A Reddit user recently posed a painful question: “Anyone else’s parents blow all their money?” The post drew a large number of replies from people who watched their families squander fortunes built by their grandparents. Now, many of them believe parental support isn’t just helpful in today’s economy, it’s nearly essential.
Wealth Built, Then Lost
The original poster explained on the r/poor subreddit how their parents had grown up wealthy. They were gifted cars at 16, received a large home as a wedding gift, and inherited rental properties that still generate income today. But by the time the youngest child reached high school, “we were pretty much already scraping by.”
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“Through bad financial decisions and economic crises, all that wealth had evaporated,” they wrote. Today, despite graduating college and working more than five years, they live paycheck to paycheck while their parents, who never paid rent or mortgage in their lives, don’t understand why. “They haven’t paid a single day of rent or mortgage in their lifetime.”
Others shared eerily similar experiences.
“My mom sold the 2.5 acres with 2 paid off mobile homes on the property and spent 50k of the 80k on scratch off lottery tickets,” one person said. Another watched their mom blow a seven-figure bankruptcy settlement, leaving them to pick up the pieces.
One Redditor commented, “There wasn’t much to begin with, but three wives later and a complete mid-50s meltdown wiped it all out for my dad.”
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Planning Didn’t Always Help
Even when adult children tried to plan ahead, it didn’t always work out. One person who moved in to care for aging parents found themselves homeless when a reverse mortgage and failed estate planning turned their inherited home into a foreclosure nightmare.
“I wasn’t even on their bank accounts as a beneficiary,” they said. “Now I’m living in a trailer with almost no money as a 42-year-old who hasn’t been working.”
The Emotional Toll Of Disappearing Wealth
Many commenters described feeling embarrassment and frustration, especially when others assumed they came from money. “Everyone that sees my last name thinks I come from wealth. If they only knew,” the original poster wrote.
Another said their partner’s family had once been “generationally wealthy as f***,” with Ivy League ties and vacation homes. “I don't understand how they just pissed that money away and invested in absolutely nothing of value.”
One person summed it up like this: “Most people who don't earn wealth aren't equipped to maintain wealth. Rags to rags in three generations.”
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Parental Help Is Now the Difference-Maker
Redditors repeatedly echoed the same idea: that modern wealth-building almost requires financial support from parents. As the original poster put it, “Having help from your parents is almost mandatory if you want to create any wealth.”
Some people in the thread said their parents were frugal and helped them when they could—and it made all the difference. Others expressed bitterness that their parents refused to help or simply couldn’t.
“I believe my parents owe me 3 cars and 10 acres,” one person wrote. “They spent my insurance settlement and sold my inheritance when I was little.”
And even those who managed to get ahead often did so because they rejected their parents’ habits. “I learned from my parents what not to do with your money,” one person said.
Whether through mismanagement, neglect, or lack of planning, the shared conclusion was that generational wealth is fragile. And without financial support from parents today, many feel they're falling behind through no fault of their own.
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