When Kaylynn St. Peters turned 27, she got a job doing entertainment booking, but her excitement took a slight hit when her dad saw it as a sign it was time for her to start paying her own phone bill.
“I was kind of riding that high until they kicked me off,” St. Peters said.
While some may believe your late 20’s is a tardy start to taking on such a task, on average, people start paying for their own cell line at age 27, a responsibility 76% of Americans consider one of the ultimate signs of adulthood, according to a new AT&T survey. Still, 32% of people don’t start paying their own cell phone bill until they are 30 or older and 18% don’t take it on until after they’ve turned 40.
When St. Peters went to get her own plan, she was quoted around $70 a month from T-Mobile and Verizon. To her, that was “kind of crazy” so she joined her brother-in-law’s plan instead and now sends him about $40 a month through Venmo.
Some 46% of people do something similar, according to the survey. Erin Scarborough, AT&T’s President of Broadband and Connectivity Initiatives said that’s a reason why the company introduced SplitPay, which allows multiple people to pay their portion of a wireless bill without needing to use a third-party payment method.
Scarborough said the amount of people delaying paying their own bill is “absolutely growing” and is just one part of young people’s rising financial reliance on their parents well into their adult years.
“I think that has definitely been going up year over year over year,” Scarborough said. “That has become prevalent in multiple other places, not just cell phone bills … That was not the case 20 years ago.”
More: What to prioritize when making a budget? Tips on creating and sticking to one
Mother and daughter doing finances together at home. T
Many of those polled by AT&T think she’s right. Some 70% of survey respondents said they believe most Americans have access to at least one subscription service account they don’t pay for – something Netflix appears to be addressing with its crackdown on password sharing.
Between inflation fears and rising costs, times are tough. For many Americans, turning to the bank of mom and dad is a solution.
Half of parents with adult children regularly send them money or help them financially, a savings.com survey found earlier this year.
The average amount these parents give reached a three-year high of $1,474 per month, up 6% from last year, according to the survey.
Adult members of Gen Z, or those between the ages of 18 and 28, receive more from their parents than Millennials, or those between 29 and 44.
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Of those who get money from their parents, the average amount Gen Z receives in 2025 is $1,813 per month while the average amount for Millennials is $863.
Much of that money comes with strings attached. The survey found 77% of parents put conditions on their financial support.
Groceries, cell phone bills, and rent or mortgage payments top the list of costs parents help their adult children cover in 2025.
Each month, 83% of supportive parents give their kids an average of $220 to help afford groceries, 65% pay an average of $63 for their child’s cell phone, and 63% cover an average of $653 of their kids’ rent or mortgage, according to the savings.com survey.
At 54%, most parents offering support also help their adult children pay for health insurance and healthcare.
The most costly monthly expense for 45% of parents supporting adult children is tuition or other school-related expenses, with parents spending an average of $1,198 per month.
A minority of supportive parents also help their adult children invest, cover car payments, vacations, and student loan or credit card payments.
Mother and daughter at home reconciling bank statements.
That support can cost parents more than some of their paychecks. Close to half of survey respondents said they had sacrificed their financial security to help their grown kids and working parents who support their adult children reported they give them more than double the amount they contribute to their retirement accounts.
This can create tension. Jack Howard, head of money wellness at Ally Financial, said it’s something parents bring up in the financial wellness and education workshops she leads.
Howard gave the example of one mom who joined the workshop with her son and said she had a problem with the fact that she was still paying his phone bill. Howard said the son didn’t know his mom had an issue with it and immediately offered to start covering it himself.
To avoid an uncomfortable parent-child relationship, Howard suggests having financial conversations early and often, though she acknowledged that can be difficult for parents who grew up in families that avoided the subject.
“I’m hearing that in a lot of our classes. ‘We didn’t talk about money. It was taboo. It was seen as disrespectful.’ But now with social media, when you think of Gen Z, there’s so much access to information and transparency that they expect that from (their parents),” Howard said.
Reach Rachel Barber at rbarber@usatoday.com and follow her on X @rachelbarber_
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How many adults still get money from their parents in 2025
