Adults living with their parents was becoming more common in the U.S. even before the coronavirus pandemic upended jobs and finances, sending an influx of adults back to their parents’ homes.
But hosting adult children at home is just one way parents may financially support their offspring. In a survey of 2,050 U.S. consumers, MagnifyMoney researchers find 22% of adults receive financial support from their parents, whether it’s paying phone bills or helping with rent costs.
That percentage jumps to almost 30% for millennials — who have long been called the “broke generation” or similar derogatives — but they’re not the only group who relies on their parents for financial support.
Key findings
- Nearly 30% of millennials (ages 25 to 40) still receive financial support from their parents. This is even higher among Gen Zers (ages 18 to 24) at 67%, though many within this generation are still in college. Across all age groups, 22% of adults still receive financial support from their parents.
- While not everyone still receives money help from mom or dad, 56% of Americans say their parents helped them financially at some point during adulthood, such as paying for college (24%), living at home rent-free (22%) and buying a car (16%).
- 55% of parents with adult children say they provide financial support to their kids at least occasionally. This is least common (46%) among baby boomers — ages 56 to 75 — the majority of whom also report not receiving financial help from their parents in adulthood.
- The highest earners have access to even more money, as those with six-figure incomes are most likely to expect an inheritance (56%) or a trust fund (24%). As for the average across all income levels, 41% of Americans expect to receive an inheritance and 13% a trust fund.
- On the other hand, 21% of Americans are currently providing financial support to their parents. This is most common among Gen Zers at 37%, though it’s worth noting some are helping with housing costs and may still be living at home.
Younger generations most likely to receive financial support from their parents
Gen Zers and millennials are most likely to see some financial support from their parents. Gen Zers report receiving the highest share — 67% — of financial support from their parents, which makes sense given many of them may still be in college.
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Though millennials may be as old as 40, a notable 28% say their parents offer them some financial support.
Cellphone plans rank as the most popular way parents of Gen Zers, millennials or Gen Xers (ages 41 to 55) support their children. The rate of support for phone plans drops as consumers get older, with no baby boomers reporting parental help in this area:
- Gen Zers: 39%
- Millennials: 12%
- Gen Xers: 5%
- Baby boomers: 0%
Housing comes next for the middle generations as 7% of millennials and 3% of Gen Xers live at home rent-free. While a large share — 27% — of Gen Zers also live at home, a larger portion (32%) reap the benefits of their parents’ health insurance.
Living with your parents as an adult can be stressful depending on relationships and individual desires, but those benefiting from a rent-free situation should focus on the savings advantage. MagnifyMoney senior content director Ismat Mangla advises those folks to stay diligent with their money while living at home.
“The money you would have spent on rent should be squirreled away monthly into a savings or investment account so that your money can grow,” she says. “If you’re not disciplined about it, it can be easy to spend that money and not have anything to show for it.”
Never have 44% ever…been supported by their parents as adults
While most adults surveyed are currently financially independent from their parents, most — 56% — report receiving some monetary support at one point after turning 18. Most popularly, 24% of respondents say their parents helped pay for college. Another 22% have lived at home rent-free as an adult.
On the contrary, 32% of consumers report being “cut off” financially when they turned 18. Another 15% of folks had to fund their expenses around ages 21 to 22, but 16% report not being completely cut off.
It appears some of those consumers may be passing down a tradition of financial independence to their children. Though the majority — 55% — of parents with adult children say they currently provide at least some occasional financial support for their kids, that percentage drops to 46% among baby boomer parents. Since 60% of baby boomers report never receiving financial help from their parents as adults, they may see value or necessity in cutting the purse strings.
Who’s in the will?
The majority of those surveyed (59%) don’t expect to get an inheritance — assets received after a death — but certain factors make folks more likely to expect to come into some family money in the future.
