Five years ago, I posted a blog entry about how the main problem with kids, is parents. My point was that there could be no bad kids unless they'd been exposed to bad parenting. That came to mind again this week, but in a much, much different way.
This week the Wall Street Journal reported that almost 40% of young Americans were living with their parents, siblings or other relatives in 2015. This is the largest percentage since 1940, and happened despite good job growth since the Great Recession of 2008. The share of those ages 18-34 living with parents or other family members has actually been rising since 2005, when roughly 33% were living with family.
It should be noted that this is all according to an analysis of census data by real estate tracker Trulia, which did it to determine why there is less demand for housing than would be expected for the millennial generation. They decided that rising rents in many cities and tough mortgage-lending standards were the culprit, making it difficult for those 'young Americans' to strike out on their own.
Pardon my French, but that reasoning in bullshit. It makes no sense on its face, since the percentage should decline as the economy has so improved over the past five years. Also, there's plenty of multi-generational family living even in lower cost-of-living areas. And for the past few years, mortgage rates have never been lower, making it easier than ever to buy a house.
Want to know why so many millennials are living in their parents' basements? Because they can. Because parents have allowed it -- not just by unconditionally opening their doors to their underachieving kids for undetermined periods of time, but by not holding their children accountable for making better decisions when it mattered, during and after high school and college.
That's simply another form of bad parenting, in a much different context than what I wrote five years ago. It's also a sign of how some millennials are lazy, er, I mean lack motivation, to the extent they'd rather give up independent living than have to be fully employed.
Parents should be more motivated about this, too. As a financial planner, I can also tell you the parents pay a terrible cost in the form of not being able to retire. Thousands of dollars are being spent on children for whom there should no longer be a cost. I've seen some situations where parents are paying more now for their adult children than they were when those kids were under 18. Ugh.
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