Achieving adult milestones takes a lot longer than in previous years because of mroe difficult economic times.designer491/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
Happy Friday. This week, I wrote about life insurance strategies for parents who have children later in life. It’s part of an ongoing series of articles I’m writing about the current realities of delayed parenthood.
Last month, the U.S. Census Bureau published a working paper about achieving conventional adult milestones. The study, called “Changes in Milestones of Adulthood,” examined five markers of adulthood and how they shifted for U.S. young adults in 2005 versus 2023.
The milestones in question: completing education, moving out of the parental home to live independently, obtaining full-time employment, marriage and children.
The report’s findings aren’t surprising. In a nutshell, all five milestones are taking young adults much longer for a whole host of reasons – the increased price of post-secondary education and housing, stagnant incomes, and high unemployment among those aged 18 to 34, to start.
“Young adults today prioritize economic security over starting a family, reflecting the rising burden of housing, food, gas and other costs,” the report’s authors wrote.
Those stumbling blocks affect financial stability, necessary for marriage, let alone children. And if financial stability takes longer, the ultimate result for people is foregoing or delaying those milestones.
I gave birth to my youngest child at 40, by chance. But with today’s financial hurdles, more will delay parenthood by economic choice.
Meanwhile, some financial industry marketing materials seem trapped in promoting conventional milestone timelines instead of a new reality.
Here’s a good example. When he started in the insurance business, Hervin Pesa (now a certified financial planner at Aware Financial in Calgary) says he was taught to focus strictly on insurance wealth preservation strategies for people in their 50s. But many of his clients that age were still in the accumulation phase of retirement savings.
“There is a significant percentage of clients who feel they are behind when they compare themselves,” he says. “They’ve reached milestones later, so they feel like they are playing catch-up.”
Today, Mr. Pesa says he helps clients filter what truly matters to them. Not everyone wants a partner, or children, or to buy a home, for example, and don’t consider those things milestones at all.
“But it’s also okay to want something that common milestones or society may deem too late for you,” he says. “And often, they can with some tradeoffs.”
Must reads
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Succession blind spots: The family business may be a driver of wealth for many Canadians. Too often, their plans for future growth have a blind spot: succession. A 2023 study from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business found that only one in 10 business owners has a formal succession plan in place. Joel Schlesinger explains.
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Best RESP selection: Should a parent open an individual or family RESP? The choice may sound straightforward, but various rules, scenarios, and family dynamics should be considered to help contributors find the best plan for their specific situation. Helen Burnett-Nichols reports.
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