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When I read this question, I laughed. It assumes many things. It assumes that all children need money from their parents. It assumes we are all incapable of taking care of ourselves and implies that we will be hitting up Mom & Dad in perpetuity. How insulting.

But if we must, assume that I am a parent. And while we're at it, let's assume I enjoy my children enough to want to help them out. Why would I let them struggle and flounder until my death? It isn't as though the moment I expire they will suddenly flourish with the common sense I always tried to give them. They won't instantly understand money and how to handle it properly. The fact is, I should have been teaching them about money all of this time. I should not wait to get to my golden years to start wondering whether to throw a few dollars at them while I'm still kicking. I should not hope that after I breath my last they will blink as if walking out of a dark movie theater into glaring daylight and say, "Oh! So THAT'S it!"

The time to aid your children financially is when they are still children. As in minority age. As in not yet driving. As in not yet in the position to obtain credit without a co-signer. Don't wait until you move into the active lifestyle community to sit them down and say, "Gee, kids, what can we do to help?"

Maybe if more parents followed this method fewer children would be in need of their latter day assistance.

If life happens, though, as it tends to do, and junior needs a little life preserver, don't you suppose it would be wise to throw him one now, while your arms still work? If you are there to set a good example and give some good advice, there's at least a chance that junior might hear it and follow it.

Okay, okay. I realize the argument could be made that if you've got a child that doesn't know anything about money except that he's never got any, you might be able to set up some sort of structured payout system or a fancy trust that will make the money good and steady and long lasting. But there's something to be said about the here and now. Here, we're in a housing crisis. Would you rather help junior now, or would you rather he lose his house and move back in with you until you die and those nice steady payments start up? Yeah. Me, too.

Learn more about this author, Joanna S Kelley.
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