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my wife grew up in puerto rico (lived there until about a couple of weeks before we met) and out kids will never speak spanish. everyone says how great it would be if my wife taught them spanish. my wife hates it especially from spanish speaking people since she feels the extra judgment from them. they have some kind of ethnic pride i guess which she doesnt share. call me an elitist but i dont think my kids need spanish just to talk to hotel staff on vacation or (the negative) to give them job opportunities with low income clients.
anyway, i just worry that the opportunity to run the old man's business may be more of a curse than a blessing. i work with my brother operating my father's business and it would be silly for my other brother to jump on board and i dont think it would be a smart move for him. i guess it depends what kind of income comes along with the move. he would still get the ownership; why bother working there.
every situation is different though, i know.
Again, we're not interested in working there full-time. I'm envisioning, when the kids are gone, of maybe spending a few months down there at a time. Have a bit of a "snowbird" lifestyle.
Kids can get automatic citizenship until they turn 18. My husband is dragging his feet with registering them. I reminded him last week that our oldest is running out of time.
Getting Mexican citizenship for me is easy.
Mexican immigration is nowhere the headache like US immigration.
Things change in immigration.
We were in a similar situation and just signed everything over to the surviving spouse.
Location: Formerly Pleasanton Ca, now in Marietta Ga
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Quote:
Originally Posted by flyingsaucermom
Borrowing against the inheritance is risk mitigation for taking a job at a start up. We were given inheritance money last year to buy property. It was given as a gift, not as a loan, and we didn't know at the time that it was associated to future inheritance. We are on track to pay off our mortgage in 18-20 months so long as my husband stays at his current employer and collects vesting stock bonuses. If he goes to the startup it delays our mortgage payoff, probably extending it to 30 months. My concern with the job, although it looks great and moves my husband back up to a director role, is that it is with a start up. And although the start up is 6 years old, it's too young to have gone through a recession, which I think will be here before we pay off the mortgage.
You're asking important questions that we have no answers for. What I will say is that my husband has never been in a role more than 2 years. Not when he was a young engineer, not when he was a college professor and certainly not since he's been in tech (haha!). Seriously, if you're not in high tech go talk to a few and ask them about corporate churn. There is zero loyalty... not with employees and not with employers. We got that lesson early on. Xbox hired my husband to be the "educational design director" because for about 9 months they had this idea of doing educational games. But they pivoted 3 months after moving us from across the country. My husband was successful, he had a good midyear review, he helped launch two award-winning products and then he was told to find another job.
The most loyalty you'll ever find is between you and your direct manager. My husband has been with 8 groups or something and only 2 managers were good (and they remain friends and reliable professional contacts today).
Also think about the concept of a start up. The intention is to be bought out. What happens whey they are bought? Sometimes a major reorganization. Sometimes you get dislocated in the process... but hey, when you've made a small pot of gold what does it matter?
In any case, my husband can't see that far out yet. This was all handed to him last week and I think it's a little unfair to expect that he's ready or even capable of making these big decisions right now.
We don't want to live in Mexico in the foreseeable future. Our 10th and 7th graders have no interest in moving and starting life over as Mexicans. Seattle is our home and we've worked for many years to build financial independence in Seattle. This is why paying off the mortgage as soon as possible is important to us. When the mortgage gets paid off I can afford to be here on my own, living off just the rental income and my pet care business. My husband would have full career flexibility.
I imagine my husband having to go down to Mexico several times a year. Perhaps quarterly? I don't really know.
My husband recently quit a job where he had the responsibilities of 3 individuals. That's what happened when he quit: They had to hire 3 people to replace 1 because there isn't a single individual that can do all the jobs that my husband can do (expert in learning, program managing, technical design). When he was a university professor it was the same (researcher, instructor, grant writing). Those are three very different roles.
I think he'll be fine. He's not alone. His sister is there too.
I don’t know a lot, but my fear is thAt the business will require more of his time then you expect and if it runs into difficulties maybe living there full time. Then if he can’t handle it or doesn’t like it, he will have to sell under duress.
separately from the concept of inheritance, it seems the husband wants to run a few schools in mexico and maybe deal with some properties there. im not really sure why he would want to do that. all this time he wasnt interested and now he wants to operate a business in mexico? that seems like a decision he may regret.
Yeah this is how I feel too. I made it clear - not by any means in a rude way - that as much as I respect and admire my dads incredible business empire he has built, I don’t have any interest in taking it over and am not qualified. I have my own goals and dreams in my industry and want to make it there on my own merits. That’s why my shares of various investments are entirely passive and whatever I inherit, which I don’t believe will be enormous by my standards (my current net worth I mean), are also minority shares of things that are set to run long after my dad is gone. It’ll be business as usual for the company I believe and I’ll be nothing but a silent partner, which is fine provided whoever is in charge manages things well. You don’t want to get into a situation where an inheritance becomes a burden, that’s all I’m saying. Otherwise I agree with others that liquidating the business is ideal and focusing on what you know.
