Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 18:35     Subject: Are you delaying Retirement so your Adult Children can have medical coverage?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We asked our kids to get their own insurance plans through their employers. Yes, it costs them but we felt it's important for them to become independent. We randomly give them more money than what they spend but we stopped paying for insurance once they got employed.

This trend of employed kids living at home, staying on parental insurance and phone plan etc is enabling them to have a faux lifestyle they can't afford. They need to learn to be self sufficient and live within their means. I see young women carry designer bags, wear overpriced shoes, travel to exotic places, eat at fancy restaurants and drive luxury cars but not having money to pay for healthcare or utilities. What's up with that?


I agree on everything but the travel. Traveling while young was the best part of my life


There are plenty of places to travel in the USA or nearby that are not "luxury costs" and that is what most do in their 20s/30s. You can still travel on a budget and see so much of the world
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 18:34     Subject: Are you delaying Retirement so your Adult Children can have medical coverage?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We asked our kids to get their own insurance plans through their employers. Yes, it costs them but we felt it's important for them to become independent. We randomly give them more money than what they spend but we stopped paying for insurance once they got employed.

This trend of employed kids living at home, staying on parental insurance and phone plan etc is enabling them to have a faux lifestyle they can't afford. They need to learn to be self sufficient and live within their means. I see young women carry designer bags, wear overpriced shoes, travel to exotic places, eat at fancy restaurants and drive luxury cars but not having money to pay for healthcare or utilities. What's up with that?


Why waste money? Plenty of us allow our kids to stay on our healthcare (which is cheaper or no added cost) and cell phone plans (saves $40+ per kid per month) and they don't live a faux lifestyle. They are saving their money and living within their means. They can stay on our cell phone plans until they get married. Why waste money---it doesn't make them "independent". They are already fully functioning adults. If needed you can charge them for the cell plan....but we just consider it a gift.
We also let them use our Amazon and they just switch it to their CC and address. Why pay $120+/year if they can use ours?


Not PP but we also weened them off. Being independent serves them more than saving $20 here $40 there.


And that is your choice. Our kids are "independent" and capable of paying for everything themselves. They live within their means. But why would we not take advantage of cost savings that are available to us? Also, we gift them $38K/year to spend down our estate (and once there is a spouse and kids, we will gift them all as well). Wouldnt' do that if they were spending $100K on a fancy car and living beyond their means (they can afford their rent easily with their salary)---most of what we gift them goes into savings for retirement and a house downpayment.

So I believe they can be independent AND save money.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 18:30     Subject: Are you delaying Retirement so your Adult Children can have medical coverage?
Anonymous wrote:This is a consequence of waiting until you are old to have children


+1

And you should definately have a plan for this. If you still have kids in HS when you are 65, then heck, you most likely will be working past 65, or have had to work your ass off to save enough to support them thru college (and that includes Healthcare until they are a college grad IMO).

Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 09:57     Subject: Are you delaying Retirement so your Adult Children can have medical coverage?
Anonymous wrote:How many of you actually have kids who are 20-26? I would venture very few. We have one just out of college, and his employer offers a crap medical plan (high deductible, no HSA and no assistance) and one still in college. It's not the kids who are failing, it's the crap system. We need a country that gives a damn about providing basic health insurance for it's citizens that isn't tied to employment. The ACA was supposed to do that, but the GOP stripped the ACA of many needed pieces to make it successful


I have a 21 year old and he works for a well-funded tech company that pays 100% of health insurance for all the employees.

It's likely a different story when you have a company with like 150 employees and $100MM+ in the bank (and this company is barely losing any money, and will become profitable in 2026 and growing 100%).

Most of his friends are also employed by companies that provide good to great health insurance for little to no cost.

Does your kid's employer only screw the young healthy employees...are do all the employees get crap?
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 05:42     Subject: Are you delaying Retirement so your Adult Children can have medical coverage?
How many of you actually have kids who are 20-26? I would venture very few. We have one just out of college, and his employer offers a crap medical plan (high deductible, no HSA and no assistance) and one still in college. It's not the kids who are failing, it's the crap system. We need a country that gives a damn about providing basic health insurance for it's citizens that isn't tied to employment. The ACA was supposed to do that, but the GOP stripped the ACA of many needed pieces to make it successful
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 05:12     Subject: Are you delaying Retirement so your Adult Children can have medical coverage?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We asked our kids to get their own insurance plans through their employers. Yes, it costs them but we felt it's important for them to become independent. We randomly give them more money than what they spend but we stopped paying for insurance once they got employed.

This trend of employed kids living at home, staying on parental insurance and phone plan etc is enabling them to have a faux lifestyle they can't afford. They need to learn to be self sufficient and live within their means. I see young women carry designer bags, wear overpriced shoes, travel to exotic places, eat at fancy restaurants and drive luxury cars but not having money to pay for healthcare or utilities. What's up with that?


PREACH!
These parents don’t want their adult babies to grow up.
All under the guise of “ we’re rich/can afford it”

Nope.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 02:45     Subject: Are you delaying Retirement so your Adult Children can have medical coverage?
Anonymous wrote:We asked our kids to get their own insurance plans through their employers. Yes, it costs them but we felt it's important for them to become independent. We randomly give them more money than what they spend but we stopped paying for insurance once they got employed.

