personal finance

According to New York Life's latest Wealth Watch survey, almost 9 in 10 (89%) parents feel confident in their ability to financially provide for their children, despite ongoing economic pressures. Similarly, more than 8-in-10 (84%) parents feel confident their children will be financially secure, and 60% of parents say their children will be better off than they are in the future.

But what about inflation and rising costs? Amid an optimistic outlook, the survey found that 73% of parents are having trouble keeping up with current expenses. The top financial difficulties parents reported were paying bills in full (30%), paying bills on time (29%), and building savings (28%).

Parents in the Sandwich Generation (caring for children and aging relatives) are slightly less confident about their ability to provide financially for their aging relative (72%) in comparison to their children (86%).

Parents are building financial resiliency:

• Among parents who say their childcare and/or caregiving costs have increased, they are offsetting those increased costs by cutting back on other expenses (34%), working from home/hybrid model of work (23%), and having family members/friends help provide care (22%).
•  59% of parents say their financial strategy has changed due to life events in the past year, compared to 41% of non-parents. Among those who have changed their financial strategy, parents are investing more (17%), saving more (38%), and building a cash reserve (15%).
• Parents are also leveraging financial solutions on behalf of their children. In fact, 70% of parents report having opened financial products for their children with savings accounts (41%) and checking accounts (28%) being the most popular.

Go deeper: To learn more about how families are navigating their personal finances, view the full Wealth Watch report here.

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