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42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support

cnbc.com

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Re: 42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support

#11

Post by wonderwonder »

Its expensive out there. I used to judge people for not being able to stand on their own but now my mindset is if someone is working 40+ hours a week and sticking to a reasonable budget and not driving a new car then not sure what else we can ask them to do.

Most of these people that are getting help aren't saving for retirement either so its just a long game of desperation. Easy to say get a better job but not everyone has the skills or mental acuity to do that. With that said there are aboslutely a lot of people that have no concept of budgeting and are their own worst enemy

Re: 42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support

#12

Post by flumes_whims_ »

yesfitz wrote: post #7
anthonypasq wrote: post #3

I think the word "rely" is doing some heavy lifting here. Still being on your parent's family phone plan doesnt mean youd be destitute if they werent helping you out.

I went to the source[1] referenced by the article and found the exact question. It took about 90 seconds. "How financially independent you currently feel from your parents (meaning you could support yourself without them if needed)" 1: https://news.northwesternmutual.com/planning-and-progress-st...

According to that 17% of boomers+ are dependent on their parents. Just looking at boomers, that is around 70 on average. How many people that age even have parents still alive, let alone financially depend on them?

Re: 42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support

#13

Post by alistairSH »

alistairSH wrote: post #10

33% of GenX is still depending on their parents? That's shocking... I'm at the young end of GenX at 49yo. So, a slice of the population that is fast approaching retirement age is still reliant on their septuagenarian or octogenarian parents for money? Wow.

Source: https://news.northwesternmutual.com/planning-and-progress-st...

OK, now I'm questioning the whole thing... it also claims 17% of Boomers reliant on their parents. So, we have some substantial number of 62-80 years olds relying on their 90-100 year old parents? Seems unlikely.

Re: 42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support

#14

Post by snovymgodym »

The figure might be misleading. It might not be.

Either way, the idea that the natural and normal state of affairs is that every person can go out into the world and be a perfectly self sufficient but comfortable atomized economic unit without support from their family or society is deeply flawed.

This wasn't the norm for most of human history, and it isn't the norm globally today.

Re: 42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support

#15

Post by nathan_compton »

annjose wrote: post #9

Whenever I see a claim that "x% of adults do y", my brain goes: - "x% of what? what is the denominator?". Without that number, the claim is meaningless. - surely it cannot be the entire population, so it has to be a survey. - how many people participated in the survey? what was the distribution? Here is that info for this study. I found this in the PDF version of the study report [0] referred to at the end of the Nor…

Typically surveys are adjusted for sampling biases before reporting. That appears to be the case here. So there is usually some attempt to account for the biases in the sampled population.

The impulse to ask "what population was sampled?" is good but its not always a straight line from there to "these results directly reflect that sampling bias."

In fact, from the page you posted: "Data for the general U.S. population (including the High Net Worth oversample) were weighted to Census targets for education, age, gender, race/ethnicity, region and household income. A full methodology is available."

I would presume that the headline number attempts to account for sampling bias.

Re: 42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support

#16

Post by butlike »

alistairSH wrote: post #13
alistairSH wrote: post #10

33% of GenX is still depending on their parents? That's shocking... I'm at the young end of GenX at 49yo. So, a slice of the population that is fast approaching retirement age is still reliant on their septuagenarian or octogenarian parents for money? Wow.

Source: https://news.northwesternmutual.com/planning-and-progress-st... OK, now I'm questioning the whole thing... it also claims 17% of Boomers reliant on their parents. So, we have some substantial number of 62-80 years olds relying on their 90-100 year old parents? Seems unlikely.

It's plausible if it's an inheritable nest egg amount. Though I agree, seems unlikely.

Re: 42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support

#17

Post by pessimizer »

Reminder that black US slave descendants have a median wealth of about $5000 (i.e the equity they have in their cars.) When you consider black crime, consider the OP statistic in light of that. Most black people I know have parents who rely on their support (and siblings, and cousins, etc.)

Whatever is happening to 42% of Americans is happening to 97% (figures drawn from my ass) of black Americans. $5000 is pretty good. I'm from Chicago, where the median black wealth is $0.

https://colorofwealth.org/

Re: 42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support

#18

Post by [deleted] »

snovymgodym wrote: post #14

The figure might be misleading. It might not be. Either way, the idea that the natural and normal state of affairs is that every person can go out into the world and be a perfectly self sufficient but comfortable atomized economic unit without support from their family or society is deeply flawed. This wasn't the norm for most of human history, and it isn't the norm globally today.

[deleted]

Re: 42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support

#19

Post by butlike »

anthonypasq wrote: post #3

I think the word "rely" is doing some heavy lifting here. Still being on your parent's family phone plan doesnt mean youd be destitute if they werent helping you out.

I don't know, that one doesn't seem as benign as your making it out to be. I would say if you're having your parents subsidize your phone bill you're still not technically living on your own.

Re: 42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support

#20

Post by pessimizer »

flumes_whims_ wrote: post #12
yesfitz wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went to the source[1] referenced by the article and found the exact question. It took about 90 seconds. "How financially independent you currently feel from your parents (meaning you could support yourself without them if needed)" 1: https://news.northwesternmutual.com/planning-and-progress-st...

According to that 17% of boomers+ are dependent on their parents. Just looking at boomers, that is around 70 on average. How many people that age even have parents still alive, let alone financially depend on them?

I'd speculate (based on a study I've recently been made aware of) about 17%.
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