This trend of employed kids living at home, staying on parental insurance and phone plan etc is enabling them to have a faux lifestyle they can't afford. They need to learn to be self sufficient and live within their means. I see young women carry designer bags, wear overpriced shoes, travel to exotic places, eat at fancy restaurants and drive luxury cars but not having money to pay for healthcare or utilities. What's up with that?


I agree on everything but the travel. Traveling while young was the best part of my life
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 01:49     Subject: Re:Are you delaying Retirement so your Adult Children can have medical coverage?
Anonymous wrote:My youngest kid is 21.

My DH is 59. He is ready to retire.


Same here. I do not want my DH to continue working either.
Anonymous
Post 01/14/2026 18:27     Subject: Are you delaying Retirement so your Adult Children can have medical coverage?
This is one reason why DH stayed with the Federal Government. He just retired at 55 and we keep our health insurance, so our 19 and 22 yo kids are still covered (the 22 yo is no longer eligible for dental or vision but that would be the case even if DH hadn’t retired, and keeping them on the medical insurance costs nothing as we have a family plan because of the college aged kid).
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2026 16:35     Subject: Are you delaying Retirement so your Adult Children can have medical coverage?
Anonymous wrote:This is a consequence of waiting until you are old to have children


+1
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2026 16:25     Subject: Are you delaying Retirement so your Adult Children can have medical coverage?
I am still working at 64 and my youngest is 29, so it didn't influence us. Both adult kids have/had health insurance through work anyway, and have since they were 22.

They are both still on the family cell phone plan. Once I do retire I will probably make them get their own plans as we will pay more attention to reducing expenses. Right now it's not a big enough expense to worry about.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2026 16:24     Subject: Are you delaying Retirement so your Adult Children can have medical coverage?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We asked our kids to get their own insurance plans through their employers. Yes, it costs them but we felt it's important for them to become independent. We randomly give them more money than what they spend but we stopped paying for insurance once they got employed.

This trend of employed kids living at home, staying on parental insurance and phone plan etc is enabling them to have a faux lifestyle they can't afford. They need to learn to be self sufficient and live within their means. I see young women carry designer bags, wear overpriced shoes, travel to exotic places, eat at fancy restaurants and drive luxury cars but not having money to pay for healthcare or utilities. What's up with that?


Why waste money? Plenty of us allow our kids to stay on our healthcare (which is cheaper or no added cost) and cell phone plans (saves $40+ per kid per month) and they don't live a faux lifestyle. They are saving their money and living within their means. They can stay on our cell phone plans until they get married. Why waste money---it doesn't make them "independent". They are already fully functioning adults. If needed you can charge them for the cell plan....but we just consider it a gift.
We also let them use our Amazon and they just switch it to their CC and address. Why pay $120+/year if they can use ours?


Not PP but we also weened them off. Being independent serves them more than saving $20 here $40 there.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2026 16:23     Subject: Re:Are you delaying Retirement so your Adult Children can have medical coverage?
Nope. I'm going to retire at 56. DC#1 will have graduated and will need to pay for their own insurance. DC#2 will be in college, so we'll pay for health insurance until they have graduated.

We have ins through the MD health exchange.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2026 16:21     Subject: Re:Are you delaying Retirement so your Adult Children can have medical coverage?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I see my kids and grandkids as my legacy. A way to pass on my genes and continue the family line. It is basic biology. For me it is important to see my kids succeed not only for themselves but also so that they can give the same benefits to my grandkids and other descendents. I have invested time, effort, money, sweat, blood and tears to raise my kids. They know that they are very precious to me. I will give them all the benefits that I can, but, I will also make sure that my kids are worthy kids. Whatever time, love, affection, care, direction, guidance, support, communication, community, network - I need to give to them, I have given to them and will continue to give.

All of this is because you need to raise good and intelligent kids. Because once you have good-for-nothing, lazy, greedy, morally sick children - you do not get a do over.


I think the issue is if you give a lot, some kids will get lazy as a result of being given a lot. I struggle with this as dh and I were given nothing at all after 18. It motivated us and made us grow up very fast. I sometimes worry that helping our kids so much more (they are in college now and it's something I ponder a lot as we provide a lot of help) is going to make them less motivated to achieve. I am really surprised young working adults would be on their parents' plans.

I think there's a happy medium. You don't have to complete cut your kids off at 18. That's too harsh. And I say this as someone who worked their way through college because my parents couldn't afford to help me that much.

We pay for our kids' college, but they have to pay for their fun. I would not pay for my kid's health insurance or cell phone once they get a FT job. Otherwise, what was the point of paying $$$ for college? Just to let them have fun and find themself? No, it was so that they could get a job and become an independent adult.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2026 16:20     Subject: Are you delaying Retirement so your Adult Children can have medical coverage?
Anonymous wrote:We asked our kids to get their own insurance plans through their employers. Yes, it costs them but we felt it's important for them to become independent. We randomly give them more money than what they spend but we stopped paying for insurance once they got employed.

This trend of employed kids living at home, staying on parental insurance and phone plan etc is enabling them to have a faux lifestyle they can't afford. They need to learn to be self sufficient and live within their means. I see young women carry designer bags, wear overpriced shoes, travel to exotic places, eat at fancy restaurants and drive luxury cars but not having money to pay for healthcare or utilities. What's up with that?


This^. We did the same.