There was an article in the AP about people losing jobs and money and their parents bailing them out. They specifically talking about 40-50 year old kids. What do you think about this? These parents are putting their retirements in jeopardy for kids that are old enough to fend for themselves. Now I am not saying that because money is more important than people but it will create a bigger financial problem. Will the kids they use their retirements to help be able to help them when they retire in just a few years? I don’t think they could even if they wanted to. If you take that money and invest it into someone’s life I don’t think they could turn it around to make enough money or stability to support their parents.

Dr. Helen brought up a really good point on this issue also.

If their kids are self-centered enough to take their parent’s retirement from them, will they really help the parent later on down the road or will they be more like this woman, who wrote to the Huffington Post complaining that her mom was a pain in the ass?

She went on to mention a book, Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream. I went over and read a really interesting write up on it. It just proves that it is the determination to support yourself that counts regardless if it is the standard you dreamed of. I think it is our belief that we deserve everything regardless of anything else that is screwing up our economy and might screw up the older generation’s retirement. Hopefully we will do a better job teaching our kids about money, self-reliance and living humbly (relative to our income) than has been done with the previous generations.

(HT: Dr. Helen)