Those consumers in the highest household income bracket — earning $100,000 or more — are most likely to benefit from an inheritance, with 33% having already received one and 23% expecting to inherit some amount in the future. The majority of those high-earners also expect a large inheritance, with 53% of consumers who earn six figures planning to inherit $100,000 or more.
Though baby boomers are the least likely to report current financial support from their parents, they’re most likely to have already received an inheritance. While just 19% of respondents overall have received an inheritance, that percentage jumps to 37% of baby boomers. What’s more, baby boomers may receive the largest inheritances, with 42% expecting to inherit $100,000 or more.
Important: Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey and Pennsylvania have inheritance taxes, so make sure to know the details if you’re a beneficiary in any of these states.
Trust funds — which hold assets until the recipient meets a legal requisite, like hitting a certain age — don’t seem as popular as inheritances. Just 13% of consumers overall have access or expect to gain access to a trust fund. Once again, however, that percentage rises for folks in the top income tier of $100,000 or more, 15% of whom have access to a trust fund (with another 9% expecting to gain access in the future).
1 in 5 consumers turn the tables, provide some financial support for their parents
Most respondents aren’t helping their parents financially, but the 21% who provide some support may be doing so somewhat transactionally.
Gen Zers are most likely (37%) to report helping their parents financially. But given most of this support is in the form of housing costs (15%), it’s logical to imagine this financial assistance is more like rent or utility payments. (If you recall, 27% of Gen Zers say they live at home rent-free.)
Consumers who earn at least $100,000 a year are also more likely than consumers overall to help their parents financially, with 27% of these high earners providing some assistance. Notably, 10% of these consumers offer that support through regular lump sums (monthly, annually, etc.).
Watch your savings grow up
Gaining total financial independence is a major milestone that most consumers will probably have to face at some point. Though most consumers don’t consider their parents a financial safety net nor serve as a fallback for their parents, a notable 12% of folks do see their parents as a financial safety net.
Whether you’re an adult working your way out of your parent’s money or supporting your own adult children, keep these tips in mind to protect your finances.
- Check your budget. If you’re looking to take over some of your bills, it’s a good idea to check on recurring expenses and see if there’s room for improvement. Get rid of unused subscriptions and explore options for cheaper or better services. It might seem easy to use the same providers as your parents for things like insurance, cellphone coverage or even checking accounts, but Mangla encourages consumers to shop around for a better deal.
- Make a realistic savings plan. When you’re leaving the nest for the first time, it can be daunting to save for a home of your own whether you’re looking to rent or buy. Weigh all the factors impacting your decision — how soon you want to move, where you’re looking, what you can afford — before setting a savings goal, then figure out how to get there. Find a budgeting app that can help encourage you to stay on track.
- Set boundaries. Whether you’re receiving support from your parents or supporting them financially, Mangla advises families to set boundaries to ensure everyone’s interests are protected. “Be sure to set limits, and don’t diminish your own retirement savings and investing to help your adult children,” Mangla says. “It’s really important to set clear expectations and even put things in writing.”
Methodology
MagnifyMoney commissioned Qualtrics to conduct an online survey of 2,050 U.S. consumers from Sept. 14-20, 2021. The survey was administered using a nonprobability-based sample, and quotas were used to ensure the sample base represented the overall population. All responses were reviewed by researchers for quality control.
We defined generations as the following ages in 2021:
- Gen Zers: 18 to 24
- Millennials: 25 to 40
- Gen Xers: 41 to 55
- Baby boomers: 56 to 75
While the survey also included consumers from the silent generation (age 76 and older), the sample size was too small to include findings related to that group in the generational breakdowns.
This article originally appeared on MagnifyMoney and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
More from MediaFeed:
Millennials get blamed for these things — but should they?
Millennials are the worst. At least that’s what a plethora of statistics, think pieces, white papers, surveys and social media trolls users would have you think.
