With everything from student debt to housing prices rising without any relief in sight, leaving the nest completely seems harder than ever. Now, a new survey shows almost half of American parents with adult children still support them financially.
According to a poll by Savings.com, 45% of parents with adult children provide $1,442 a month on average to at least one grown offspring.
Parents 10 years or less from retirement contribute the most monthly to their children — about $2,100, which leaves an average of $643 to put into their retirement accounts monthly, the poll shows.
Parents who pay bills for an adult child are most likely to cover expenses for necessities like food and housing. According to the poll, more than three in four parents who support an adult child help with groceries ($172 per month), while 63% cover their kid's cell phone bill ($62 monthly). More than half help pay a child's mortgage or rent ($806 per month) and another half pay for health insurance of health care ($186 monthly).
The poll also shows that 41% of parents help with their kids' car payments ($342 per month), while 17% help pay off their kids' credit card debt ($198 per month).
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Nearly 40% of financially supportive parents help with their kids' tuition or school expenses, at an average of $870 per month, while another 21% help with student loan payments, contributing an average of $245 a month to help relieve the debt, according to the poll.
"If these parents stopped contributing money to student loan repayment, they'd have nearly $3,000 more annually to contribute to their retirement accounts," according to the poll.
While the majority (82%) of adult children receiving financial assistance from their parents are between the ages of 18 and 29, the poll found that nearly two in five adults receiving parental support are over 30.
"The growing generational wealth gap means that for millions of Millennials and Gen-Z'ers, true financial independence is still out of grasp," the poll noted. "So it's little wonder that parents of adult children are picking up the slack."
That financial independence is so out of grasp, that 57% of adult children who get help from their parents still live at home with them, according to the poll. These young adults also have little extra income to share with their families, contributing just $186 monthly on average to household expenses.
And that's OK with most parents who continue to support their children into adulthood.
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"Our research shows parents would be willing to go to great lengths to help support their children financially, even if that means putting themselves at financial risk," the poll noted, adding that "most parents paying their adult child's bills do not intend to provide support for the rest of their lives; only 19% said they never plan to withdraw their financial help. Just over half predict they'll stop in the next couple of years."
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