The National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) has collected and released data on the financial well-being of U.S. adults living in multigenerational households — generally defined as individuals who live with and/or support other adults, children, parents, grandparents etc.
Respondents say they spend an average of $500 a month in support of other adults in their life, including adult children, and 73% report their caregiving or financial responsibilities to others in their household have required them to make unexpected financial changes.
Other findings of the NEFE data include:
- Respondents who said they have a quality of life that is “worse than expected” totaled 46%. However, for respondents who received financial education in high school and found it useful, 67% found their quality of financial life to be “better than expected.”
- 49% support adult children or grandchildren. Of that group, the most common form of financial support is by providing a place to live (47%) and help with living expenses (44%).
- 73% report their caregiving or financial responsibilities to others have required them to do things they otherwise would not do, such as taking out credit card debt (20%) or other personal debt (16%), delaying a life event (19%), making an unplanned withdrawal from a retirement fund (13%) or delaying retirement (11% among those aged 50-64 years old).
- 46% rate their quality of life as “worse than expected.”
- 11% have helped raise children that were not their own.
- 14% have returned to work or taken an additional job.
“Multigenerational households, because of their make-up and unique circumstances, often encounter many of the same financial issues as nuclear or single-parent families, but instead of encountering these issues progressively, they are more likely to face them concurrently. This adds a level of complexity for how to properly prepare for the financial present and future,” says Billy Hensley, Ph.D., president and CEO of NEFE. “This data identifies many of the different issues and decisions that must be made within multigenerational households. Reassuringly, the data indicates that financial education, while not a single solution, is an aid to those who received it in high school.”
