When your adult child calls to say they’ve lost their job, the instinct to help can be immediate. You may have savings, a paid-off house, or a retirement account that looks large enough to absorb a few months of assistance, especially when your child is facing rent, groceries, insurance, and other bills without a paycheck. But helping adult children financially becomes much more complicated after retirement because retirees generally don’t have decades of future wages available to replenish money they give away. A $5,000 emergency may be manageable, while $2,000 every month for an undefined period can quietly become $24,000 a year. Before promising financial support, consider whether one of these seemingly helpful choices could jeopardize your own retirement security.
