Adult children draining boomer finances: survey

Baby boomers with adult children at home are more financially vulnerable than their ‘empty nester’ counterparts, according to research by Nielsen Media Research for Wizard Home Loans.

The survey found these boomers may also be compromising their retirement incomes because most were not asking their adult children to cover their own living costs.

“They’re working longer hours than the empty nesters, have less disposable income, are changing or delaying their retirement, and are less financially able to invest in property as a retirement security,” said Wizard chairman Mark Bouris.

“More than half of those surveyed with children at home are relying on downsizing to partly fund their retirement yet, for many, those plans are still a while off,” he said.

The scale of the problem is evident in its finding that 500,000 Australian aged over 55 had adult children living with them in the year to March, an increase of 50,000 over the past two years.

Half of the survey respondents did not charge board, while 41 per cent of the remaining 39 per cent of those parents who did ask for board charged less than $100 a week.

Eleven per cent of respondents said they expected their children to perform domestic chores like cooking and cleaning in return for accommodation.