Young People See Paying Off Loans As Independence
Most couples who have children give little thought to the total amount that bringing up a family will cost them between birth and the age of eighteen. If they did, many of them probably wouldn’t bother having kids in the first place! Both parents and children alike (once they get a bit older!) look forward to the day when the younger generation can truly claim to be financially independent and manage their own money, no longer depending on their parents to help fund them.
A recent survey from Children’s Mutual has shown that the majority of younger people consider themselves as financially independent when they are able to start paying off any personal loans and other debts they may have built up, as well as increasing their income and being able to obtain a homeowner loan to buy their first home.
However, the term “financially independent” clearly has different meanings, depending on which side you are looking at it from. The survey also showed that around two thirds of people in the age range 18 to 25, who think of themselves as “independent”, still received some type of financial help from their parents in the form of loans, or additional help with income and somewhere in the region of 40 per cent of this age group still depend on their family for day to day cost of living.
But it would appear that the dream of the kids leaving home and standing on their own two feet is becoming ever more distant for the poor, long suffering parents! An increasing number of parents are now continuing to help their children once they have left home and many are even having to apply for personal loans and homeowner loans in their own name, to help fund their kids.
David White of Children’s Mutual noted his concerns over the growing financial dependence. He said “There has been a major change in the dynamic of family finances and it needs to be dealt with now as the problem could be growing for anyone who has, or is planning to have, children.”
