Nowadays an Empty Nest Is Hard to Come By

BusinessWeek

When you were your children's age, youprobably were living on your own—youmay have even been married or engagedto be married. But many parents are stillcooking the meals and doing the laundryof their twenty-something-year-old child,who graduated from college years ago, yetstill lives at home. An article in refers to this 21-to 35-year-old collegegraduate group as Generation Broke.They conducted a recent survey, whichfound that this cohort owes an average of$30,000 in student loans. The three milliongraduates in the class of 2006 in particularcarry more than $40 billion in studentloans—and interest rates just jumped twopercentage points. While it may be thegraduates who are in debt, many of themfeel that their parents should take some ofthe blame. As much as 44% of the graduatessurveyed gave their parents orguardians a "D" or "F" in their financialpreparations for college. Advisors say planningahead for college is key for parents—and they may want to consider helpingtheir children dig out of debt.