If you are middle-aged, expect a tug of love over your finances between your children and your parents.
As people start to live longer thanks to better living standards and medical advances, those in their 40s and 50s are a sandwich generation that has not been seen in such numbers before.
It’s likely that as you cruise through midlife, you will have children in their early 20s and parents in their late 50s or early 60s who are making a call on your financial support.
Recent research by financial firm SunLife shows that 10% of adult children have concerns about their parents blowing their inheritances, while 17% of those aged between 55 and 65 are asking for money as well.
Eking out the cash
The problem does not stop there – 20% of adult children aged under 35 years old are helping their parents out financially, while 14% of 55 to 65 year olds are funding adult children who are out of work.
Around 80% of parents and children admit this is a worry and that they are struggling to make ends meet while keeping everyone happy.
Ian Atkinson, head of brand at SunLife, said: “We’re seeing an older generation with high home ownership spending their savings, investments and income on enjoying their life, knowing they can still leave their home as a legacy.
“It’s not really fair to accuse them of spending their kid’s inheritance. it’s their money in the first place, and perhaps it’s only right that, when they’re reaching an age of more free time and fewer responsibilities, they’re using that money to fulfil some lifelong ambitions.”
Waiting longer to inherit
TV personality and author Joan Bakewell, 83, who has a fortune of around £5million, has announced she would be leaving her kids nothing, saying ‘I don’t mind admitting that as I’ve grown older I’ve grown fond of posh restaurants, nice clothes, good handbags. I feel I’ve earned the right to indulge myself.’”
Research also shows that children are having to wait longer for their inheritances, which means they are pressing their parents harder and longer for financial help.
Life expectancy is 79 years old for men and 83 for women.
In 2000, the average age to inherit was 53, but that has moved to 60 now.
“Many of us our leaving our financial futures uncertain by assuming we will benefit from some sort of financial support from our families rather than making financial plans of our own,” said Atkinson.