I am incredibly lucky to have good parents.
My college roommate came from a broken home and was completely financially independent of both parents by the age of 19.
I remember helping him with tax forms to get him financial aid from the school after he could no longer use his parents’ financial information for FAFSA and college admissions. This was obviously stressful for him from my standpoint, but I genuinely can’t imagine how terrible that must have felt from his perspective. He has absolutely no safety net if he fails in life and needs an emergency loan to keep his car on the road or his rent paid. I was much more privileged in this regard. My parents are certainly not wealthy, but they have enough in savings where I could ask for a loan if I absolutely needed it for a serious reason. That’s how I am able to use my air conditioner again after it broke last week. I made the mistake of neglecting my air conditioner filter changes and let the filter sit inside the machine for six months without changing it. Needless to say, I had cracks in my evaporator coil and I needed a new one to have working cooling again in my house. If it weren’t for my loving and gracious parents, I don’t know what I would be doing right now. I would have an extremely hot and uncomfortable house, that’s for sure. Now I need to make a better effort at saving so I have a safety net of my own to cushion me if something ever happens that I don’t expect ahead of time.