Never mind the deep-seated socio-economic reasons why millennials suck at life. (They’re saddled with student loan debt. They entered the workforce during the Recession when no one was hiring. Or post-Recession when wages were stagnant.) Never mind the fact that — hey! — millennials are getting better. (See new research from Chase that found millennials mean business.) Never mind that for every stat, think piece, or white paper out there saying one thing, there’s another saying the exact opposite.
Nope, millennials are just terrible, annihilating every very special thing that crosses their path of entitlement. Like casinos. Or cruises. And chicken wings.
We’re kidding, of course. (No millennial was harmed in the writing on this article — in fact, depending on whether you think Xennials are actually a thing, this writer technically is one.) But just in case you think we’re exaggerating their bad rap, here are 50 things millennials have been dragged for explicitly or implicitly over, oh, the last decade or so.
Anchiy
Pew Research put millennials on blast when it advertised that, as of 2016, 15% of 25- to 35-year-old millennials were living at the ‘rents — NBD, right? Except Gen X-ers and the Silent Generation were much better about moving out of the house.
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Silly millennial, it’s not the economy’s fault you’re still in your family’s basement. “Rather, long-run shifts in demographics and behavior have been pushing them in that direction for decades,” says an analysis from FiveThirtyEight. Got that? It’s sociology, not economics.
AleksandarNakic
Count this among the “long-run shifts in demographics and behavior” mentioned above. Back in 2014, 25% of millennials told Pew they would never get married — and other research supports the notion that, at the very least, people are waiting longer to tie the knot. We’re not sure why this choice is anyone’s business (#doyou), but some pundits argue millennials living together but putting off marriage are robbing themselves of certain tax and economic benefits.
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How can they really? They ghost everyone they meet and can’t even go on a simple dinner date.
GaudiLab
Millennials are more likely to have dogs and cats — and spend lots of money on them — than their older cohorts. (By the way, here’s how to leave your estate to your pet when you die.)
Sandy L Smith
Because they’re single and living with their parents — or staying single so they can live with their parents, depending on who you ask. And because there’s all this data suggesting most millennials just aren’t buying homes.
FatCamera
Basically, millennials are flocking to expensive big cities and not the ‘burbs where housing construction is cheap(er).
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Never mind that they didn’t cause the housing crash in the first place.
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Millennials show up early, eat too much food, don’t help around the house, make a whole bunch of noise, and leave their borrowed beds unmade, according to a survey from HomeAdvisor.
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Whether this proclivity is why millennials aren’t buying houses remains up for debate.
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A whopping 159.6 million cases (or 42% of all the wine in the U.S.) in 2015.
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I mean …
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Because they prefer fancy craft beers, natch.
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Customers in their 20s and 30s just aren’t that into chicken nuggets.
Johnnieshin
They’re eating Greek yogurt instead.
Eva-Katalin
Per a report from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, these days, millennials run red lights, speed, text while driving and engage in other risky behaviors behind the wheel more than any other generation.
RyanJLane
Auto insurance rates have gone up by 21.5% since 2012, though whether we can peg this solely to millennials is also up for debate.
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Per a Gallup Poll, they mostly just sign up for insurance coverage with whatever company their family members use. (Of course, there’s a little more to it than that. If you’re a millennial, we’ve got some of the best life insurance companies to look into right here.)
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Thanks to Netflix, Hulu, Blue Apron, etc., millennials use monthly costs to determine something’s affordability … which, as this Jalopnik article points out, is a bad way to buy a car, since its the purchase price determines how long — and by extension how much interest — you’re going to pay.
SrdjanPav
Their leasing deficiency is a little more complicated than all the car-buying badness, but basically stems from the same line of reasoning.
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That’s been the log line about millennials for quite some time, though many media sites have come to their defense in recent years.
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At least according to the 2015 Millennial Majority Workforce survey, in which a majority of hiring managers said their young workers were more narcissistic and less team-oriented than Gen X-ers.
