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4 Essential Expenses Parents Are Covering for Their Adult Kids in 2025

June 6, 2025

2 min Read

Written by Nicole Spector

Edited by Molly Sullivan

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If you’re a parent helping to financially support your adult child in any way, you’ve probably taken some heat from others about your generosity. Possibly, a financial planner has advised you to cut back here, as the money you’re giving to your grown kids could be costing you a comfortable retirement. They’re right; but that doesn’t fix the problem. If your kids are financially hurting, that can be beyond hurtful to watch.

A recent survey from Savings.com revealed that while parents are helping their adult kids pay for nonessentials, tuition/school expenses, leisure/vacations, credit cards debt, student loan debt, investments and discretionary spending, they’re also helping them pay for what Dave Ramsey calls “the Four Walls.” These are the things in life that none of us should be without: food, shelter, utilities and transportation. Note: We’ve added another wall: healthcare (living without this could literally kill you).

Let’s look at which of these core categories parents are helping their adult kids pay for, which generations are receiving the most support and how much parents are providing on a monthly basis.