Kelly Ripa , never one to pass up an opportunity to embarrass her adult children, said that her son, Michael Consuelos, is living in “extreme poverty,” ET Online reports.
It’s something that just about every young person learns the hard way when they leave home. Whether through going to college or striking out on their own in the job market, money is hard to come by. Young people often find that their bank account is in the single digits or, just as often, in the red. That means that money that would have gone to fun things like movies and Netflix subscriptions now has to go to more mundane things like rent and food.
Michael Consuelos, 22, recently graduated from college and is now living on his own. And even though he was raised in a wealthy family, he’s now just another regular working class guy, often finding himself without two fives to rub together, says Ripa.
“I think he loves the freedom. He hates paying his own rent and he’s chronically poor. I don’t think he ever really experienced extreme poverty like now.”
Of course, Ripa was obviously being just a bit hyperbolic. He’s not homeless, food-insecure, or living without running water, like people who actually live in “extreme poverty” are. But clearly he’s welcoming of whatever extra cash he can get his hands on.
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For example, even though he’s an adult man, he’s keen to get a check from his grandma, just like he always got every Halloween when he was a kid. Kelly jokes that when Michael was a young lad, he didn’t care a whit about grandma’s Halloween check. Now, however, she says he’s calling pretty frequently, asking if the Halloween check has arrived in the mail yet.
“Now that he’s living on his own, he’s called three times, ‘Halloween envelope arrived?’ Just so he can have electricity. He’s experiencing being an adult,” she said.
In case you were wondering, at least one financial consultant advises that wealthy parents giving money to their adult children hurts both parents and kids. As CNN reports, Dr. Alex Melkumian, a psychologist and financial therapist, says that wealthy parents allowing their kids to live beyond their means “can undermine their independence and create deep insecurities.”
As for Kelly Ripa and husband Mark Consuelos’ other two children, 18-year-old Lola and 16-year-old Joaquin are learning the hard way that their parents’ wealth isn’t going to brook an exorbitant lifestyle. Lola, for example, enrolled at NYU, showed up for her first day of class, and then showed up at her parents’ building 12 hours later, throwing a party on the roof. To prevent a rerun of that happening, they say that Joaquin won’t be allowed to apply to college in the tri-state area.
