If you're a boomer parent who still doles out cash to your adult children, you're not alone. A recent study by the National Endowment for Financial Freedom showed that a full 59% of parents give money to their children, ages 18 to 39, who aren't in college. And the sums that change hands are not by any means insignificant.
Nearly half of the parents surveyed said they help with kids' living expenses, 41% covered transportation costs, and 29% provided spending money. The most often cited reason for continuing to be the Bank of Mom and Dad was that the parents are "legitimately concerned" about their children's financial fitness.
In this economy, that's understandable. Even so, the NAFE report emphasizes that parents need to be careful not jeopardize their own financial future. Grown kids who still aren't self-sufficient have been dubbed "adultescents" and they can not only make you delay retirement but even put you in debt. In fact 7% of the parents surveyed said they are putting off retirement and amore than a quarter of them admitted they had gone into debt in order to help keep the kids afloat. NEFE acknowledges that saying no to one's offspring is tough but warns that you need to do exactly that unless your kids are really struggling. You're not doing yourself or them a favor by draining your resources on their behalf.
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