Yeah this is how I feel too. I made it clear - not by any means in a rude way - that as much as I respect and admire my dads incredible business empire he has built, I don’t have any interest in taking it over and am not qualified. I have my own goals and dreams in my industry and want to make it there on my own merits. That’s why my shares of various investments are entirely passive and whatever I inherit, which I don’t believe will be enormous by my standards (my current net worth I mean), are also minority shares of things that are set to run long after my dad is gone. It’ll be business as usual for the company I believe and I’ll be nothing but a silent partner, which is fine provided whoever is in charge manages things well. You don’t want to get into a situation where an inheritance becomes a burden, that’s all I’m saying. Otherwise I agree with others that liquidating the business is ideal and focusing on what you know.
i guess this isnt what he wants to do. its a little confusing. he is all excited to get involved but apparently he will not have any responsibilities but he wants to fly down every now and then and act like a big shot. i guess its more for ego than anything else. id imagine he will lose interest pretty quickly.
Yeah this is how I feel too. I made it clear - not by any means in a rude way - that as much as I respect and admire my dads incredible business empire he has built, I don’t have any interest in taking it over and am not qualified. I have my own goals and dreams in my industry and want to make it there on my own merits. That’s why my shares of various investments are entirely passive and whatever I inherit, which I don’t believe will be enormous by my standards (my current net worth I mean), are also minority shares of things that are set to run long after my dad is gone. It’ll be business as usual for the company I believe and I’ll be nothing but a silent partner, which is fine provided whoever is in charge manages things well. You don’t want to get into a situation where an inheritance becomes a burden, that’s all I’m saying. Otherwise I agree with others that liquidating the business is ideal and focusing on what you know.
It is what he knows. His first job ever was teaching a computer class there. Then he got a computer engineering degree, master and PhD in curriculum and instruction. Belonged to academic society on serious games. His dissertation was teaching middle school students STEM concepts through video games. His work as a professor at Michigan State was a continuation in this line, except he worked on projects specifically targeting minority, poor or female. At Xbox he worked on projects for youger students, one in collaboration with National Geographic.
And then he had to pivot quickly when Xbox changed their mind about educational games. His field is niched and it was a weird time of year to go looking for academic jobs. He had a choice between continuing research with younger students as a post-doc at ASU making $55-60k or moving into corporate training and keeping his $150k salary.
We just weren't willing to take a 60% paycut and move to the inferno: He went into corporate training.
The family schools specialize in English and STEM. At least they say they do... It's middle class Mexico which is probably on the level of our worst public schools. But nonetheless DH sees potential. And with 20 years in building contacts in academia and industry I think the schools would be extremely fortunate to have him return.
I’m sorry but it almost seems like this thread is a chance for the OP to brag. Going on and on about how successful her husband is and crying about an inheritance that she will one day get?
It is what he knows. His first job ever was teaching a computer class there. Then he got a computer engineering degree, master and PhD in curriculum and instruction. Belonged to academic society on serious games. His dissertation was teaching middle school students STEM concepts through video games. His work as a professor at Michigan State was a continuation in this line, except he worked on projects specifically targeting minority, poor or female. At Xbox he worked on projects for youger students, one in collaboration with National Geographic.
And then he had to pivot quickly when Xbox changed their mind about educational games. His field is niched and it was a weird time of year to go looking for academic jobs. He had a choice between continuing research with younger students as a post-doc at ASU making $55-60k or moving into corporate training and keeping his $150k salary.
We just weren't willing to take a 60% paycut and move to the inferno: He went into corporate training.
The family schools specialize in English and STEM. At least they say they do... It's middle class Mexico which is probably on the level of our worst public schools. But nonetheless DH sees potential. And with 20 years in building contacts in academia and industry I think the schools would be extremely fortunate to have him return.
It’s clear your husband is qualified to run the business and I am also reading that he wants to take a somewhat passive role away from the day to day. My question would be what if he needs to take a primary role because something forced this (lawsuit, buyout, changes in Mexican law, changes in Mexican economy, insert potential disaster here). It would be his responsibility to step in and work it through. He’d have to potentially be boots on the ground. Nice to plan and think of best case and upside but work through worse case scenarios also.
Also does he have a responsibility to his father or his family or is this totally his own decision?
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Then he got a computer engineering degree, master and PhD in curriculum and instruction. Belonged to academic society on serious games. His dissertation was teaching middle school students STEM concepts through video games. His work as a professor at Michigan State was a continuation in this line, except he worked on projects specifically targeting minority, poor or female. At Xbox he worked on projects for youger students, one in collaboration with National Geographic. 
