Open any retirement calculator. Look at the expense categories.
Housing. Healthcare. Travel. Food. Transportation. Maybe a line for hobbies.
Now find the line for "help my 29 year old with rent," or "cover a grandchild's daycare three days a week," or "co-sign a car loan that comes back to me."
It is not there. It is never there.
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Family support is the largest unbudgeted expense in American retirement. It does not appear in any plan, it has no end date, and almost nobody says no.
This is not an article about selfish children or entitled generations. It is about a real transfer of money that happens in most families, is never counted, and quietly reshapes retirements.
Let us count it.