From Money Magazine:

“If you were to invest the $2,200 a year that the average parent gives to a child and earn 8% annually over 20 years, you’d add $78,000 to your portfolio – money you might desperately need one day. Meanwhile, your openhandedness could be hurting, not helping, your kids by keeping them everlastingly immature and ill-equipped to deal with financial challenges or setbacks on their own.”

Maybe it’s time to cut the purse strings and set some guidelines for the amount of financial support you’re willing to give.

The financial support parents are giving to adult children has reached record levels, at least in the UK.

Last year, 39% of parents had given or loaned their adult children or granchildren significant sums of money. This year, the same survey — performed by UK insurance firm Scottish Widows — found that number had soared to 55%. The average amount parents said they gave their adult children or grandchildren was over 12,000 British pounds (over $24,000!).

How much of your retirement savings are you willing to hand off to your adult children living at home?

In one area of Sydney, Australia, 71% of 17-28-year-old adult children still live at home, prompting one television producer to create a documentary about the phenomenon.

The Money Across Generations SM study conducted for Ameriprise Financial by GfK Roper Public Affairs, makes clear that a large percentage of boomer parents have a difficult time cutting the financial strings.

The study shows that two-thirds of boomer parents are helping adult children pay off college loans or tuition, more than half are contributing to the purchase of a new car and one-third help their adult children deal with living costs ranging from a home mortgage to utility payments.

There is no doubt that financially supporting children is commonplace for boomer parents.

After all, some of the most notable expenses in life such as housing, cars and education, have become extremely expensive, and parents often want what’s best for their kids.

How much of a favor are you doing by providing a constant source of supplemental income to your children?

A warning to parents with adult kids still living at home: If your kids are older than 25, you might want to start pushing them out the door.

A new survey indicates the percentage of people who purchase their own homes while in their 30s increases with age of departure from the parental home until about age 25 – then it drops. After age 28, their chances of becoming homeowners are no better than children who fly the coop at 16.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, almost 50 per cent of 20-to-24-year-olds live at home with their parents, in what one author dubs the “Crowded Nest Syndrome.”

On Wednesday, Statistics Canada reported four million people aged 20 to 29 in Canada or 44 per cent lived with their parents, an almost three point jump from 2001.