When our relationship to our money is poor, it can cause anxiety, tension, or worse.
It’s exacerbated when our family relationships are involved.
A significant trend occurring in the last 20 years is adult kids delaying their financial independence.
Parents supporting their adult kids:
Parents think their adult kids should be able to support themselves by 25. Their adult kids? Not until 27.
Yet parents think their adult kids won’t actually be able to support themselves until…age 30. Their adult kids? Not until 32.
How many of these parents have the financial capacity to support their adult kids?
How many are able to:
1) Contribute to their retirement accounts at the maximum amount allowed
2) Stay out of debt
3) Live below their means
4) Keep marital quality unaffected due to any resultant intrafamily discord.
At the risk of inferring high correlation, couples say the most frequent arguments are money (at 41%), household chores (at 35%), and quality time together (at 30%).
Does financially supporting adult kids have no effect? Perhaps for some. But a strong case might be made that your marriage should precede financially supporting your adult kids.
(Data Source: Marketing and Research Resources 1/10/2014 survey report with a sample size of 1,000 couples)