Many parents support their adult kids financially in their 20s and 30s.Brinja Schmidt/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
Good morning. This week, I wrote about how empty nesting might become a past concept as more parents are supporting their kids financially well into their 20s and 30s.
How long should parents support their kids? According to Bank of Montreal’s Real Financial Progress Index released earlier this month, 29 per cent of Canadians surveyed believe financial support should last as long as the parents are alive. Twenty-two per cent said it’s when their child secures full-time employment, with 18 per cent planning to assist financially until the child moves out of the family house.
How parents consider the situation depends on their family dynamic and financial health, says Hervin Pesa, certified financial planner at Aware Financial in Calgary.
“It boils down to personal and family values,” he says. “I’ve seen cases in which people refuse to retire until they know their kids are completely set up.”
Put another way, money originally earmarked toward ramping up parents’ retirement savings is going toward helping their kids instead, he says. That could mean financial assistance with a down payment for a house or paying a certain percentage of the adult kid’s expenses for an indefinite period of time.
At clients’ requests, Mr. Pesa has worked on mini-plans addressing both the parents and the kids. Some parents, for example, have enough to retire and need more financial data, reassuring them it still works with adult kids at home. He says some kids are on track to have a strong financial footing, but parents still worry about retiring.
Mr. Pesa says that generally, immigrant families have always embraced the full nest with no restrictions. Kids are encouraged to stay home until they marry and start their own respective families. Even if kids have no desire to partner up and/or have kids of their own and have achieved financially independent status, remaining at home is perfectly fine, he adds.
“In some of these cases, the kids actually purchase properties and keep them as rentals while staying with their parents,” he says.
Still, as adult kids at home consider their situation and delayed milestones, that may cause them to rethink whether parenthood is in their cards for the future. The same BMO survey found that while seven in 10 members of Generation Z and millennials would like children, they worry about financial security.
And it’s more than a valid feeling, as 53 per cent of Canadians surveyed admitted that having children did compromise their financial security.
– Deanne Gage, Globe Advisor reporter
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