personal finance

Parents of Millennials Likely Help Pay For These 6 Things

parents of millennials

The parents of millennials help their adult children pay for many different things. They foot the bill for everything from rent to vacations. In most cases, parents of millennials just offer some support. However, sometimes they pay the full cost of their adult children’s lives. Here are the six most common things that parents of millennials help pay for, according to a CNBC report.

1. Cell Phone

It’s no surprise that parents of millennials often help them pay their phone bills. Most likely, this is due to the ease, availability, and affordability of family cell phone plans. Kids are often already on the family plan when they enter adulthood, leave for college, or move out of the house. Parents may find it easy enough just to keep the kids on that plan. They’re used to paying that bill so it doesn’t feel like an added expense.

2. Rent/ Mortgage

13% of millennials report that their parents pay the full cost of their rent or mortgage bill each month. Many other parents help pay a portion of that housing cost. This is a big chunk of money. It’s certainly helpful to the adult kids not to have to pay the bill themselves. However, it can put a big strain on their parents.

3. Groceries

A large percentage of these parents pay for their adult children’s food including all of their groceries. Some of these kids might still live at home, in which case the parents are used to paying for all of the household food. In other instances, parents might pick up some groceries for their kids whenever they do their own shopping. But in other cases millennials buy their groceries on credit cards and their parents pay that bill when it arrives.

4. Automobile Costs

Millennials often get help from their parents when it comes to their cars. Parents might pay for some or all of the car loan. Alternatively, they may help out with car repairs when their kids can’t cover those emergency costs. Sometimes parents buy themselves a new car and pass the old one on to their adult children.

5. Vacations

It might be surprising that parents help their adult children pay for travel, but it’s a very common practice. In fact, it’s the third most common expense that parents pay a portion of behind groceries and the cell phone bill. In many cases, parents of millennials pay their vacation costs in order to spend time together as a family. Adult kids that have moved away may not be able to afford to travel back home without their parents’ help. The family might vacation together elsewhere each year. Whatever the reason, when millennials can’t afford a trip, they are generally comfortable asking their parents for financial help.

6. School and Student Loans

Many parents of millennials consider it their responsibility to pay for some or all of their children’s education. They pay the costs of tuition. They also help pay for books and other necessary supplies. Additionally, parents of millennials who have already graduated often help them pay back their student loans.

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7 Best Retirement Podcasts to Start Tuning in to Today

podcast

If you aren’t listening to personal finance podcasts then you’re missing out on some great money education. If you’re interested in early retirement, retiring rich, or simply making the most of your retirement years, then you should be listening to retirement podcasts. Here is a list of seven of the best retirement podcasts on the air today.

1. Personal Profitability

This is a diverse money podcast that covers a variety of topics, several of which relate to retirement. For example, you’ll find a lot of information here about wealth-building, which is key to having a good retirement experience. There are quite a few FIRE episodes. For example, check out 3 Steps to Get Started on Your FIRE Plan. Plus, there are episodes specific to retirement planning. For example, listen to Retirement Planning with Christine Russell. Recent episodes are about half an hour long; older archives are a bit longer.

2. Financial Freedom

If you want to retire early then this is one of the best retirement podcasts for you. Grant Sabatier, author of Financial Freedom and creator of Millennial Money, obtained his own financial freedom by the age of 3o. He shares his own tips and interviews other people about how to achieve the same goal. There are many different approaches to retirement. For example, you can take mini-retirements over time to avoid burnout, which you can learn more about from this episode.

3. Listen Money Matters

This is another of the best retirement podcasts for people focused on retiring early. It’s all about how to earn as much money as possible right now so that you can retire and enjoy your later years work-free. In addition to all of the individual episodes, they’ve curated some of the best information for you into organized playlists. For example, check out Lessons from Self-Made Millionaires or Get Your Cashflow On with real estate investing.

4. Retirement Answer Man

What better place to get your retirement questions answered than from the Retirement Answer Man? With nearly 300 episodes to date, this podcast by Roger Whitney is one of the best retirement podcasts you’ll ever come across. It answers not only basic questions but also really in-depth aspects of retirement. For example, listen to The Pros and Cons of Variable Annuities for retirement. Alternatively, learn about how your personality plays into retirement planning.

5. Rock Your Retirement

The best retirement podcasts aren’t just about how to handle your finances. Instead, they’re also about how to live your best life after your retire. That’s what Rock Your Retirement is all about. Recent episodes include a series on dealing with pain as you age and how to handle the challenges of living in a multi-generational household.

6. NewRetirement

This podcast features interviews with an intriguing array of professional people who share their tips and tricks for maximizing both money and happiness upon retirement. Recent episodes have included interviews with investment entrepreneur Brian Bollinger, personal finance journalist Cameron Huddleston, and former Dwell Magazine CEO Michela Abrams.

7. Retirepreneur

More and more people are retiring from full-time work only to switch over to past-time passion projects that still earn them an income. It’s a great way to embrace retirement without getting bored. This podcast is all about how to make that happen. Specifically it’s about doing part-time consulting work post-retirement. For example, listen to Senior Start-Ups, Side Hustles, & Chat with Dawn Starks.

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Check the New IRS Tax Withholding Estimator Now So You Aren’t In Trouble Come April 2020

tax withholding

Tax time is a funny time of year. Some people are really excited when April rolls around. That’s because they get a lot of tax withholding money taken out of their paychecks throughout the year. Therefore, after filing their taxes, they get a nice big refund.

On the other hand, if you’re the type who tends to owe money, then tax time is no fun at all. One of the best ways to avoid the dread of this season is to act in advance. If you make sure that you’re withholding enough from your paycheck throughout the year, then you don’t have to stress about tax time in April.

The IRS has released a new tool that can help.

New IRS Tax Withholding Estimator

The IRS has always offered a tax withholding calculator. However, there were a lot of changes to taxes last year. Therefore, they felt that it was an important time to update. They’ve released a new tax withholding estimator that takes into account all of the latest tax rules.

You can use the tool to enter some basic information about your paycheck and current tax withholdings. Before using the tool, you should gather your recent pay stubs and last year’s tax forms. Then you can easily use this information to enter the required details into the withholding estimator.

The tool will also ask you a few basic questions that affect how much you’ll pay in taxes. For example, it will ask how many dependent children you have. The more accurately you answer all of the questions, the better result you’ll get from the estimator.

This tool will tell you how much money you should have withheld from each paycheck. If you follow the advice, then you shouldn’t owe any money come April 2020.

How to Use Information from the Tax Withholding Estimator

The Tax Withholding Estimator will give you a number. That number is the amount that you should have withheld from your taxes. It’s a good guess that should leave you owing nothing come tax time.

You can use this information to your advantage in a few different ways. For example, let’s say that the tool estimates you should have $500 withheld from each paycheck. If you withhold that amount, then you should break even come tax time. Now you can look at how much you’re currently getting withheld and make some choices.

Let’s say that you’re currently getting exactly $500 withheld. You could make the choice to keep things exactly as they are. Alternatively, you could make the choice to increase that slightly. This would cover any unexpected costs that might arise to help guarantee that you don’t owe taxes in April. Plus it might mean that you get some refund money back come tax time.

On the other hand, let’s say that your tax withholding is currently $1000. After the tax laws changed, people didn’t need to pay as much. However, if your taxes were already set up with your employer, perhaps nothing changed. Therefore, you’re paying in much more than you need to. You could keep things as they are and get all of that money back come tax time. On the other hand, you could safely reduce your tax withholding, which would give you more money in each paycheck now.

How will you use the new Tax Withholding Estimator to help you adjust your paycheck?

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