£30,000 to keep your 18 - 30 year old!

The cost of having adult children is hitting parents hard, with new research showing they expect the cost of supporting an 18 to 30-year-old to exceed £30,000.18-02-2010

 The findings, from The Children’s Mutual, highlight the growth of a generation of YUCKIES (Young Unwitting Costly Kids), with 93 per cent of parents funding their adult children.
Yet many of these parents haven’t planned for the costs and are putting their own financial futures on the line – almost three in 10 parents (28 per cent) have either remortgaged or plan to remortgage to fund their Yuckie, with more than half of all parents borrowing to assist with costs.
According to the research it’s the Yuckies who are necessitating everyday purse tightening in families – two thirds of parents say they have had to or will reduce their day-to-day living costs to fund their adult child, from shopping more economically for food (28 per cent), selling their cars (seven per cent) and monitoring the use of heating and lighting at home (42 per cent).  
David White, Chief Executive of the organisation said: “These figures unveil the stark reality of the cost of being a parent.  No longer does turning 18 mean financial independence – in fact 16 per cent of parents questioned expected their child to remain financially dependent on them into their thirties and beyond.
“The families we questioned had just one message for parents whose children are still young ,– save, save, save!  More than half agreed that if they’d have known when their child was born what they now know about the cost of having an adult child they would have saved more through the years, with just 13 per cent having saved regularly in preparation.  These figures give us a very clear warning – children aren’t financially independent at 18 and parents need to plan for this to save their whole family’s financial future.”
The research was undertaken among 1,484 parents of children aged 18 and over to establish the cost to parents of their adult children.  Other findings included:
o    Parents aren’t just funding ‘big ticket’ items, they are also providing regular financial support for bills/payments (32 per cent), general living costs (48 per cent) and paying back debts/loans (14 per cent)
o    70 per cent of parents questioned said they had underestimated the cost of financially supporting their child during adulthood.

For parents of younger children, The Children’s Mutual hosts an online calculator to help plan for future costs – available at www.thechildrensmutual.co.uk