By Stacker
More than half of Americans aged 18-24 (51%) are still receiving financial support from parents or relatives
Nearly a third (31%) of young adults don’t feel prepared to manage their personal finances
Financial independence has long been treated as an early marker of adulthood. Get a job, get a place, and get a handle on your money. Yet, today, that transition is proving harder than it looks on paper. A new study from Intuit Credit Karma finds that despite many young Americans (aged 18-24) receiving financial help from family, more than half (51%) say they’re sacrificing too much just to get by. This underscores how economic realities and financial knowledge gaps are reshaping what financial independence looks like today.
How young adults are navigating money today
More than half of Americans aged 18-24 (51%) are still receiving financial support from parents or relatives, with living at home (49%) and receiving money when needed (46%) being the most common forms of support.
Even with family support, 61% of young adults say they still have to make significant financial compromises, whether that means struggling to cover unexpected expenses or making deliberate trade-offs to afford lifestyle experiences.
Nearly a third (31%) of young adults don’t feel prepared to manage their personal finances, with saving for long-term goals, investing, and understanding interest rates among the biggest knowledge gaps.
More than half (56%) take on gig work or side jobs to afford nonessential spending, reflecting the financial trade-offs young adults are making to sustain their lifestyles.
Why young Americans rely on their parents for financial support
Half of young adults (51%) are currently receiving some form of financial support from parents or relatives. The most common types of support include living at home with parents/relatives or in a family-owned property (49%), receiving money when needed (46%), having health insurance or medical expenses covered (38%), and having parents or relatives pay some or all of monthly bills like cell phone, gas, food, or utilities (36%).
It’s not a single safety net, but several layered on top of each other. The reasons behind the support vary, with some reflecting financial needs, while others come from supportive family dynamics. Four in 10 (40%) say they are unable to fully support themselves financially, while another 40% say their family wants them to focus on school or career development.
Support doesn’t mean stability
Even with family support in the picture, financial compromise doesn’t disappear. Among young adults who receive support, 61% say they still have to make significant compromises.
Some of this is driven by financial strain. Across young adults overall, 44% say their financial compromises have left them unprepared to cover an unexpected expense like a car repair or medical bill.
In other cases, it’s a deliberate trade-off: 40% of young adults who live at home with parents/relatives say they do so specifically to free up money for lifestyle experiences like dining out, travel, and attending festivals.
Nearly half (47%) of young adults say they are making financial compromises to enjoy life now over long-term financial security. In fact, 36% are actively avoiding or delaying paying down debt to fund lifestyle experiences, and roughly one-third (34%) are taking on credit card debt to do so. To fund nonessential spending without going further into the red, more than half (56%) say they take on gig work or side jobs to afford nonessential spending.
Learning the hard way
Financial vulnerability is shaped by the economy as well as gaps in knowledge and action. More than 4 in 10 (43%) say they’ve made financial decisions without fully understanding the implications, and nearly half (48%) say they know what they should be doing but don’t take action. Those gaps have a way of making themselves known eventually. Nearly half (47%) said their biggest financial wake-up call was realizing how expensive everyday essentials are.
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