<p>I DO hope the boomers are saving enough that they won’t have to try to have their kiddos help them down the road. They do no one any favor if they pay for their kiddos and then need the kiddos to bail them out as they age.</p>
<p>I’m hoping and have every reason to believe our S is saving a large amount of his salary. We haven’t paid many expenses for him since he started receiving paychecks in June–only $10/month for phone, which is OK with everyone. He is still on H’s medical insurance because it is no additional cost anyway & he can stay on it until he marries or turns 26 (as long as the legislation doesn’t change).</p>
<p>It’s all going around in a big circle. Parents are supporting their children far longer than they used to. But kids will be paying through the nose in taxes and welfare programs to support senior citizens.</p>
<p>We put my mom on our cell phone plan. Much cheaper than getting her own plan. And my 21 year old son lent us $10K to buy a rental property. In our family whoever has the money at the time lends it to the ones who need it, no matter what generation it is.</p>
<p>Big circle here too. My employed son is still on our cell phone plan. $9.99 to stay on our plan is more sensible than $40 to $50 to start his own. But he immediately offered to help out financially when he heard we may have to spend a few months in Texas for some medical treatment.</p>
<p>You know, after watching every cent my FIL had go to in-home 24hr nursing care, I don’t begrudge my kids anything. If I can make their lives a little easier while they are working hard to pay back large grad school loans in addition to rent, food, transportation, utilities and other expenses, I think it’s money well-spent, when I give them things they can’t afford themselves. Not cars or big ticket things. Just small splurges, a handbag here or here. A pair of boots or show tickets. I think of it giving them their inheritance early, while I am still lucid enough to enjoy it. And, no, we are far from rich enough to do this without sacrificing ourselves. It’s a personal choice.</p>
<p>Why do people do such nasty things as slash tires? It’s so destructive AND expensive. Sorry for your S!</p>
<p>It’s good that many of us have families to help even out the bumps along the road–tougher for those out there without that social & support network.</p>
<p>We are paying for far more than I ever we would pay. The only kid who is living completely independently is our son who is living in the UE. We have kept all other kids on our health insurance and cell phone plan even though two of them have smart phones from work. They don’t use the work phones for private use. We are paying rent for our daughter the last couple of months along with utilities and food. We also keep a very stocked pantry and send groceries and cooked meals home with son who has his own place. I really don’t mind helping out with a few things as long as none of them come to expect it. It is easy to do nice things or provide gifts for kids who are appreciative of the things we do and equally difficult when it is not appreciated but expected.</p>
<p>My parents paid for nothing after HS. My 2 boys, 21 and 23, are on our cell phone plans. Both recently got “real” jobs and will be going off our health ins, but I’d keep them on if the plans were better and Anthem allowed it. I view it as “family economic unit” and it seems senseless for each to pay $50+ for individual phone plans rather than $9.99 each.</p>
<p>Both have worked since HS graduation and asked for nothing since, although we paid $700/yr for truck insurance. They paid over that. I enjoy buying them things they would put off, like new clothing or boots. They are both beyond cheap, and I’m so grateful to see our role modeling paid off. I was really worried because ex-H (their dad) probably has the worst family’s money management skills…ever.</p>
<p>My D has been living away from home since she graduated. She’s on our phone plan but re-imburses. We don’t cover anything else. S lives with us but pays rent, more than enough to cover his food, utitility use, phone. We don’t pay for anything for him, except he does get shared use of stuff like tv and computers. Both have health insurance through work. Neither kid has a car because insurance is expensive. We are not in a position to pay that kind of thing for them, but they certainly wouldn’t expect us to.</p>
<p>thumper; my son had his own plan in college for same reason as you mentioned. Even tho he lives in another state now, I could add him to my plan. He has a local number, but it is programmed to be forwarded to the phone number he got while in college. So now, he has a CA # while living in MA</p>
<p>To kids these days, area codes are meaningless. Just so many extra digits since all the long distance calls cell to cell are free. DD in law has found however that for her business the cell phone only number that is half a continent away is a long distance all for her local land line customers. Not something she thought about before.</p>
<p>Another “pay the 9.99 on the family plan” for D’s cell. She doesn’t have a smart phone, we have unlimited texts on all the phones on my plan, plus I get a discount because evidently AT&T thinks I should get one based on my employer. Show me why me paying her $10 phone bill is hampering her development as an adult…And although we no longer give her money she also benefits from being one of our joint bank accounts ( no fees ).</p>
<p>My parents pay for my cell phone (I could, but it might actually be cheaper for them this way since most of their minutes are used calling me). They also paid for my 25 year old sister’s until a month ago when she canceled her line without telling them (leaving my parents with a huge cancellation fee out of nowhere- cute, right?) They also pay my car and health insurance. My mom will buy me clothes and dishes sometimes if she finds them really cheap. She knows I don’t shop and she loves looking for deals so it’s a win-win for both of us :). </p>
<p>I pay for everything else, but I do know I can go to them if I’m in a pinch. I haven’t really had to, yet. They would help me if they could, but I really hate asking for money.</p>
<p>In exchange, I help my dad run a non-profit by dealing with the social media aspects and some communication aspects of it (something that the organization used to hire someone for). I also help my parents do household chores like chopping wood and other things. Both of my parents are some level of disabled and can’t do a lot of things that they used to be able to do.</p>
<p>Cell as part of the family plan ($12 monthly), and dental ($17.50 monthly). At 23 she supports herself in all other ways. Oh, I did splurge and paid $185 for her airfare to come home for 2 weeks in January, I used mileage for the rest if the ticket. </p>
<p>Best thing I ever did was teach her to budget and support herself.</p>
<p>I’ve paid for all of that myself since I got a job, but I didn’t while I was in college. I definitely have a lot of friends around my age (24) though whose parents pay their cell phone bill, and who paid for the car they’re currently driving.</p>
<p>Yes, was happy that S is paying for his OWN airplane tickets, including the one to fly to HI for Christmas. That one is 4 figures! We’re working on it, but it is good that his salary is high enough that it isn’t really an issue for us or him. He also paid for his own ticket to fly from DC to SFO for Thanksgiving. He volunteers to get bumped from planes quite a bit, so has gotten quite a few coupons and vouchers as well.</p>
<p>It’s very nice that we only have to help D with her tuition (hopefully this will be the last semester) and also with all her other expenses. Keeping our fingers crossed that she will be able to find a job at some point in the near future. If not, at least no more tuition checks after May–yeah!</p>
<p>Am so glad that with the healthcare reform, both kids can remain on H’s health insurance until they turn 26–that is SUCH a relief AND savings!</p>
<p>My oldest is not only paying for her expenses since she graduated from college ( but is still
In grad school), but is paying for her sisters train ticket @ Christmas so she can house sit for her.
( which also means that we are
now traveling to D1’s state so we can see D2 !)</p>
<p>That’s great! S paid their travel to get them to & from SF in his SR year to visit their aunt; he did let me pay for their dinner at a nice restaurant on their way back to LA. He also paid & will be reimbursed from work for their driving expenses to get from LA to DC, with a nice stop in Chicago & a bit of sightseeing along the way.</p>
<p>He paid his own lodging & other expenses SR year (we paid the portion of his tuition that wasn’t covered by merit award), so I didn’t know that there was a separate cable bill; noticed it this year as D charged it to our joint credit card & I was trying to figure out why it was there.</p>
Not something she thought about before.</p>