The Best Investments I Ever Made

Let’s talk about employer loyalty. For much of the 20th century, Americans (by and large) followed a standard script: enter the workforce and work for a single company for decades, then throw a retirement party at 65 and cash in a pension – a reward for years of company loyalty. This pension provided retirement income; usually, a percentage of the yearly salary the employee earned while working. American Express established the first corporate pension plan in the US in 1875. By 1960, about half of the private sector employees had a pension. Of course, in 1960 the average life expectancy was 67, meaning that if you retired at 65 (standard at the time), the average pension only had to provide income for two years.

Since 1960 there have been many advances in modern medicine raising average life expectancy to 79. Suddenly, plans designed to cover a few years of post-retirement income were expected to cover retirees well into their 80s and 90s. Companies offering pensions began to realize that their retirement plans were becoming increasingly – sometimes prohibitively – expensive to fund. As pension expenses continued to rise towards the end of the 20th century, many companies were forced to design new systems to ensure their employees were financially secure come retirement.

The 401(k) plan hit the streets in 1980. The employer-sponsored retirement plan was rolled out as a replacement to traditional pensions and has since become the most common retirement savings mechanism in America. In essence, the 401(k) provides a tax-deferred way for employees to set aside wages for retirement. Employees elect to divert a certain percentage of their income each year to a 401(k) account. The diverted funds grow tax-free in that account until the employee retires.

In addition to providing the account, most companies offer a savings-match system. For instance, in a 3% match system, the company would match up to 3% of an employee’s elective contributions to their 401(k) account. The employer match provides a strong incentive for employees to start planning for retirement. If an employee doesn’t divert AT LEAST the match threshold into a 401(k) they miss out on the employer match – in other words, they lose out on free money from their employer.

Let’s talk about the benefits. Funds in a 401(k) account are able to grow tax-free. Because growth is not disturbed by capital gains taxes, accounts are able to grow faster than a standard individual account. Of course, there’s always a catch: money in employer-sponsored plans – like a 401(k) – cannot be withdrawn prior to age 59 ½ without paying penalties. Most plans offer options for the participants to increase their contribution rate on an annual basis, and small increases in contribution rate (even as small as 1%) year over year can make a huge difference by the time you retire.

Contributing to employer-sponsored retirement plans such as a 401(k) or 403(b) – the non-profit version of a 401(k) – is a vital part of preparing for retirement. The money is automatically deducted before your paycheck is cut, making it easy to budget and painlessly save for retirement at the same time.

Contributing to employer-sponsored retirement plans is an essential step towards retirement planning – but it is only the first step.

Please contact me at zach.swaffer@trilogyfs.com if you are interested in discussing the next steps you can take to ensure retirement security.

Whether we attribute it to a decline in marriage rates, poor job prospects, student loan debt, technological improvements, or generational shifts, times have certainly changed for young adults. One major topic which my clients bring up centers around their adult children moving back home. While this was not a common conversation ten years ago, I come across this topic more often nowadays. I’ve heard statistics such as “a third of young people, or 24 million of those aged 18 to 34, lived under their parents’ roof in 2015”, and look at it as my job as an advisor to provide advice on how to best navigate through this new landscape.(1)

Within this topic, a common question that I try to help my clients answer is this: Should I charge my adult children rent if they move back home? What I’ve found is that every situation is different, so what may work for one family, may not work for another. However, in this article, I hope to provide a framework to consider when trying to answer the question.

Setting Expectations

Depending on your own experiences and values as parents, as well as the specific circumstance of your adult child, you may insist that they live at home rent-free. For example, if your adult child is being responsible by saving a good share of his/her paycheck for a house down payment and you want to reward that responsible behavior by letting him/her live at home rent-free, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. For other parents, such an assistance for an adult child does not make sense, and no matter what the circumstances, would believe it only right to charge for rent if living at home.

No matter where you fall on this spectrum, it is important to set expectations with your adult child. For instance, if you decide that it is out of your comfort zone to charge your child rent for living at home, then what other mechanisms can you put into place to make sure he/she does not get too comfortable? In my experience, I’ve seen parents create timelines and goals, as well as make it crystal clear that the adult child must still pitch in, in other ways such as chores or errands. While it may be a tough conversation initially, imagine the alternative. What if your child gets too comfortable living at home and would rather stay at your “hotel” rather than spread their wings in the real world!

Whether rent is being paid or not, the adult child will have a particular reason as to why they want to or need to live back at home. If they are simply being lazy and are not making an effort towards adulthood, it is crucially important to provide clear expectations. As parents, you want to always help and support, but you never want to enable. Therefore, in this example of being lazy, a parent could set expectations of applying for X number of jobs per week, or something similar.

How Much To Charge For Rent

If you do decide that it makes sense to charge your adult child rent, how much should you charge? In my experience, parents usually charge well below market rates. As parents, you want to help your child out, but you also want to build up their personal finance awareness. How much you charge will also be highly correlated to what your daughter or son can afford, and could change over their time living with you. By having an open conversation and being clear about why you will be charging them, it should not be hard to fall on a number that makes sense for your family.

Alternatives

There are also other ways in which your adult child could pitch in that could be alternatives to paying rent. Such alternatives could be household chores or errands, cooking meals, or even helping parents with their own work. In addition, it could make more sense to have your adult child pay for other household expenses (instead of rent), such as internet, tv, or groceries.

Another alternative could be to make their stay at your home contingent on them depositing money into their own retirement account. This way, you are teaching them how to save and plan for the future.

Finally, if you want to help them grow personally, you can make their stay at your home contingent on community service or volunteering. This is a win-win as well!

Budgeting

This experience can also be thought of as a great teaching moment for your child. Specifically, parents in this situation are in a unique position to extol the virtues of budgeting and personal finance when their child needs it most. If the adult child in your household has to pay you rent and decide how to allocate their small-to-no income, they will quickly learn how to budget. As a parent, you may decide to get creative and instead of using the rent money for expenses, stash it (and maybe even match it) into a savings account for your child. They will be happily surprised with a small nest egg to leave home with!

Other Considerations

Other considerations that I make sure clients consider is their own budget and retirement goals. If your adult child is going to come back home and live there, you’ll want to make sure that adding another adult to the household does not negatively affect your own goals. Because you’d anticipate that household expenses will go up, you must make sure you budget for them, based on your expectations and timeline with your adult child. Again, by having an open conversation with your adult child, I am confident that a reasonable game plan can be implemented with success.

Having this conversation is not always an easy one, but I hope that the considerations above help provide better ways to think about it. If you’d like to discuss your situation further, call my office at (949) 221-8105 x 2128, or email me at michael.loo@lpl.com.

• https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2017/08/young-adults.html