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Lots of people do odd things. In some families, the bank of mom and dad remains open a very long time.
Gifting and winding down assets and minimizing wealth for Medicaid and escaping estate taxes. As you age long term planning becomes a much shorter period of time. When income exceeds spending savings go up and previously accumulated investments grow faster.
I don't get the animosity about sharing assets with children (adult or not) and grandchildren...
If you don't have enough to do it w/o second guessing, then don't but why feel guilty or feel the need to ridicule those who can?
It's their money...they earned it...they can do what they want...
Especially when in many cases, it lowers their own standard of living.
The point is that as we age our standard of living becomes relatively cheaper. Our excess cash flow increases and we begin to use our money on family. Holidays, graduations, birthdays, college costs, family trips etc. FireCalc shows us just becoming wealthier and we are 80 and have LTC insurance and deep assets.
Yeah, I find it odd that retirees would spend large sums of money on adult children or grandchildren.
You can't take it with you, and kids and grandkids who are going to inherit a lot of money might benefit from getting some of it when they are young and struggling.
yep , that is our view . as we get older if we find our own spending winds down and we have more then we need we rather give with warm hands then cold ones . we want to see them enjoy what we do for them .
it isn't something we plan a budget for . since standard retirement planning is based on worst case scenario's happening anything better will leave you with more then you figured .
90% of the time drawing 4% inflation adjusted has left you with more then you started with and 2/3's of the time more then double . so just the normal times can leave you with more as your own spending ramps down .
Last edited by mathjak107; 06-01-2016 at 02:54 AM..
I don't get the animosity about sharing assets with children (adult or not) and grandchildren...
If you don't have enough to do it w/o second guessing, then don't but why feel guilty or feel the need to ridicule those who can?
It's their money...they earned it...they can do what they want...
Animosity? Maybe you've got your sensitivity dial turned up a bit high.
I don't care what anyone does with their money, my point was that I don't get planning your retirement expenses around it where you might work extra years specifically to have the scratch to dole out when you're in your 70s.
Agreed, even if we had them we sure wouldn't be planning a retirement budget around spending money on children who are middle aged.
when making a retirement plan you can gear up for maximizing legacy money if that is of primary importance because you do not need all of your own or have kids or grand kids with special needs or you plan can around maximum spending .
.
but the fact is 3-1/2-4% withdrawal rates can by design do a bit of both inherently . planning around safe withdrawal rates tends to leave a lot left over if your time frame is anything better then worst case .
so you may pick up spending on grand kids as your own spending rolls back . i know we hope to be able to do that while alive .
we would love to send the family on vacation every year as we age .
Last edited by mathjak107; 06-01-2016 at 03:23 AM..
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