Quote Originally Posted by dmc View Post
But you also have to take care of yourself, unless your certain that the kids will help you if needed. If the kids are not asking, why are you offering if your worried that it might put you in a bind? Save the money until a true emergency comes up or your sure you won't need it.
Like.

Seriously, for people at ANY economic level, put on your own oxygen mask first before trying to save your children.

If you (the generic you) are financially set for retirement, I think it's great to help out your 20 something kids with vacation tickets, house down payments, etc. But if you aren't there yet, remember that you've already done your job by launching them out into life with skills and presumably some sort of formal education. And if you can offer your parental home as the place where they can land if they crash & burn, that is generous. I would say pretty much the same thing for supporting elderly parents.

The Millionaire Next Door has quite a lot to say about "economic outpatient" help for adult children, and it ain't pretty.

The Mr.Money Mustache forums discuss this pretty often, although those guys are fairly young and they have the problem of supporting parents, and often parents who have lived large and then crashed and burned. Probably those parents are my age, ugh, how awful to burden one's children in this way. Since the MMM board if composed of international members, there is a fair number of non-Western attitudes about the elderly, and many grandparents just take for granted that the youngsters will support them.