Budgeting

The majority of mentally healthy parents do not want their 35-year-old child unemployed, depressed, broke and living at home playing Minecraft in the basement at 1:00 PM on a Wednesday. Parents want their children to grow up finding happiness, purpose, inspiration and financial security. Unfortunately, many young adults are stuck in a rut and not thriving.

• 1 in 3 adults age 18-34 live in their parents' home

• 42% of young adults 18-34 say they are struggling to make ends meet.

• 40.5% of 16–24-year-olds were not in the labor force nor actively seeking work (as of July 2025)

I empathize with this generation. Housing is through the roof, rent is insane, technology has hacked our dopamine centers literally rewiring our brains, college costs are crazy, processed food is 90% of supermarket options, and doctors hand out prescriptions like candy, numbing our bodies and brains to reality. Numerous people (me included) believe the 1980's was the best time in history for children to grow up, for many reasons I will outline in a future post. Meaning we are 40 years removed from the best childhoods building forts, kids running free on rural roads, riding bikes, playing backyard sports, eating home cooked dinners as a family, limited homework, stay at home Moms, watching Wheel of Fortune, Boys Meets World, Married with Children, Full House and Family Matters. The list goes on and on. Now kids are bathed in Ritalin, schedules are overflowing, 46% obesity rates (young adults), pressures to attend the best college and ace SAT's, Add to Cart buttons on every screen, physical deterioration (only 3 in 10 highschoolers can perform 1 regular pushup) and screen time averaging 8.5 hours per day in teenagers.

We are headed in a downwards trajectory towards the reality of Wall-E.

Like all our posts, there is always HOPE AND OPTIONS.

When I was 23 years old, two years fresh out of college, I vividly remember feeling happy when my checkbook read .82 cents after paying all my bills. Then came the life changing eye opener for me. I applied for a mortgage of $70,000 (in 2007) and completed the net worth spreadsheet for the bank. My wife and I were worth negative $142,000 at age 23 and 21. Yikes. Student loans totaling $85,000, car loans, and credit card loans = broke. We were obviously denied the home loan.

Shortly after this sad experience I found one book that changed my life forever, one book I believe all kids 8th grade and up, plus adults should read annually until they are well on their way to financial freedom. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. This book opened my eyes to how the wealthy view and utilize money and how everyone else barely survives. This book goes against all convention thinking and will remap how you view finances and work forever. The Cash Flow Quadrant and Cash Flow board game are amazing resources as well.

Many of our friends are homeschoolers and recommended we read the Tuttle Twins series (family starter pack) with our 10-year-old. Like most 10-year-olds enticing him to read is a challenge. It was not with these books; we ripped through this book series within a few weeks and two years later he is still referencing stories and lessons from the books.

Teaching your children about how money works at a young age will give them a head start before entering into the real world. It's easy to get frustrated and lose hope as a young adult which is why as parents it is our job to keep our children hopeful, inspired and aggressive when it comes to chasing the American Dream. These resources, along with many others I'll write about in the weeks and months to come, can provide framework and the spark needed to succeed in a tough world.