10 Signs You’ll Need Your Children’s Help In Retirement

You’re Funding an Adult Child’s Lifestyle

Barbara A. Friedberg, a former portfolio manager and co-founder of Robo-Advisor Pros, said the choice to fund an adult child’s lifestyle is a path to retirement peril for the parent.

“If you don’t contribute enough for your own retirement, you run the risk of outliving your money — or worse, putting your children in a position to have to fund your retirement,” she said.

When your children reach adulthood, you need to cut the cord and attend to funding your own future. “You have limited years remaining before retirement to grow your retirement nest egg, and your children have many decades to get their lives in order and build their own financial security,” she said.

Sterling Raskie, a financial advisor and vice president of client engagement at Blankenship Financial Planning in New Berlin, Ill., added that one way to avoid having to fund your children’s lifestyle is to encourage your kids to become more self-supportive. If they live at home, charge them rent and utilities.

“Give them a timeline of when they need to be out of the house or completely independent of Mom and Dad,” Raskie said. “Require that they find a job — a serious job, not a one-day-a-week job.”