Amid cost of living stress, many parents are supporting children well into adulthood

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 hide caption

Mabel Lago and her husband are retired and in their 70's. 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.