For context we were raised poor and only became middle-upper-middle class in the past few years. 

I’m 20, I live alone in an apartment in Manhattan (NYC). I work a part-time job 4 days a week to pay for my essentials, and I am currently on leave from school. My parents pay my rent and bills 100% as well as tuition, and a lot of medical bills I have. Essentially my mom lets me use her card. I’m not a crazy spender but I do enjoy hobbies like guitar lessons and going to a gym.

I feel horrible that my parents spend so much of their money supporting me. Financially they’re doing fine, but they could’ve bought a house or had hundreds of thousands in their retirement funds if I wasn’t off in a different place soaking up a couple thousand bucks each month for rent, tuition, bills etc. We never had that money growing up and it feels wrong that now that we do have the money, it just goes to have me live in a big city sitting in my room most of the day. I don’t have friends and I’m not in any groups, nor do I go to parties or clubs, I mostly just stay at home or go to work.

What can I do to help lessen their burden, or feel less horrible about having the privilege of parental support? I make minimum wage, they recently tripled our energy bill out of nowhere so paying for that alone would take a third of my monthly income, if I paid rent on top of that I would be in the red every month. I just feel very guilty. My parents asked me to pay them back once I’ve graduated and gotten employed (to get me to stop worrying about it), but I’m afraid that I’ll fail or be unable to repay my debt to them. I have full intention of making it up to them once I’ve graduated but I deal with so much guilt daily from essentially being a leech on them.