Your Adult Child Makes $60,000 but You Still Pay Their Phone Bill — When Do You Stop?

Cellphone bills are among the expenses parents commonly continue covering for adult children. Before paying another year, consider whether the help has a purpose and whether your child can comfortably take over the bill. Face Stock/Shutterstock

Your son has a full-time job, earns $60,000 a year, and pays his own rent, but his phone is still sitting comfortably on the family plan you’ve paid since high school. Maybe it’s only $50 or $75 a month, so you’ve never considered paying adult children’s bills a serious financial problem. Yet cellphone bills are among the most common expenses parents continue covering for young adults, according to research on the increasingly blurry transition to financial independence. The question isn’t whether helping your child is inherently wrong, because plenty of parents can comfortably afford it and genuinely enjoy providing some support. The better question is whether the arrangement still serves a purpose or simply continues because nobody has ever decided when it should end.

Phone Bills Are One of the Last Expenses Parents Let Go