American parents often worry about money and upward mobility for their children. A recent New York Times survey suggests that nowadays American parents spend more time, effort, and money raising their kids. In recent times Merrill Lynch reports that the average cost of raising a child to 18 years old tops $230,000. The same report also suggests that 79% of American parents continue to provide financial support to their adult children. Costs for food, school, transportation, entertainment, technology, and other activities typically increase as children grow older. Also, 69% of parents admit to feeling pressure and even anxiety to give their children what their peers have.

There is an element of competition, peer pressure, or keeping up with the Joneses that entices parents to spend more money on their children. Economic prosperity motivates these parents to help ensure that their children are financially better off than the previous generations. A recent empirical study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis demonstrates that millennials face unique financial struggles. The financial struggles include higher average unemployment rates, stagnant wages, less affordable residential properties, and student debt imbalances. Millennials are now at risk of becoming a unique lost generation that collectively accumulates less wealth during their lifetime.