WASHINGTON 鈥� For most parents, the cost of their kids doesn鈥檛 stop when they reach adulthood.
A says 74 percent of U.S. adults with children 18 and older help them pay their living expenses or debts.
If accurate, that would be 49 million adults living in the U.S. who have yet to fully cut financial ties with their grown-up children.
Of those parents who said they are continuing to help their adult children financially, 84 percent said they鈥檙e helping with living expenses, while 70 percent have helped with debt.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 an awful lot of parents who are spending money that isn鈥檛 able to go to their own retirement,鈥� CreditCards.com鈥檚 Matt Shultz told 草莓传媒.
The most common expenses that parents are helping with are cellphone bills, car repairs and gas, rent, and utilities, according to the survey.
Married people are significantly more likely than divorcees or never-married parents to help grown-up children financially.
Parents in the Northeast are significantly more likely than those in any other region to help their adult kids pay student loans.
If parental help with finances becomes a regular thing or extends longer into adulthood, Shultz says those parents are not doing their children a favor.
鈥淭he best gift a parent can give to a child is to teach them how to live within their means, and if you give them too much of a cushion for when things go wrong, they don鈥檛 necessarily learn,鈥� he said.
One thing parents are likely to say no to? Their kids鈥� credit card debt. Only 16 percent of respondents said they鈥檝e helped an adult child pay a credit card bill.
CreditCards.com鈥檚 results come from an online survey from Nov. 15 to Nov. 19 and included 1,092 U.S. adults with children aged 18 and older.
