Cohabitation

Related questions

• What is the lifetime household comparison between living together and maintaining separate households?
• How does the timing of cohabitation change the cost of living and saving?
• How does living with parents during the first years of employment compare with paying rent for a separate household?
• What is the lifetime wealth comparison between delaying car ownership and buying a car at first employment?

Relevant claims

• GSX:HH-001: For two Gauteng adults bringing home R30,000 and R20,000 a month, combining households at 25 rather than 35 leaves about R3.972 million more combined household wealth at 75 in the average scenario, in constant 2026 rand. The direct living-cost saving is about R1.059 million. The larger gap comes from investing that earlier saving and from avoiding expensive negative balances.
• GSX:HH-002: In the central middle-salary Johannesburg scenario, living in the family home and delaying a car purchase for three years creates R602,000 more modelled net capital at age 25, and R3.32 million more modelled wealth at age 60, than moving out and financing a car immediately. The age-60 figure holds when the gap is preserved on the manuscript's common post-25 path.

Major assumptions

• Average-case returns and costs · high sensitivity · GSX:HH-001
• Common path after age 25 · high sensitivity · GSX:HH-002
• Contribution while living at home · high sensitivity · GSX:HH-002
• Hybrid transport while the car is delayed · high sensitivity · GSX:HH-002
• Johannesburg housing bundle · high sensitivity · GSX:HH-002
• Middle starting salary · high sensitivity · GSX:HH-002
• Representative worker · high sensitivity · GSX:HH-002
• Surplus is invested · high sensitivity · GSX:HH-001

Datasets

• The Economics of Living Together · GSX:HH-001
• The First Three Years Advantage · GSX:HH-002