While adult children say they recognize the need to discuss inheritance and retirement planning issues, roughly half of them don’t feel they’ve done a very good job talking with their parents about these issues, according to a intra-generational study by Fidelity Investments.
But they do have a much more favorable view of their parents’ handling of money than what parents think of their children’s financial acumen, according to a follow-up study.
Nearly half of adult children surveyed by Fidelity (47%) feel their parents actually haven’t made any mistakes financially. Only one-quarter (24%) of adult children feel their folks didn’t save for retirement soon enough and even fewer (22%) say mom and dad saved money in the wrong type of accounts.
Parents, on the other hand, were more than happy to point out the errors their children had made, including racking up credit card debt (42%), followed by not saving for retirement early enough (38%) and not building a large enough emergency fund (36%).
The parents surveyed — to qualify for the study, they had to be at least 55 years of age, have children over 30 years of age, and have at least $100,000 in investable assets — listed saving for retirement (38%) or for a grandchild’s education (28%) as their top priorities.
What’s more, nearly a third (30%) say they have no financial issues.
Does this sound like your family? Do you think your parents have looked after things appropriately? Would they say the same about you?
