading through all of this again her is what I would do. Let her defer the rent until after graduation maybe until her student loans are paid even. Her education must come first in this instance and she is your sister. Ask her to help out around the house as much as possible but tell her your reason for such understanding is that you value her education. It sound to me like she was paying her bills at some point but the stress of her final year at school is perhaps overwhelming her a bit. If your sister is a good person she'll look back someday and realise just how much you helped her achieve her goals. This might sound like you're being too easy on her but I believe the end result will be positive. Tell her you need at least a half hour per day of housework. Despite the fact that I do not have a college degree and my parents can easily afford to help their children financially but choose not to I loaned my sister money during college. My sister, realizing that I'm having a tough go of it these past 10 or so monthes just sent me a check for double what she owed me. I wanted to return the extra but she insisted that the aid I had given her was worth 100% interest. Now that she's graduated and has a good job and great husband she has more than returned the favor even though I loaned her that money about 5 years ago.

[M.D. Holloway]

tough to change direction of this ship. You do the tough love and she scats, you keep on keepin on and she just lays pat.

I guess if you do try to drive some responcibility into her by way of many good suggestions from prior threads, you will also need to keep at her even after she moves out and shacks with someone else.

Mike - you got your own kittins too ween - your sis is your responcility to a point. The energy and time reuired on her is being taken away from your wife and prodigy.

I had to pay my way at 16 - so did my sibs. Pretty harsh at first but glad they made me. Also - any loan I have ever taken for my brothers, I set the payment schedule with 6% interest (but not compounded). I kept it under a year payback.

Treat all money dealings reguardless of the relationship as if they could report you to the credit history folks and things run smooth.

Good luck with that - maybe if you post a pic, a loenly Pleican can take her off your hands - then you can do the real big brother thing and kick arse if they treat her poorly!

[audi2.7t]

Having lost my younger brother recently I can only try to relay to you what I see in hindsight... life is short, family is precious (even slightly dysfunctional ones) and good friends are worth keeping. In retrospect, I would have done a lot of things differently with my brother, lectured him less, been more patient and understanding and supportive of his choices in life. Be glad that you are in the position to help your sibling, by no means am I saying "give her a free ride" but understand that her priorities are different to yours right now, give her chores to do, token rent to pay etc. but don't be so hard when they don't happen, shrug it off and remember all the advice you ignored when you were younger. She sounds like a hard worker in areas that are important to her right now so help her anyway you can, we only get one shot at this and things that seem important now will be a lot less so down the road.. also, make sure you tell her how much she means to you and no matter what happens you'll always be there for her.
good luck.

p.s.
My brother commited suicide after years of just not being able to catch the right break or take advantage of the breaks he was given or made for himself, he was 29.

[M.D. Holloway]

Audi - sorry for your loss. Hope your pain goes away soon.