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Percentage of parents financially supporting adult children reaches 3-year high
- anovikov 2y agoThey almost make it sound like it was a bad thing. What's wrong about people keeping at least the minimum of an "extended family" thing?
- bombcar 2y agoThe most likely age to receive an inheritance is about 60. At 60 an inheritance doesn’t move the needle much. The same “ball of funds” (even adjusted backwards for investment returns, etc) at 30 would probably have made a bigger impact - earlier house, better school district for the kids, etc. Being “forced” to support adult children likely indicates issues with society of some sort, but in general, that support well-done and intentional, can be a great leg-up in the world.
- em500 2y agoThe big problem is that it's probably not possible to distinguish between "forced" (by circumstances) or "by own choice". I suspect that it's a similar problem as the impossibility to disentangle supply and demand from observed transactions and prices.
- wqaatwt 2y agoHistorically the primary and often almost only reliable way of obtaining any kind of meaningful wealth was through inheritance inheriting it. So such behavior was completely standard and expected (it’s much easier to justify it if your parents inherited most of their wealth as well). In a way that seems like an inseparable part of highly stable/stagnant societies. The things that broke the wheel back in the 1800s and 1900s was very rapid technological progress and several massive wars leading to societal collapse across much of the world
- anovikov 2y agoBut today, inheritance still plays a very small part compared to what it was even 40 years ago.
- Sohcahtoa82 2y ago> At 60 an inheritance doesn’t move the needle much. My in-laws gave my me and my wife about $20,000 to help with the down payment on our house when we were 35. They said to consider it an advance of our inheritance for that exact reason. $20K at that time would make a lot more of a difference to us than $20K + the interest it would have earned in 20-30 years.
- pavel_lishin 2y agoThere's a difference between living with your family because you choose to, and being unable to afford to live on your own without your family's assistance.
- knowitnone 2y agoIt's a bad thing if you can't move out...ever and with inflation the way it is, this is the case for more and more of the young. Think about inflation vs wage and you'll see wages have not matched inflation. Personally and culturally, I recommend staying at home. Just a couple of years ago, I was working for a so-called tech company that was paying just 19/hr for their support staff. Fast food workers make more than that now.
- randycupertino 2y agoNY Mag just had a series on this, looking at how many NYers are able to work cool but low-paying jobs, buy property, start businesses by funding from their parents: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/boomer-generation-wealth-nyc-how-do-people-afford-to-live.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/boomer-generation-we... Non-paywall link: https://archive.is/HpGyP https://archive.is/HpGyP
- mistrial9 2y agogiant amounts of gray non-taxed incomes in New York IMO
- freedomben 2y agoHeh, that very much matches my personal experience. So many younger adults in New York do seem to have this help. I've been amazed at how much people that I know aren't making a ton of money are able to travel, buy luxurious cars, rent upscale apartments, etc. It finally clicked for me one night at a NY comedy club when I got to talking to a group in this boat that were unusually honest about the situation. I don't begrudge them (after all life is a crapshoot and you can't help to whom you are born) but I do wish it was a little more common to be honest about it. I have friends that really feel like failures because they can't possibly "keep up" with some of their colleagues that do the same jobs.
- segmondy 2y agoHow about percent of adult children supporting parents?
- amanaplanacanal 2y agoDo you count social security in this?
- margalabargala 2y agoNo, because that's not a useful statistic in the context being discussed. The number of children directly supporting parents has more meaning especially when looking at economic data.
- mritun 2y agoWhy? Social security is young supporting the old.
- margalabargala 2y agoYes, 100% of employed workers supporting 100% of persons older than 65. These statistics are invariant with respect to the economy.
- 999900000999 2y agoThis is a really bad sign if it's consistent support. I understand a few hundred during a rough patch, but you don't grow up until you have to balance a check book. The cost of living has become absurdly bad. Even factoring in inflation my first apartment is twice as expensive now. You end up seeing young adults unable to leave very crappy situations. Dating in LA was just hearing people in their late 20s and early 30s complain about their parents for hours.
- EliRivers 2y agoGenuine question that may come across as snark, but I promise it's not! "you don't grow up until you have to balance a check book." Is that just shorthand for "be properly aware your own budget and finances" or are there literally still enough people using check (cheque as I might write) books in the US that this is still a literal task people learn.
- tdeck 2y agoYes there are people still writing checks in the US. I pay my rent by check (paying by bank transfer costs a fee which I refuse to pay). However I have never used the balance recording part of the checkbook and I think it's completely unnecessary if you know how to operate a computer. There are likely some older people who still balance their checkbooks but I never was explicitly taught to do it. Instead I see it used as a kind of metaphor for personal budgeting in general.
- freedomben 2y agoAgreed. I was taught (and forced to) balance my checkbook as a youth, but starting around 2006 when I switched to a bank with a website/portal it became essentially busy work. I would still probably recommend doing it (or an equivalent personal tracking) if you run balances near zero so you don't overdraw/overdraft, but for most people it's only a 30 second exercise to pull up the website or app and check your balance. If you're worried about bank errors then maybe self-balancing might be worth it, but that's not something I worry about and even if I did I don't expect my personal balance to be accepted as any sort of evidence.
- add-sub-mul-div 2y agoIt's engineered austerity. Like the shift from a middle class household needing one income to needing two. It's another step in the raiding of the lower and middle classes.
- sepositus 2y agoMy sibling and I are about 6 years apart and the difference is astounding. They have no income, savings, and are still living with my parents. I have several kids, own my home, and have a large emergency fund. I still haven’t quite figured out what had created such a large difference.
- moralestapia 2y agoI'm not being snarky here but, really? >Higher wages >Much higher purchasing power >Low unemployment >A community around pushing you to do better instead of drugging, mutilating or killing yourself And plenty of other more granular reasons.
- asacrowflies 2y agoWould love to hear more about this "mutilation" ....
- sepositus 2y agoIn six years? We're talking pre-COVID graduations for both of us. I also started out making $1,200 a month in the U.S military. I chose the military precisely because I grew up in a very poor area where drug use and gang killings were rampant (my parents moved into a relatively affluent neighborhood shortly after I left). So, your bullet points don't really describe my experience.
- Havoc 2y ago* End of ZIRP * Prior gen saw a massive rise in asset value * Rise of gig economy that isn't conducive to career progression * Outsourcing * Covid * Unable to get on to property ladder * Uni stopped being a reliable golden ticket * Junior roles requiring X years experience * Fake job listing ...lots of things stacked against current generations that prior generations didn't need to deal with
- trod1234 2y ago> * Junior roles requiring X years of experience Don't forget the we want a person with 10 years of experience in X language. Designer of said language applies, and is turned down for not having sufficient experience, the language has only been in existence at that point for 6 or 8 years..... Needless to say, the world today is an aggregate of the decisions made by past generations, and choices are done purposefully. The world we see is the world their actions show they wanted, and its a disadvantaged hellscape for the children based in systems described by Thomas Paine as dead men ruling, for all time. Many of these things, the consequences were known about well in advance, they still chose to move forward despite knowing those consequences. Ponzi systems are with front-loaded benefits allowing a comfy life, and as the dynamics enter the final stages, slavery and annihilation for your children. All you need to do is tacitly accept it by not doing anything to stop it. Such complacency. Its so very slothful. It's enough to make the brain tremble when you realize the truth among the many lies.
- nylonstrung 2y agoParents as the default safety net isn't going to scale to future generations Hard to imagine Gen-Z parents have the wealth to do the same for their children
- daymanstep 2y agoWhy not? Boomers -> millennials will be the largest transfer of wealth in human history. No reason why Gen-Z won't have their own wealth to transfer.