Key Takeaways
- A recent study showed that many parents are still paying some bills for their adult children, mainly car insurance and cell phone bills.
- Asking for financial assistance from family members is ok, but there is always a happy medium between not acknowledging money issues at all, or constantly giving money away no matter the situation.
- While most people who loan money to family members don’t plan on getting the money back, setting up a formal loan is a great way to ensure that happy medium between helping a family member, and getting your money back.
When you were in college, and you ran short of money, what did you do? Like many people, you probably picked up the phone and called mom and dad, because they took care of most of your expenses. At some point, you transition away from that though, and you head out on your own.
A recent study showed that many parents are still paying some bills for their adult children, mainly car insurance and cell phone bills. This makes a lot of sense since these bills start when you are a teenager and your parents most likely paid these bills for you back then.
But this brings up a question: is it ok to ask for financial help?
It depends.
In some families, money is just not talked about. On the flip-side, some parents or grandparents jump in and pay for everything. We see both ends of the spectrum, but there’s a healthy medium in there where sometimes it’s appropriate, and sometimes it’s not. There is no simple answer because it’s really the relationship between children and parents or grandparents relative to all sorts of issues.
It could be that junior is spending too much money, or she is going on shopping sprees, all kinds of money issue situations, but this is what happens in life, and people can get judgmental about that. They attach judgement to money.
But when we aren’t judgmental, and there are legitimate circumstances where money is needed, it just makes sense. Maybe a baby who needs medical care, or extra bills show up because of paying for more education because you lost a job and needed to get reeducated. Or the many other things that happen in people’s lives where unforeseen things happen and family members can help them. There’s nothing wrong with that.
It really comes down to what the relationship is like between those family members and how the money is going to be paid back. Quite frankly, most people who loan money to family members don’t expect to see it come back. But in my experience, when a formal loan is set up between parents or grandparents and their children, we see a lot more of that money paid back.
There are lots of ways to handle money issues within families, and it’s ok to do different kinds of transactions or loans or whatever works best for those family members. The real world happens, and it makes sense to want to help a family member in need, but there are definitely different ways of handling those issues.
Until next time, enjoy!
Gary
