Purse Strings Aren't Quite Snipped for Gen X, Millennials

The older members of Gen X may be hovering around 60, but a significant chunk are still on the family payroll. New survey data from Northwestern Mutual finds that a third of Gen Xers and more than half of millennials say they remain financially reliant on their parents; across all ages, 42% of adults report some dependence, per USA Today. That includes 72% of Gen Z. The dynamic comes as boomers hold roughly half of US household wealth—about $90 trillion—and as an estimated $124 trillion is expected to be passed down from older generations to younger ones by 2048, a shift often dubbed the "Great Wealth Transfer."

That transfer, however, is neither guaranteed nor imminent. Americans are living longer and spending more on long-term care, and most people who do inherit don't see that money until their late 50s or early 60s—and fewer than 40% inherit at all, per a past analysis by the Washington Post. Meanwhile, younger adults are contending with steeper obstacles: higher mortgage balances, larger student loans, and rising living costs. Pew Research reports that 44% of young adults had received help from parents in the past year, most commonly for groceries, utilities, and phone bills. More than a third of those parents say the support hurts their own finances, even as close to the same number worry their kids won't become fully independent.