Average Age When Parents Stop Helping With Bills (teaching, allowance, support)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This is my first thread here and it's based on pure curiosity. I come from a lower class background but have worked hard and paid my own way through college and now live comfortably. It comes as a surprise to me to hear many of my coworkers/acquaintances (majority white btw) tell me how their parents have or still are helping them pay for their rent and other living expenses. And i dont mean 18 - 22 year olds who are still in school. I mean 25-30 year olds who live in nicer neighborhoods and are eating out or drinking at bars very often. It is such a foreign concept for to me understand being an adult and living a carefree lifestyle while still depending on your parent's help.
So my question is, how old were you when your parents finally cut you off? And how much help did they provide? All rent and bills? I'm not asking so that I can turn around and judge people. I simply want to understand something that is not common to me. Maybe this is the norm and i'm the exception.
I know there is a vast sense of difference on this. Some parents can't help, some cut their kids off at 18 or 21. I was mostly self sufficient around 21 or so but my parents still paid for some major things when I needed it. They also helped me with my house and provided large presents like new carpeting or such things over the years. They could afford it. I in turn am helping my son. I pay for some things but he pays for others as he until recently did not have a full time job. The idea is that he would have a glide path to self sufficiency. The job market is poor and many people are moving back in with parents. Now that he has a job I will expect he will gradually assume paying for more things. I figure I only have one child and when I go he will get my money anyway. So why not help him. He is very frugal and does not spend lavishly on anything. I would cut him off if I saw him doing foolish things with money.
It's sort of their own personal business and between them and their parents. I don't get why people seem to get offended by this. Once you're out of HS parents shouldn't feel obligated to support their kids financially, but if they want to then it's their own business.
My parents paid my deposit on my room in student digs when I left for University at nearly 19 years old. After that they haven't helped with any bills and I wouldn't expect them to, thats just a bit weird really. I know they would let me move back in with them if I needed and they would help out in an emergency but to just pay my bills would never cross their minds or mine.
was 17 when I left home with 85$ in my pack...I never asked for, nor received any help from that point on.
I think that once the kids have left home it's up to them to make ends meet. Sure you can help them out occasionally, or you can lend them some money, but they aught not to expect it...I can't imagine living elsewhere and expecting my parents to pay my bills...that seems bizarre to me.
Undergrad years, we are paying all the bills, but not unlimited, as they have a budget to live within. We also paid all the expenses, except tuition for the one who has completed grad school.
Two will graduated college in May, and one has a job lined up so he'll be self-supporting. The other is taking a year to do research before grad school, so it will be a few years yet until we remove him from all support.
Some things just make sense to pay as a family, such as insurance and cell phones.
This is my first thread here and it's based on pure curiosity. I come from a lower class background but have worked hard and paid my own way through college and now live comfortably. It comes as a surprise to me to hear many of my coworkers/acquaintances (majority white btw) tell me how their parents have or still are helping them pay for their rent and other living expenses. And i dont mean 18 - 22 year olds who are still in school. I mean 25-30 year olds who live in nicer neighborhoods and are eating out or drinking at bars very often. It is such a foreign concept for to me understand being an adult and living a carefree lifestyle while still depending on your parent's help.
So my question is, how old were you when your parents finally cut you off? And how much help did they provide? All rent and bills? I'm not asking so that I can turn around and judge people. I simply want to understand something that is not common to me. Maybe this is the norm and i'm the exception.
Thanks.
Many, maybe even most, wealthy families will provide for their children indefinitely. Usually in the form of a trust with yearly allowances. I know my father set up ones for all of his children and we were only upper middle class not wealthy. His parents did not give trusts (except to him) but rather a yearly allowance for his sisters and did things like cover major purchases for most of the family.
As for my immediate family we are more middle middle class due to the fact that we have chosen careers with much lower salaries (teaching/research and engineering). But my own daughter has a smaller trust of her own as well which she gets paid from yearly, or more often as needed. If she is careful with it she will be able to use it forever.
This is my first thread here and it's based on pure curiosity. I come from a lower class background but have worked hard and paid my own way through college and now live comfortably. It comes as a surprise to me to hear many of my coworkers/acquaintances (majority white btw) tell me how their parents have or still are helping them pay for their rent and other living expenses. And i dont mean 18 - 22 year olds who are still in school. I mean 25-30 year olds who live in nicer neighborhoods and are eating out or drinking at bars very often. It is such a foreign concept for to me understand being an adult and living a carefree lifestyle while still depending on your parent's help.
So my question is, how old were you when your parents finally cut you off? And how much help did they provide? All rent and bills? I'm not asking so that I can turn around and judge people. I simply want to understand something that is not common to me. Maybe this is the norm and i'm the exception.
Ummmm...ahhhhh...what?
I went to work at the age of 11. At that point, I was expected to pay a portion of my income to my parent(s) to contribute to the costs of the household, as well as to remove certain expenses from the household budget (such as clothes and shoes) by buying my own. I did not get ferried to school/work- I walked or rode a bicycle until, at 15 and working full-time in a garage, I bought my own car (which I drove despite not being old enough to comply with certain little formalities such as a license, registration and insurance).
I and my siblings were expected to go to work and contribute to the household until we set off on our own....which we did just as soon as we were damn well able to.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
