I’ve seen clip of that financial advice show “The Ramsey show” on YouTube and the things that old man say are shocking to me. According to him I shouldn’t give a single cent to my parents… That’s so against my culture. I would be seen as downright evil if I do that.
Hell I’m unemployed for like a year by now and still sent 200 euro a few months ago to my father that still lives in my home country that I haven’t seen in 17 years.
Are you really Americans like that? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t see it as cold hearted but I see it as unnatural, and I’M a “socialess” cold person in essence.
It depends. My mom wanted to break even when she died. Not leave us money, and not cost us money, but did rely on my sister to help out, not financially much but with some care. I sent maybe $500 total towards that, so pretty close to what she wanted.
Husband’s parents are loaded, but if his mom needed care I’d help because she has been so nice to me, I was t close with my mom but have been lucky in mothers in law. I don’t expect anything from them, think their plan is to skip us and leave some to the grandkids, but in any case they are rich-ish and do not expect anything in the way of financial help.
I took time off to raise my kids, so don’t expect to retire but no, I would hope to not need financial help and don’t expect it from them. It’s a win if they don’t need any financial help from me!
In your case, if your parents sacrificed their future income to raise you, I understand why you feel you owe them, but I don’t really think that way, you don’t accrue debt for being raised. It’s more like whoever ends up best off helps the others, so my most successful daughter wants to be “the rich uncle” who can do that, she helps out her sisters, and my hope is like my mom’s - to not burden them and to die with close to nothing.