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I'm in the process of sorting and selling all my valuables, collectibles, china, silver, etc, then enjoy the money. I leave the crap for the kids to sort out, sprinkled with a few hints that I left/lost some valuable jewelry, some cash hoarded, etc, etc, but oh, poor old mama, can't remember where I put it. Let them go on a "dig" looking for stuff, I might leave a lump of fool's gold buried somewhere
Knowing we are set with the basic necessities of life, why wouldn't parents try to ensure, as best we can, that our son has that same security? And his generation? as he would do with his kids? Once you are very set with the basics, excess beyond maybe eating out once or twice a week should go to the next generation. It is so scary how difficult it is now and it will only get worse.
We will pass on a 2015 electric Tesla car and a home currently worth 375 thousand to our son. Put it in his name while we are in our late 70's to avoid a Trust. Also we'll probably have saved about 50- 75 thousand dollars
This is what we will inherit^^^ within about 4 years or less ....and then...pass it to our son. It will be inherited from my 91 year old in laws within the next few years or so...I surmize.., both aren't doing that good. They are wonderful so we want them around as long as possible but he;s so weak and she's in a wheelchair. His car will be ready from the factory about Feb 2015. He ordered all the bells and whistles, otherwise those cost 70 thousand.
The economy is getting worse. So as long as I have food and shelter, maybe a little extra to go out to eat once a week, he can have the rest.
Again, the best things in life are Free anyhow. Friends, nature, outdoor walks, cycling, etc...What we spend might, down the line, could've been used to feed our starving grandchildren, great grandchildren, etc..what is passed down helps secure their future. Even if we never got to meet them
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Last edited by CaliforniaGal1; 10-26-2014 at 10:00 PM..
I'm in the process of sorting and selling all my valuables, collectibles, china, silver, etc, then enjoy the money. I leave the crap for the kids to sort out, sprinkled with a few hints that I left/lost some valuable jewelry, some cash hoarded, etc, etc, but oh, poor old mama, can't remember where I put it. Let them go on a "dig" looking for stuff, I might leave a lump of fool's gold buried somewhere
I am the trustee of my husbands uncles estate. Before he died April 18th 2014, he told us he buried some Gold in the yard in a box, a safe deposit box I think. Knowing he wasn't lasting long, but still coherent, I didn't inquire. I think he wanted me to ask when he got really sick but he went down very fast. Never really realizing how ill he was though he was told. Since there is so much trash out in his backyard due to his just getting old...using a detector would be useless.
I am sure it's worth alot or he wouldn't have bothered to tell us about it, too bad I never asked but didn't want to appear as a money grubber. Now it's gone. And so is he. Hopefully some very nice person will find it someday!! I'll tip off whomever buys the house
My husband doesn't know this yet, but when we sell our house I hope to be able to give our two children a little something. It wouldn't be enough to make them wealthy, but it would be put towards their retirement, towards a house, or towards investments. Of course, as I said, he doesn't know this yet.
The choice of not leaving an inheritance is not having money and being at the mercy of someone for my health and economic well being. That is not a goal for us.
This is my philosophy, too. Mr. Bay and I are not big spenders by nature, anyway.
We will leave an inheritance, but with conditions. My brother's widow and her two adult children are the only close family we have. None of them are especially bright, none of them went beyond high school, and my sister-in-law and her son in particular are chronic spendthrifts who are perpetually in debt. So I don't feel very good about leaving them a fortune knowing that they won't use it wisely. When my brother died, the sister-in-law blew through his $250,000 life insurance within three years, bought new cars for herself and her two children (one who wasn't old enough to get a license) and lost two houses along the way because she couldn't keep up the payments.
When Mr. Bay and I do our estate planning we will probably try to set up some kind of spendthrift trust so that proceeds from the sale of our house and the money left in our investment accounts is doled out over time and not all at once. When we're gone it shouldn't really matter any more, I guess, but I would feel better if I knew that when my niece and nephew reach retirement age, there will be some money left to help support them in their old age. I think the worst case scenario would be for them to receive a huge lump sum and then blow it like their mother did.
Whenever my retiree parents take a month-long vacation (an annual thing now), they joke that they are spending my sister's and my inheritance.
More power to them!
My parents have virtually no mortgage on their new house, so whatever profit made from selling their house will be our inheritance. They may have life insurance, but I don't think it would be much.
My husband doesn't know this yet, but when we sell our house I hope to be able to give our two children a little something. It wouldn't be enough to make them wealthy, but it would be put towards their retirement, towards a house, or towards investments. Of course, as I said, he doesn't know this yet.
Of course I would like to leave them money and property. Since my husband and I live frugally, and always have much more in savings than we need, at least five years' expenses, and since we have property, they will get an inheritance if we can manage it. Since we are still in the process of raising kids, with college ahead for all of them, inheritances are a long ways off. But I definitely want to give them whatever I can, without depriving ourselves.
We don't spoil them now with material things. We give them extracurricular lessons (music, sports, etc.) and experiences - travel. Basically, it's to each child what that child needs, and what we want to give to them all. We try to be fair about it. And I imagine that if we have advance notice that we're checking out (terminal illness), we'll probably transfer everything we can to the children and grandchildren (if there are any) in the form of things they can use.
I have seen so many disasters in the form of elderly who cannot conceive that they are going to die. I have seen frail, ill people in their eighties buy twenty year annuities, funneling all they have to unscrupulous people who prey on the elderly, because they somehow think, "If I buy a twenty year annuity, it means I am going to live for another twenty years!" I have seen terminally ill elderly parents who will not give up control of their finances until days before their death, creating a nightmare for their perfectly responsible children, who are left with horrible messes to clean up, and far less money than there would have been had the parent allowed the child to be involved in the finances earlier on.
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I'll tip off whomever buys the house
