It's time for HK parents to show their offspring some tough love

A recent survey by an insurance giant revealed that seven out of every 10 Hong Kong parents would be willing to chip in should their children wish to buy a home. Also, 53 percent of the parents said they were willing to extend the mortgage on their existing home to finance their children's purchase.

While it is common knowledge that parenting in Hong Kong is rather involved and could extend well into the middle age of offspring, it is more than disconcerting that elderly parents are likely draining their own retirement funds to give their adult children a property leg-up. In fact, half of all respondents believed that helping their adult children buy a home was more important than their own pension plans.

But, sadly, the survey reveals that most adult children, who are beneficiaries of much parental benevolence, cannot afford to support their parents in retirement.

In fact, 71 percent of younger respondents admitted they had difficulty in making ends meet. So much so, the same survey showed that half of Hong Kong parents financially helped adult children, even those with full-time jobs.

This trend is not new and very much present in other economies, seen to be peaking after the 2008 financial crisis. In fact, according to a newspaper report, a Sainsbury's Bank survey last year suggested United Kingdom parents were taking out almost 2 million pound ($2.63 million) in yearly loans to fund their children's spending habits, with parents supporting children until the age of 29.

The situation is similar in the United States. A media report citing Bank of America Merrill Lynch research reveals that 60 percent of parents would keep working longer to support adult children.

In the context of Hong Kong, alarm bells should be ringing as, according to the Census and Statistics Department's by-census last year, Hong Kong's proportion of population aged 65 or older increased from 12 percent in 2006 to a new high of 16 percent. In 1986, the figure was just 8 percent.

With a surging gray population and in the absence of a universal pension scheme, benevolent parents stand to lose a lot. Those who have extended mortgages to help their children become homeowners even risk becoming homeless themselves should their children default.

Home prices have always been prohibitive in Hong Kong and, according to the Census and Statistics Department, even the ratio of median rent to income for private housing grew from 25.2 percent in 2006 to 30.7 last year.

This is reality. As also, it seems, is a supreme lack of fiscal prudence, especially among the younger generation. According to a survey of 500 working adults aged between 18 and 29 years conducted by the Investor Education Centre in April this year, more than 60 percent of Hong Kong's young working adults overspend and about one-third are in debt.

Interestingly, the findings are not much different from those of a similar study, commissioned by Prime Credit and conducted by the University of Hong Kong's Public Opinion Program, which interviewed 497 Hong Kong residents born post-1980 in August 2015. This survey also found half the interviewees ranked buying a property as their most important life goal and 40 percent believed they could achieve that target within 10 years.

A largely unrealistic aspiration, it would seem, considering the average increase in salaries, as per media reports, during 2005-15 was 3.37 percent, while the average increase in home prices over the same period was 12.8 percent.

It seems Hong Kong youngsters are habitually unable to reconcile with realities. Just last week, the Consumer Council warned young people against overspending to avoid getting caught in a debt trap. And, a new Greenpeace survey found in May this year that Hong Kong people's shopping habits were among the unhealthiest in the world. Greenpeace rightly urged Hong Kong people to differentiate between what they needed and what they wanted.

Is it because Hong Kong parents are routinely pandering to young and adult children that the next generation is unable to develop fiscal judgment and general prudence?

Parental devotion must not overwhelm responsible parenting. Letting adult children deal with their limitations will help them hone their coping mechanisms and put realities in perspective. Helicopter parenting doesn't really help adult children.

If Hong Kong parents are not willing to let go, Hong Kong children will never learn to shoulder responsibilities, even such primary responsibility as taking care of elderly, indigent parents.

(HK Edition 11/13/2017 page8)