Sometimes too much financial help Opens a New Window. is a bad thing.
A new study from Merrill Lynch shows that 79% of parents provide some financial support for their adult children. And Ramsey Solutions financial expert Chris Hogan said parents may actually be setting them up for failure.
“It’s so important for us to look at this….and realize this is an epidemic,” Hogan said on Tuesday to Maria Bartiromo Opens a New Window. . “You have a real problem whenever you have parents that mean well by trying to help their children. The problem is they aren’t helping themselves because the parents are setting themselves up to potentially to become a burden later in life.”
The same study also showed that 72% of parents are putting their adult children’s financial matters in front of their retirement savings. Hogan said because of this parents are also “setting themselves up for a potential nightmare later on in life” by trying to “save the day financially” for their kids.
Hogan said it’s important to not only train young people how to handle money but also have continued conversation on the matter.
“Sit down with them and talk about why they need to know how money works,” he said. “And more importantly show them how to begin to do it. Show them how to budget, show them how to attack debt.”
In Hogan’s opinion dealing with money is a core life skill and the conversation of money management needs to be had more than once.
