#AdultChildren #BankrollingAdultChildren #AdultChildrenLivingAtHome
Four out of five parents provide some type of financial support for their adult offspring.
They spend twice as much on them as they do saving for retirement.
Half of parents are willing to draw down savings, and a quarter would go into debt or pull from retirement savings to support kids who’ve left the nest.
These are facts according to a new survey from Merrill Lynch and Age Wave, a research firm, which provided the results to USA TODAY exclusively.
Janna Herron tackled this topic in a USA TODAY article that was also published Oct. 3, 2018, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
And it’s not just giving them daily financial report. Parents pay rent for their kids. They pay for weddings and vacations. You might expect parents to pay for college, or loan their child money for a down payment on a house, but they also cover groceries, cell phones and other expenses, the article quotes the survey.
It had been predicted a few years ago that the Baby Boom generation would see the greatest transfer of wealth from their parents, largely because their parents’ houses had increased dramatically in value over their lives.
Now, it appears, that same Baby Boom generation is helping their kids, to a greater or lesser degree, live the lives they want.
As these parents struggle to have enough financial security in retirement, will their children be in a position to repay them for all they had done for them?
As we break this down, it helps to have some perspective. Just a few decades ago, job security was more prevalent. One could rent an apartment or buy a home in most locales for much less than it costs now.
Kids are graduating college with much more debt. They are postponing things like marriage because many of them can’t even afford to move out of their parents’ house. The jobs they have could go away tomorrow – and many have.
On the other hand, lifestyles are more expensive today. Years ago, one didn’t have all the gadgets that make life easier today. Not only do the kids today have them, they need them. It’s tough to survive today without a computer or cell phone, but they make life much more expensive than it was years ago.
If you are a young adult, you should seek to gain independence, financial and otherwise, from your parents.
If you went away to college, you probably had a roommate. Think about a roommate, or roommates, to make living on your own more affordable.
Watch your daily expenses. If you have a $5 a day coffee shop habit, get a Thermos and brew your own. If you buy lunch every day, think about brown-bagging it.
And, thinking further outside the box, think about using a few part-time non-work hours a week pursuing one of the many vehicles that can help you make potentially a lot of extra money. To check out one of the best, message me.
Remember, too, that Mom and Dad deserve the best retirement they can have. If they have helped you in your youth, it behooves you to help them later on, and pay them back.
Life as a young adult is different for you from what it was for your parents. That should not give you license to live off them forever. Because life is different for you, YOU have to learn to think differently.
Peter
Tag Archives: adult children living at home
TRIPLETS AD A SIGN OF THE TIMES
Adult triplets all coming home to live with Mom and Dad? Really?
Sounds farfetched, but Procter & Gamble, playing off its Tide detergent ad on the amount of laundry three infant triplets generate, has a relatively new Tide ad with the amount of laundry three ADULT triplets, who’ve moved back home with Mom and Dad, generate.
Though the ad may be effective in advertising detergent, it begs the question: what is the likelihood that ALL THREE adult triplets would be so down and out as to move back home? Better yet, what is the likelihood that Mom and Dad would almost playfully work together to wash their adult kids’ clothes? In fairness to Mom and Dad, they want the kids gone – not because they don’t love them, but they NEED to be on their own.
Parents who’ve raised triplets, and perhaps other kids, look forward to that empty nest when the kids are grown. They want to still see them, but they don’t necessarily want them living back home. If you are a parent, would you welcome your, say, 30-year-old still living with you? If you are the 30-year-old, do you want to be living with Mom and Dad?
In recent years, with the number of job losses etc., parents have been a fallback for younger adults whose lives were suddenly changed. The young person can save on rent, perhaps even food and other living expenses, by hanging home. But as much as parents may not want this arrangement, the young person shouldn’t want it either.
For many, getting out of the house to live on one’s own is a goal as a young person. Parents, meanwhile, undoubtedly look forward to lives they’ve never been able to live while raising children. When the economy is going well, everyone should be happy with their own independence.
BAD ECONOMY MEANS UNINTENDED LOSS OF INDEPENDENCE
The unintended consequence of the economic downturn is the number of people who lose their independence. Mom and Dad could disallow their child or children to move back in, but most parents have never gone through what these young people are going through. They’ve never seen so many young careers threatened by forces their children can’t control.
The good news for children is they have time to recover. Presumably, the triplets in the Tide ad are all single. Matters get really complicated if the adult children have spouses and families themselves. It also gets really complicated for the person who is close to retirement, but not quite there yet. Their unexpected lack of work may sentence them to an extension of their work life, in some fashion.
Add to that the trend of companies refusing to hire those who have been unemployed a while, and you have the makings of a very slow recovery. Meanwhile, those who want to be independent – parents and adult children – can’t be in many cases.
What to do? If you are indeed forced to move back home with Mom and Dad, don’t stick them with your laundry or any other life chore. Live as if you were on your own. Sure, you can eat meals together, but if you don’t eat at the appointed family time, make your own meals.
If you are indeed unemployed, and are looking for an income source, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. This is among the better of the many ways out there to earn income, without having a traditional job. If you already have a job, don’t presume it will always be there. Check out other ways to make money – and save money, too.
If you are a parent and have adult kids at home, you, too, can buy into this venture and have your kids work with it. That may hasten their independence, and yours.
Having kids around is great. Many parents whose kids they never see would relish having their children home – for a time. But, after a while, they will want them to go to their own homes. The kids, after a while, should want that, too.
Peter