The Bank of Mom and Dad: Young Adults Still Rely on Parents

Many young adults don’t think of themselves as financially independent from their parents, according to data from the Pew Research Center .

Less than half of young adults surveyed by Pew said they’re completely financially independent, though this jumps up to more than two-thirds when broadening it to being mostly financially independent. Young women were more likely than young men to say that they are mostly financially self-sufficient.

The top two areas young adults received help was to pay for household expenses, phone bills, and streaming services.

Looking at the parents, nearly 60% have provided financial support to their adult kids, defined as the group aged 18 to 34, in the past year.

Supportive Parents

Two-thirds of surveyed young adults said their parents did a lot to prepare them to be independent adults. But the economy had other plans for them.

Between the pandemic-era inflation spike, high housing costs, and layoffs in certain sectors, young adults aren’t facing the easiest conditions. While young adults of today are more likely to have a college degree and work full time than their counterparts 30 years ago, they’re also in more debt to pay for college and housing.

Equally, helping out their offspring doesn’t go unnoticed by parents’ budgets either. More than one-third said helping their children financially over the past year has negatively affected their own financial situation.

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