Anchiy
Given that survey also found a majority of hiring managers believed millennials were more creative and open to change than their generational predecessors, maybe we’ve gotta call the “bad employee” thing a draw. Still even millennials admit they’re job hoppers, with close to 60% of them telling the Millennial Majority Workforce pollsters they planned to leave their current job in the next three years.
If you’re gearing up for a new gig, be sure to read these nine money things people forget to do when starting a new job.
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Back in 2013, Pew found that only a small percentage of millennials were willing to say the U.S. was the greatest country in the world compared to other generations. And that was before Trump!
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Which is now why 40% of millennials expect a promotion every two years, apparently. But maybe that’s a good thing? It’s unclear — see Joel Stein’s infamous Time cover story on the “Me Me Me Generation” for more details.
guruXOOX
Per the National Golf Foundation, back in the mid-90s, roughly nine million 18-to-34-year-olds were hitting the links. Now, there are just over six million. Golf is dead.
bernardbodo
They’re all soul-cycling instead.
skynesher
Back in March 2016, market research Mintel found only 56% of shoppers had bought napkins in the past six months. But 86% did buy paper towels. So there’s that.
AsiaPix
Mintel also famously found last year that 40% of millennials consider cereal “inconvenient” because they have to clean up after eating it.
kupicoo
Bar soap, that is, which millennials believe is covered in germs, per Mintel. As such, they much rather lather in liquid soap and shower gels.
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In fact, many millennials don’t even know what it is.
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An estimated 25,000 over the course of their life, per a survey from Now Sourcing and Frames Direct.
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No one really knows for sure.
Khosrork
Yes, the Affordable Care Act has its issues (see rising premiums). And its future is largely in doubt due to partisan politics. That doesn’t change the fact that millennials were painfully slow to sign up for President Barack Obama’s signature legislation, which helped throw its validity into question. (By the way, here’s a primer on why health insurance is so important and a guide on health insurance in each state.)
Steve Debenport
Because they’re using financial apps to cash checks, balance budgets, and send money to friends, among other things. (You can find some of our favorite apps for budgeting right here.) In fact, according to research from Goldman Sachs, 33% of millennials don’t think they’ll need a bank at all five years from now.
EmirMemedovsk
They rather spend their money on experiences. And smartphones. Or just order stuff off of Amazon.
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Because, remember, they’re not getting married. Or maybe they just don’t want to spend a ton of money on a fancy pants rock. It’s a tossup.
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If only local chains would let them text during the film.
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And that’s why they’re financial failures, according to VaynerMedia CEO Gary Vaynerchuk.
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Also a roadblock to riches? Too much Madden, says Vaynerchuk. #everyhourhustling
gorodenkoff
Honest Trailers apparently had a big problem with this one.
bernardbodo
At least as of 2016, when TransUnion reported 43% of millennials had subprime credit scores (defined here as a VantageScore between 300 and 600).
Anchiy
Consider this another area where Gen-Xers have millennials beat.
GaudiLab
Which is fine, per se — and smart or at least understandable when you think about all their student loan debt. Still, when used correctly, a credit card can help fix a bad credit score. Just saying.
chabybucko
But, then again, is anyone really?
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Per a survey from investment app Acorns, almost half of millennials have spent more money on their morning coffee runs than they’ve put toward retirement.
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Plus, a 2017 study conducted by LendingTree found millennials prioritize saving for a vacation over saving for retirement.
BlackbourneA
Per yet another survey, more than half of millennials leave vacation hours on the table. So … they’re saving for a vacation they haven’t taken yet perhaps?
damircudic
Over 90% of millennials are scared of stocks … though again, given the economic crisis, can you really blame them?
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Thing is, millennials just think they’re much more financially-savvy than they actually are. Case in point: Only 8% of the demo actually demonstrated a high level of knowledge when tested by the National Endowment for Financial Education and George Washington University.
We can help boost your financial knowledge. For starters, here’s more on common money mistakes millennials make — and how to avoid them.
This article originally appeared on Policygenius and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
Kritchanut
Featured Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.
