With an often unstable job market, and huge tuition rates, it has become a trend over the last few decades for kids to rely more on their parents financially than ever before. Gone are the days of kids turning 18 and leaving the house (and your wallet debt free) for good. Longer stays at home after high school or returning to the nest after post-secondary has become more common these days, and parents are really starting to feel the financial pressure.

According to a recent Globe and Mail article, “Plan to Retire? You May Need to Pay Your Gen Y Kids’ Debts First,” the trends with regard to financial dependence are quite startling, and parents are finding themselves dealing with not only their own debt, but that of their adult children as well. And those children are admitting to having come to expect it.

How parents are helping:

• Pay off their student loans: 37 per cent of poll participants said their parents had done this, or that they expected this.
• Pay their bills: This is happening with 42 per cent of 20- to 24-year-olds, 28 per cent of 25- to 29-year-olds and 17 per cent of 30- to 33-year-olds.
• Buy a home: One in four said parents have helped with a down payment, or will.

Savings, in the past, that were accumulated after the kids had flown the coop, usually from the mid-50s to retirement, used to sustain parents through the retirement years. Now however, in an effort to assist their children, those saving years (and the savings themselves) are dwindling, leaving very little amassed at the end.

Living debt free has become a far less common way of life, especially for the younger generations, and parents finding themselves saddled with bills that are not their own can become disheartened very quickly.

For more about debt free solutions, either for yourself or your children, as well as saving and spending tips that won’t leave you calculating desperately in the end, please contact DebtCare Canada today by calling 1-888-890-0888.