For all that millennials are a generation frequently cited when it comes to financial worries, a new study from the AARP paints a slightly different (though not contradictory) picture of how generations of Americans handle money. It reveals that plenty of adults between the ages of 40 and 64 are helping support their parents with money, to varying degrees. Most of the money goes to staple items, the study reports:
Groceries, housing costs, and medical expenses top the list of expenses that nearly a third of midlife adults contribute toward as they provide financial support to aging parents.
32 percent of those polled presently provide support to their parents, and 42 percent believed that they would be doing so soon.
At The New York Times, Ann Carrns provides some context for the study and its findings. The data is based on a survey of just over 1,500 participants. And it turns out that many of the people polled are also providing financial support of some sort to their children as well.
Many midlife adults are also supporting adult children, the AARP survey found. Nineteen percent of those with adult children and aging parents said they were helping both financially.
The sums involved were significant: 54% of those who had given money to a parent had given $1,000 or more; 20% had given them $5,000 or more.
In total, it’s a sobering look at the ways that financial anxieties can persist in life, and can affect multiple generations, sometimes at the same time.
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