It’s no secret that I don’t particularly like the younger generation.

They can’t read, write, behave properly, speak in sentences, and basically inspire any admiration from a person like me who freely admits to having a generational bias against generation X, Y and Zzzzzz.

No doubt we annoyed our elders in the sixties, so it’s perfectly natural that we should feel the same way about the younger generation. I also acknowledge that young people have the right to not like us either. However, whereas we couldn’t wait to leave home and so married younger than we should have or escaped overseas, today’s offsprings are not as desperate for liberation as we were.

They are quite happy to stay at home with their boomer parents because they want to be supported financially. It’s not that they love their homes or their parents. It’s not that they feel their parents need them. Actually, what their parents want or need does not figure in their thinking for one moment. Their motivation is purely financial. They want to drive a nice car, travel, buy trendy clothes, even buy a property, but they can’t do this and pay rent or buy food, so they stay with their long-suffering parents and mooch off them.

I must make one point clear and that is that my children took flight as early as they could. (Yes, I know what you’re thinking. Who can blame them, right?). Both of them support themselves admirably, so I’m not complaining about my own predicament, but I have observed that many young men and women inflict themselves on their parents well into their thirties and forties. This apparently, according to economists, places an unfair financial burden on pre-retirees who are trying to build enough retirement income for their future.

AMP financial planner, Mark Borg is quoted in the Brisbane Sunday Mail as saying that forced savings by children while at school have disappeared. As a schoolgirl I remember having visits at school by banking reps who handed out money boxes in order to encourage us to save. There was even a banking day very week. This instilled in the young a desire to save for special occasions and it made pocket money an educational tool.

Sadly, I never had any money or a bank account because my parents were of the belief that children should not handle money. It is a fact that I was the only girl in the universe who had to take one little piece of chocolate wrapped in its foil to the cinema and I felt truly deprived. So it was inevitable that I would support the idea of pocket money and enforced savings so that my children would learn how to handle the stuff.

Expecting working children to pay board, Mark Borg tells us, will make it less attractive for young people to stay at home. The money can be used to help the children finance a home for themselves. Well-heeled parents can even match the money dollar for dollar as an incentive.

Having young people bludge off their parents is not doing anyone any good. The young people are discouraged from being independent whilst the parents are seriously depleting their retirement savings.

Mr Borg blames the parents who just can’t say no to their children. Personally, I am having a hard time thinking of these young men and women as children since many of them bring lovers home as well. So not only do you have to support your kids but you also have to support someone else’s. That certainly makes for happy times, doesn’t it?

The latest argument that has been offered for young men and women remaining with their parents is the high cost of housing. Perhaps houses cost a lot but young people are not denying themselves the trip to Bali, the electronic gadgets, the restaurants, expensive labels and they feel no remorse if their parents fund all their avarice.

The irony is that the same young folk who mooch off their parents also complain that the boomer generation is an obstacle to their professional success. They would like us to get out of the way so that they can start at the top.

One great way to counteract all this greed if one hasn’t got the guts to say, “Time to move out, cause you’re using too much of my grey covering hair dye,” is to take out a reverse mortgage on the family home. Since you have been forking out much of your retirement savings on those wasters, then you can borrow money on the home and enjoy what you have left of your retirement. They may not like it, but hey, you won’t be around to hear their complaints.