Author Topic: Millennials being helped by/helping their parents  (Read 10523 times)

Offline Front-Ranger

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Millennials being helped by/helping their parents
« on: July 22, 2019, 11:21:35 am »
I was listening to "It's Been a Minute" on NPR with Sam Sanders, to a story called Millennials and Money:

https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=732321253

Apparently, Millennials are embarrassed because they have to rely on their parents for financial help. And they need the help more now because prices are so high. I ask you: how is this a thing? Haven't parents been helping their adult children since forever? And then the children help the parents when they need it? And sometimes these two things overlap!

Remembering back, my parents bought my first two cars, one when I was in high school and just after I got out of college. The cars allowed me to work and make a living. When my husband and I wanted to buy a house, his grandmother loaned us $15K, his parents $10K and my parents $10K to add to our $5-$10K for a down payment. And this was in a smallish town. I had to drive to the next town, 30 miles away, to work because I couldn't find a job in that small, backwards town.

I don't remember being embarrassed about getting the money because it was a loan. Now, I'm paying it back by lending my son $9K for a car, and I expect to help him raise the $50K it will take to buy a house for the down payment. It seems like the amounts are in the same ballpark, accounting for inflation. Am I out of line, or does this seem to be another in the series of "Woe are the Millennials" stories?
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Offline brianr

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Re: Millennials being helped by/helping their parents
« Reply #1 on: July 22, 2019, 11:16:59 pm »
I guess I am an older generation but no, I did not expect my parents to help with my expenses after an education.
When I finished school, I did not get a university scholarship, although my friends all did and I expected to do so. I know now that my mother talked my father into paying my first year fees and they kept me for that year and paid me pocket money. I still did not get a scholarship for my 2nd year but I worked in the vacation for 3 months at a good paying job so paid my own fees and pocket money, although my parents did not take board. (My mother insisted I pay board when I got a holiday job for a few weeks at 15 years old. Obviously it went towards keeping me for the rest of the year but Mum believed in the principle that, if I earned wages, I must pay board). I gained a scholarship for my 3rd and 4th years at university but still worked for the 3 months vacation so did not rely on my parents but they would have subsidised me. I cannot remember if I paid board out of my scholarship allowance, probably not, but I did not need any pocket money and bought my own clothes.
For my 21st birthday I was given the choice of a 2nd hand car or a party,  I chose the car. I did have a small party at home but only 1 of my friends, the rest were relatives more my parents age. 
At the end of my 2nd year of teaching, I paid for my parents to go to New Zealand for 4 weeks. This was my way of repaying them for my education. It was my Father's only ever overseas trip. My mother did go overseas later with my sister but she was a widow for over 30 years.
However I paid $25,000 for my first condominium at age 31. I had already spent 6 months in Asia and Europe and, after that first car, I always bought brand new cars. I borrowed 95% but sold the condominium 6 years later for $65,000 and paid $55,000 for a house (in a rural area). I lived there for 28 years and sold it for $440,000 when I moved to NZ. I paid that initial $25,000 off in less than 20 years but at times I was paying 18% p.a. interest on the loan.

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Millennials being helped by/helping their parents
« Reply #2 on: July 24, 2019, 06:05:53 pm »
Brian, you've brought another point to add to the conversation. Interest rates were prohibitively high for boomers. I remember paying more than 10% interest on my first mortgage. Nowadays, you can get a mortgage for under 4% in the US, and I think I pay about 3.5% on my car.
"chewing gum and duct tape"