Bank of Mom and Pop: Wherever they are in the world, parents like to offer their grown kids a helping hand.

The trend line in the U.S. is in one direction: Most of those of us who can afford it, like to help our grown kids financially--even as society takes a dim view of it. It's the same in Australia, where the name for financial help flowing from parents to grown kids is Sponge Society. But there's a very different attitude in South Korea. Here are findings from surveys in those countries that inform my point.   

In Australia, a recent survey found that 86 per cent of the parents of grown children provide financial help to their adult children. Loans and cash head the list, but rent, credit card bills, vacations, major appliances and down payments on a house are also part of the assistance roster.

Meanwhile, 40 percent of the adult children surveyed admitted to receiving financial support from their parents. One in five of them said they were embarrassed to be getting help from mom and dad.

In South Korea, there are cultural differences but the bottom line is similar. Six out of 10 parents in a recent survey said they are willing to help out their grown children should they face any financial difficulties. 

 

Did they actually do so? 80 percent of the willing had more than once paid living expenses for their adult children. About one-third paid their children’s credit card bills.

 

While 14 percent said they deemed it “an obvious duty” to give financial support to their children regardless of the child's age, only 8 percent thought their grown children should solve their own financial problems.

 

As to the grown children, 87 percent said they were willing to financially help their parents in their retirement years. Half of them said they believed it was their filial duty to do so.

 

Not sure how widepsread that attitude might be here.

 

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