If you spend time in a central metropolitan area, you will find high-rise buildings. Sometimes, hanging from the ceiling or standing on top of multiple stories of beams and wood is a collection of scaffolding. While those structures can withstand most weights and circumstances, they are temporary.

Much is the same with “financial scaffolding.”

Think about it: Scaffolding allows people to be elevated and strategically positioned and provides much-needed maintenance on things in hard-to-reach places. When they graduate high school, our children may depend on scaffolding in their financial lives. They need a temporary agreement to get a diploma or a trade as they prepare for a career.

Why? The average student loan debt from college graduates and those who didn’t finish a degree is $38,787. Most financially stable parents want to prevent their students from feeling that burden.

Supporting adult children can be a meaningful experience and useful for their financial future. However, it is vital to be aware of troubling patterns.

Financial scaffolding could help struggling adult children perform difficult tasks. Living alone (or with roommates) in this economy can be remarkably difficult for someone graduating from college. Supporting adult children or scaffolding their future success is almost........

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