Mabel Lago and her husband, Tom, on their 50th wedding anniversary. They built their 1,500-square foot retirement home in South Carolina a bit larger than they might have, to include a bedroom for their 39-year-old son.
Mabel Lago
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Mabel Lago and her husband are retired and in their 70s. But before they decided to move from New Jersey to South Carolina this year, they checked with their younger son. That's because he was still living with them, at age 39.
"We could not leave him behind, because he could not afford to live on his own," she said.
Her son is a hard worker, she explains, but his job helping to manage a liquor store paid low wages and no benefits. He also has Type 1 diabetes, and his Affordable Care Act insurance was nearly a thousand dollars a month. So he came with them to South Carolina, where his plan now is a lot cheaper — but he hasn't yet landed a new job.
"The young people have really been shafted, big time, with the economy, with the cost of living," Lago said.
She is among a majority of Americans who, according to polls, think it's more difficult for young adults today to achieve financial independence than it was for their parents. It's a view that's grown sharply in recent years, as prices for essentials such as housing, food and energy have shot up and inflation has stayed stubbornly elevated.
Such concerns partly explain why most parents help support their grown children in some way, many well beyond the traditional age of financial independence. The share of 25- to 34-year-olds living with parents has also nearly doubled since 2005, to about 20%, according to the Urban Institute. One analysis found a third of all those under 35 are living back at home, just shy of the record peak during the COVID-19 pandemic, even though most are employed.
Lago and her husband built their 1,500-square-foot retirement home in South Carolina a bit larger than they might have, to include a bedroom for their son. They also gave part of the land they bought to their older son, 43, who has a well-paying job but has not been able to buy a house on his single income. But he just built one next door, with money his parents gave him from their own inheritance.
From left to right: Tom, Mabel, Chad and Ross Lago
Mabel Lago
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Lago is happy to help, but she and her husband have to watch their spending carefully. This year, as gas and food prices spiked, they cut back on driving and stopped eating beef. Now, they're thinking not only of their own long-term finances, but also that of their sons.
"Did we plan for that when we had our children 40 years ago? No," she said. "Do we plan for that now? Yes, we have to."
Some parents have long helped children — pitching in so they can buy a first home, for example. But over recent decades, as families have gotten smaller and people marry later, researchers have found more parents have done so and in larger amounts.
"Young adults are kind of coming of age in a different economic landscape than their parents did," said Rachel Minkin, a researcher at the Pew Research Center.
A Pew survey this year found a growing majority of Americans say it's harder today for young people to find a job, pay for college, buy a home and save for the future. In a new survey question, 80% even agreed that "it's harder for young adults today to cover basic expenses," Minkin said.
A 2024 Pew analysis found young adults are also more likely to have student loan debt compared to three decades ago. And while the share with mortgage debt was about the same, the median amount of that debt adjusted for inflation was larger.