Your adult child sits down and asks for $20,000. Maybe for a home down payment, a business problem, a divorce, a medical bill, or debt they can’t seem to escape. You have the money, and saying no to your own child can feel much harder than declining a request from anyone else. But lending money to adult children looks different at 70 than it did at 45 because you may have fewer working years (or none at all) to rebuild savings if the money never comes back. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau specifically notes that losing money can be especially damaging for older adults because they may not be able to earn back what they’ve lost. Before transferring $20,000, ask yourself these eight questions as though you were evaluating both a financial decision and a family decision… because you’re doing both.
