Wealth and Honor

Helping Families Navigate the Financial Challenges of Age Transitions

Tag: sandwich generation

I am so Mad at My Mother! Finding the Funny in Family Caregiving

June 17, 2025 /

 

So begins Steve Martin’s monologue in his 1977 comedy album, “Let’s Get Small.” He continues:

I don’t know…she’s 102 years old. She called me up the other day and wanted to borrow ten dollars FOR SOME FOOD! I said, ‘Hey, I work for a living!’ So I worked out a deal with her and had her carry my barbells up to the attic."

Steve Martin

My friends and I looooved Steve Martin humor, and we listened to this monologue over and over. Now, nearly fifty years later, it’s still funny—but also a not-so-subtle reminder: I’m on deck.

To not be a burden on my children must be one of the top five goals of every client over the age of 65 that I have ever met with over my 40 years of personal financial planning. For a long time, I thought this meant to not be a financial or emotional burden, but in recent years I’ve come to realize that what it really means is that they don’t want to lose independence. Who does? I certainly don’t.

Planning for advanced age and dependence is even more difficult than planning for death. At least death is final—but dependency can last for years.

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Yes Virginia…This is a Holiday Inn

September 4, 2019 /

According to a study released by the U.S. Census Bureau, more Millennials are living with their parents more than in any other living arrangement, with one in three 18-34-year-olds living at home. Add to this the fact that according to The National Alliance for Caregiving, about 34.2 million Americans have provided unpaid care to an adult age 50 or older in the last 12 months, and you have the classic description of the sandwich generation.

Among the findings from the Census Bureau study:

  • In the 1970s, 8 in 10 people married by the time they turned 30. Today, not until the age of 45 have 8 in 10 people married.
  • In 2005, the majority of young adults lived independently in their own household, which was the predominant living arrangement in 35 states. A decade later, by 2015, the number of states where the majority of young people lived independently fell to just six.
  • More young men are falling to the bottom of the income ladder. In 1975, only 25 percent of men, aged 25 to 34, had incomes of less than $30,000 per year. By 2016, that share rose to 41 percent of young men. (Incomes for both years are in 2015 dollars.)
  • Between 1975 and 2016, the share of young women who were homemakers fell from 43 percent to 14 percent of all women aged 25 to 34.

And the one that really sticks out to me…

Of young people living in their parents’ home, 1 in 4 are idle, that is they neither go to school nor work. This figure represents about 2.2 million 25- to 34-year-olds. 

Reminds me of this classic commercial.

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