Parents Financially Supporting Adult Children Reaches A 3-Year High
Gen Z “kids” are receiving an average of nearly $1,500 a month according to a survey from Savings.com.
Hey there, moms of adult children? How was your Mother’s Day? Was it nice? Did your kids treat you like the queen you are? Great... because based on a new survey from Savings.com, statistically, they owe you. Not just their lives but, like, money. It turns out that the percentage of parents supporting their adult children has reached a three-year high to the tune of $1,474 per month on average. This is particularly the case with Gen Z children (18 to 28 years old) but is also true of Millennial children (29 to 44 years old).
Savings.com began studying what appears to be a growing trend since 2022. This fourth annual report surveyed 1,000 parents of adult children and found that half of parents with adult children provide “regular financial assistance” to their adult bébés. This support can take many forms, from help buying groceries (83% of parents) to paying their cell phone bill (65%), to vacations (46%). More often than not (about 77% of the time), conditions are attached to this support.
But those conditions make sense as nearly 50% of parents surveyed report having sacrificed their own financial security to help their kids. In fact, working parents who support grown kids say they contribute two times more each month to their kids than to their retirement funds.
Look, it’s tough out there for everyone, from inflation to looming tariffs and heaven help you if you work for the federal government... But there are some mitigating factors. A lot of parents are helping with things like healthcare (i.e. Gen Z folks still on their parents’ healthcare plan) and college tuition, so I don’t know if that’s really a new trend. That said, the cost of other incidentals also appears to have gone up.
But it also seems that the Adult Child Gravy Train doesn’t run indefinitely. More than a third of parents who give money to their adult kids — nearly 40% — say the support will run dry (or drier) within two years.
“The last four years of our research findings collectively illustrate remarkable parental commitment,” the report concludes. “Parents continue to accept financial stress and make personal sacrifices to support their adult children's economic well-being. ... Despite these subtle shifts away from unconditional assistance, our survey essentially confirms what we've seen in recent years: the ongoing need to financially support struggling adult children is placing significant strain on many parents’ financial security.”
To which I, an adult Millennial whose dad still does her taxes says: OMG, you guys have financial security?! What’s that like?
