Hey, Dad! Can I borrow your car?

In the Thursday Styles section of the New York Times this week, they ran a story entitled, The Bank of Mom and Dad. The article discusses how Americans in their 20s and 30s are continuing to financially rely, at least to some extent, on their parents.

The bottom line is that the assumption that financial obligations to children ended after graduation from high school or college is going the way of the pay phone. Today, parents are finding that they are on the hook for more, sometimes much more — contributions of thousands of dollars a year to help young men and women get on their feet economically, often into their 30's.

Yep, that’s me. Into my 30s and still getting the occasional helping hand from my parents. My parents don’t send me a monthly stipend, as some parents report doing in the article. However, they did just pay for my airline ticket for a visit home next month.

My parents and I had talked about them visiting me, but they ultimately decided that, instead of paying for both of them to come here, that they wanted to pay for me to go home. So, I’m going home. And I’m very happy about the upcoming trip, when I’ll be able to see my parents as well as many other friends and family members.

Except that I wish I could have paid for the ticket. I also wish I could afford to rent a car while I’m there, as the words, “Dad, can I borrow your car?” seem like a distant echo from my adolescence.

While economic stresses may be exacerbated in cities like New York, people in other areas of the country are feeling the pressures as well. Nationally, 34 percent of those between 18 and 34 receive cash from their parents annually, according to a study by the Institute of Social Research at the University of Michigan published in "On the Frontier of Adulthood" in 2005. Cash is only part of the picture; parents also make generous presents of clothes, cars and help with down payments.

"We have not seen any signs of it decreasing," said Bob Schoeni, an associate professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan, who is an author of the study. "Certainly over the last couple of decades it has been increasing."

I think I struggled less with my own financial situation when I was in graduate school. I was still a poor student, afterall, so wasn't the occasional bit of help from my parents okay? Those students days were supposed to be part of the struggle on the way to my dream career and being (relatively) poor was simply a part of that struggle.

Yet here I am in my dream career with an actual salary of my own, and my current financial reality is that I can’t afford to pay for an airline ticket or car rental right now. I chose a career based on my love of it, not based on the vast financial rewards I’d get doing it.

Most of the time that’s okay.

And the rest of the time? Well, at some point during that time, I'll be asking my parents if I can borrow their car.


Technorati tags: finances, money, parents, New York Times