In wake of the global pandemic, a lot of millennials and Generation-Z who had entered the workforce found themselves unemployed. Now a study has found that their unemployment caused financial issues not only for them but also for their parents…
Savings.com conducted a survey to see what financial support adult children in the United States are getting from their parents. The survey had shocking findings, showing that about half of the parents in the United States who had a child that was 18 years or older still supported their children financially.
About a quarter of parents who took part in the survey reported that since the pandemic started, they have had to help their children out more. On average, parents who help their children financially are contributing about $1,000 a month to them.
The amount they give helps the children out with a variety of things including but not limited to; food, health insurance, rent, and cell phone bills. Other top things parents seem to be helping their children with financially were vacations and tuition!
As for adult children still living with their parents, the number did not look great either. The survey found that most adult children who live with parents, do not help with household expenses. And those who do, on average, contribute only $338 per month.
The survey compiled results from 977 parents in the United States who had at least one child who was 18 or older. The survey, conducted in February 2022 found that about 28% of the participants were retired and the largest portion at 43% was participants aged between 45 to 54 years.
The report also found that mothers were more likely to support their children financially. It also saw that younger parents were more willing to support children financially than parents who were retired or near retirement.
Children born after 1996 (Generation-Z) made up the largest portion of adult children at 65%. Those born between 1981 and 1996 (millennials) accounted for 32% of the participants.
Another big indicator of whether a parent was likely to support their adult children was income. About a third of parents who supported their children had an annual income below $30,000. But 63% of these parents had an annual income of more than $100,000.
The report from Savings.com concluded that “Parents expect to provide for their kids in many ways, including financially, throughout their childhood, but for most of modern American history, it’s been assumed that regular parental financial support stopped with adulthood, or at least once high school or college were over.”
About 43% of parents said they have sacrificed their own financial security for the sake of providing a financial boost to their adult children. The parents who are still in the workforce and providing for their kids saved 23% less for their retirement than their contemporaries who did not have that responsibility.
More than half the parents providing support to their children reported that they planned on withdrawing financial support from their children in the next two years!
People are having a tough time globally. And feeling responsible for your adult children even beyond adulthood can cause not only financial stress to you but also create tension within the family.
Asking your parents for help every now and again is not wrong but completely depending on them is unfair as well. Let’s hope as the pandemic eases up, these adult children start to get back on their feet!
