Forty-two percent of adults rely on their parents for financial support. Not teenagers. Not college kids figuring out their major for the third time. Adults.
The financial therapist says there are no bad guys here. Which is the kind of thing you say when you need both generations to keep paying your hourly rate.
Parents can maximize the impact of their support by ensuring their gifts alleviate financial stress. Translation: if you're gonna subsidize your 34-year-old's life, at least pretend it's a strategic investment and not just throwing money at the problem until one of you dies.
The article suggests these gifts should help kids move closer to long-term goals. What goals? The goal of eventually not needing a monthly transfer from someone collecting Social Security?
Nobody wants to admit what this is. It's a direct deposit from the generation that bought houses for $60,000 to the generation that pays $2,400 for a studio apartment with a broken air conditioner and a landlord named Sergey who texts back once every three weeks.
Financial therapist. That's a real job now. Someone you pay to tell you it's fine that your retirement plan is called Dad.
The market doesn't care about your Venmo history. It doesn't care that your mom spotted you two grand so you could finally get new tires. It doesn't track familial guilt or whether this month's gift was for dental work or another failed dropshipping venture.
Forty-two percent. That's not a struggling minority. That's damn near half. Half of adults playing financial Weekend at Bernie's with their parents propping up the corpse.
The real long-term goal is pretending this is temporary.
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