Reply to Do you have an age cut off on supporting adult kids?

Forum Index » Money and Finances

Reply to "Do you have an age cut off on supporting adult kids?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have two in college, and it's obviously the most they have ever cost us. Tuition/ dorm we pay for with 529, but there is car insurance, healthcare, huge amounts of food they consume when at home which is a large part of the year given college schedule. They do work but so far are only using their money for their own "fun spending" and saving. At what point do you stop supporting kids financially? Did you stop cold turkey after college? Or did you phase things out so they progressively became independent? I read that 64% of parents support their Gen Z kid but that is not such a helpful stat given the age range of gen Z including college kids.[/quote]

If you can afford it, then you phase things gradually after they graduate.  Housing is the highest expense usually for young people living alone or with significant other.  If you already own a home with a room for your kids, then that's the least you can do for them (provide free housing) until they earn enough to rent or purchase their own.  Everything else, IMHO, should be earned and paid for by the kid if they are working.  You shouldn't be paying for their dining out, travel, clothes, car expenses, whatever furniture they want to upgrade their rooms with, etc.  When it comes to groceries, I'd let my kids use our groceries if they want to cook at home, but I also would imagine they'd buy their own items that I wouldn't normally buy on their credit card and not mine.  :lol:

Life happens, and sometimes kids need more help than basic housing and are unable to hold a job to even buy items I listed.  What would "cutting off" look like in this case? You let them live at home and eat out of your fridge for free, but they may not have any CC for dining out, travel, and other personal expenses except mere basics (hygiene and some clothing). It's a sad situation, but there are families in such predicament who didn't do anything wrong raising their kids.

The other part of the situation is when you cannot afford to support your adult kids at all.  it's rare here on this forum, but it's not uncommon for parents to have to downsize housing, or not having large enough housing to accommodate another adult living there full time (beyond some couch surfing).  There are parents who are also so broke that they need their college age kids or even HS age kids to work to pay a portion of the family's rent.  This was my situation growing up when I was a freshmen in college. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics