A poll of a thousand U.S. adults with at least one grown child reveals that nearly half (45%) of American parents with adult kids are still supporting them financially.
The survey from Savings.com shows:
- Parents are paying an average of $1,442 a month for their adult children’s bills.
- The expenses they’re most likely to cover are groceries and cell phone plans, but more than half help pay their kids’ mortgage or rent, a monthly expense that averages over $800.
- While most of the kids getting money from mom and dad are between 18 and 24 years old, more than a third are 25 or older and 10% of them are 35 or older.
- 21% of parents lending a financial hand are helping with their kids’ student loan payments, on average they’re paying $245 a month.
- Parents who are 10 years or less from retirement contribute the most per month to their kids - around $21-hundred a month. And they’re only adding $643 a month to their own retirement accounts.
- More than half (57%) of the adult kids who get help from their parents for bills live at home with them. Less than half of them contribute money to the household expenses and those that do give an average of $186 a month.
- Most parents would do just about anything to help financially support their adult children, even if it means putting themselves at financial risk. That includes living a more frugal lifestyle (58%), pulling money from their retirement or savings (44%), retiring later (33%) and taking on debt (25%). Only 19% of parents said they wouldn’t be willing to do anything to support their adult kids.
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