It's the financial mystery for those in their 30s. How can anyone, even those with a steady job, let alone those with children, afford to live in big cities like New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco?
The answer is: many receive monetary support, of varying degrees, from their parents. Wait, don’t roll your eyes in skeptical exasperation at those millennials who can’t get off the ground on their own just yet. Consider the relentless economics of trying to make a life for yourself in a country like the United States today. Wages are stagnant, and the costs of real estate, health care, and family care have skyrocketed. A recent economic analysis concluded that “for Americans under age 40, the XNUMXst century has been like one very long recession.”
Original note: https://www.nytimes.com/es/2019/03/11/independencia-financiera-milenial/?smid=fb-espanol&smtyp=cur
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More than half of Americans ages 21 to 37 have received some form of financial assistance from a parent, guardian or relative since they turned 21, according to a 2018 report by Country Financial, a financial services company. That includes money to pay for cellphone service (received by 41 percent), groceries and gas (32 percent), rental income (40 percent) or health insurance (32 percent).
Then there’s unpaid help, like caring for grandchildren — crucial assistance for many. A quarter of millennial parents receive hourly assistance from their own parents, either around the house or with their children, and 18 percent say they wouldn’t be able to sustain their daily lives without that support, according to a 2017 study by TD Ameritrade. The same study found that more than half of millennials who have children experience general anxiety about not being able to earn enough to support themselves and their families.
All of this means that the perception of this generation, at least among those in the middle class, is very different from that of their counterparts in the past. On the television show Thirtysomething, which ran from 1987 to 1991, virtually no character ever mentioned needing financial help from their parents. Today's shows portray a different reality, such as the number of people who need to share an apartment to pay the rent on New Girl or Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
Sometimes people don’t even want to answer the question, “Have you managed to cut ties with your family financially?” Despite how common it is for many millennials to turn to their parents for help even at an age when they themselves already have children, acknowledging that support can be a financial taboo.
“It’s easier to talk about saving or being frugal,” said Kimberly Palmer, a personal finance expert for the app NerdWallet who gets help from her parents with child care. “There’s not as much shame with those topics.”
What's especially different about the help 30-somethings receive from their parents today, as opposed to the support that existed before, is that in an economy with more extreme swings and more stagnant wages, family wealth is a much bigger determinant of socioeconomic advancement, according to Chuck Collins, author of Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good.
So much so that 32-somethings without parental support face even greater disadvantages. “They struggle to pay off their student debt, their savings are meager because of those debts, and they often have to care for other family members,” said Iimar Ho, 18, executive director of Resource Generation, an organization that works to engage people ages 35 to XNUMX who have financial or social class privilege on issues of inequality.
Roger Quesada, 34, said his $65.000 in student tuition debt, which is owed to Sallie Mae — which charges $400 a month in interest alone — is “a prison sentence.” Late payments have ruined his credit history, he said, and have hampered his financial and career aspirations.
“I have tried to navigate our economy without one of its most important components, a good credit history, which provides enormous advantages and privileges,” said Quesada, who grew up in a working-class neighborhood in New Jersey.
“Graduating debt-free is something that many people in my generation take for granted,” added Quesada, the son of migrants, who added that many also ignore the added burden of not having parents who can give financial advice. “I couldn’t rely on my mother after I left home; she’s retired, has a disability, and she can barely support herself without her social safety net. If anything, I have to help her,” he said.
Susan Alvarez was able to buy this apartment from real estate agent Fredy Garcia (left) thanks to the financial support of her parents, Sonia and Manuel Alvarez. Credit John Francis Peters for The New York Times
It's dangerous that so many millennials who receive help from their parents don't want to disclose it: it creates a distorted idea of what it takes to be successful and what financial achievements are possible if you really start from scratch.
Simon Isaacs, founder of the website Fatherly, stresses the importance of giving credit to his family. He said the help of his relatives was key to him and his wife being able to buy a house in Brooklyn, where they live with their two young children.
“I think millennials need to abandon the narrative that they have made it on their own,” Isaacs said. “It hides the many ways in which they have been privileged by their race or by the help of their parents.”
