If you are rich, not just upper middle class

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I have 25M, but our HHI is not high. The millions came because we were lucky/savvy in the stock market when we were young, and now we're older.

Our kids know how much we have, and they are preparing for careers in case everything goes south. But our goal is to build family wealth and our kids, having lived a relatively frugal lifestyle like us, will try to build on that for future generations as well.

Me again. Honestly, I feel your question would be valid if we were talking 100M and above. But with our 25M, I don't think our kids can plan on not working.

You've got to be effing kidding me. I could stick $25 million in a 60- month CD at my credit union at 3.8% and pull more than $900k off it a year. No, I would not be working. Hell, if I earned a quarter of that amount off it, I wouldn't work.

This is why you people need to be taxed more. FFS.

DP: why do "we need to be taxed more"? I have that much in cds/cash alternatives, and plenty more in the market. All of it was taxed at 30-50% combined fed and state. I have paid plenty in taxes. The interest dividends are taxed at 40-50% for fed/state. I think we have paid enough and will continue to do so

However 900k per year spread across 2-3 kids is not enough for them to not work. Not if they want their kids to do activities and attend college and grad school and actually retire. Because once you need to start using the principal you ain't getting 900 k per year

If you don't think $900k/3= $300k per year is enough to live a comfortable life, do activities, and send your kids to college, and retire, I don't know what to tell you, but about 95% (literally) of American families are making less than that. Also, with that kind of annual return ( Note: that's the return **if i parked $25m in a CD**--it would average almost 2x that amount in the market) there would be no need to touch the principal, so.

Seriously, get your head out of your a$$.

You have more money than you know what to do with. The income equality in this country is a major public policy failure.

Agree it's more than most have. But $300K is not that much in a HCOLA, if you want your kids to attend college and grad school (that you pay for). If they kids work and earn $100-200K (them and their spouse) and add in the $300K then that is much more comfortable. But I wouldn't have my kids stop working with only $300K/year coming in, not with inflation. That would be stupid. I prefer they use that to supplement their lifestyle. Also, even if it was $5M/year coming in, I'd want them to work/have a passion/goals in life/somehting to do daily that does good for them and society. Not just sitting around

It's also not enough to buy a yacht! So I guess it's not enough.

Honestly, do you even listen to yourself?

So you'd want your kids to quit their jobs if they had $300K coming in from a trust? You wouldnt' require them to still have a job/contribute to society? You wouldn't want your grandkids to have a better lifestyle?

I don't care if your Richie Rich children have jobs or not. Just don't tell me that you aren't generationally wealthy because you "only" have $25 million, and don't tell that your kids will need to work because that's not enough to have a very comfortable life on.

Our kids will "need to work" because we are not just handing them $$$$ so they can sit on their asses and do nothing with their lives. The money we have is to supplement their lives, provide education for their kids and future generations, pay for any extra therapies/healthcare expenses and provide nice vacations. It's there to help them buy a home in a good school district that is closer to their jobs, so they have more family time (think a 15 min commute versus 1 hour), to take nicer vacations. They already have a huge leg up knowing they don't have to save for college for their kids. If they were to try to live the lifestyle they want and not work, the money wouldn't be there for generations...it would be pissed away for no reason. However, if you manage it smartly, it will be there for generations to come.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our net worth is approaching $40M. Kids in middle and high school. Yes, I expect them to work and they’ve always known that. I’ve also been clear that they should not expect to inherit the lions share of our wealth. We’ll cover them through school but I’m not certain they’ll get anything after that and they know that too.

That much money was not meant to be inherited.

Charities are a scam. A vanishingly small percentage of money flows to the source of the problem the staff is trying to solve. That's why they're still in business - they never solve the problem. Look at the compensation for CEOs of major charities and see if you can justify giving money to that instead of funding a generational trust for your family. You're funding strangers' inflated lifestyles instead of your children's.

Pick smart local charities and most of your money will go to the problems, not the staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our net worth is approaching $40M. Kids in middle and high school. Yes, I expect them to work and they’ve always known that. I’ve also been clear that they should not expect to inherit the lions share of our wealth. We’ll cover them through school but I’m not certain they’ll get anything after that and they know that too.

That much money was not meant to be inherited.

Then what is the point of making that much money if not to pass down to your kids and their kids?

After a certain point money is just a scorekeeper. We’ll have a very nice retirement and some good causes can benefit from whatever is left over.

But do you not want to help your kids and grandkids have a better life? IMO, you can do both that and give to charities at a NW over $40M. I guess I don't see why you wouldn't want to provide some for your family as well

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I mean wealthy as in mutiple 8 figures even 9 figures. Do you care if your children work? Or how much they work? Or are you ok with straight out funding them?

The key to family wealth is to make the next gen understand how nothing comes easy in this life without hard work.

Of course they have to work how would they be productive members of society?

Reading a paycheck, paying your own taxes, healthcare, how much you make a hour , how do you commute, how much do groceries cost etc they need life skills.

Did my children have a leg up of course they did.

They all worked in HS because they wanted to. They all worked in college because they wanted to.
They lived in crappy first apartments after they graduated and got their first jobs etc..

When we die they will get out monies because of what is going on in the US now. We have redone our trusts and they get money every ten years.

They also have prenups with all their partners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean wealthy as in mutiple 8 figures even 9 figures. Do you care if your children work? Or how much they work? Or are you ok with straight out funding them?

How many people on this website do think have $100M???

$10M I can see but I don’t think that many centi millionaires are hanging out here. We are closing in on $10M after a lifetime of hard work and saving and yes we expect our children to work and provide for themselves. We will be generous of course.

Exactly. there are very few centimillionares to begin with!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our net worth is approaching $40M. Kids in middle and high school. Yes, I expect them to work and they’ve always known that. I’ve also been clear that they should not expect to inherit the lions share of our wealth. We’ll cover them through school but I’m not certain they’ll get anything after that and they know that too.

That much money was not meant to be inherited.

Then what is the point of making that much money if not to pass down to your kids and their kids?

agree. that response sounds so dumb

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our net worth is approaching $40M. Kids in middle and high school. Yes, I expect them to work and they’ve always known that. I’ve also been clear that they should not expect to inherit the lions share of our wealth. We’ll cover them through school but I’m not certain they’ll get anything after that and they know that too.

That much money was not meant to be inherited.

Then what is the point of making that much money if not to pass down to your kids and their kids?

agree. that response sounds so dumb

+1

And I'm in a similar NW (about $35M, likely to be over $70-80M in a few years). Our kids are out of college and finishing college. They are forging their path in life, they know they have to work/create a life for themselves. They also know they can choose to work in public service/non profits or whatever they really want to do and will have financial support if needed. They have a great work ethic and are good members of society (volunteering, etc). They also recognize their privilege and the fact their lives are 1000% easier than most people's. Simply having college and grad school (if/when desired) fully paid for is something they greatly appreciate. But they live well within their means and don't waste money. As long as they do that, they will continue to received funds and a nice inheritance from us. We expect it to last several generations---education for our kids, grandkids and beyond is important, as well as getting all medical needs and therapies met. If we can help our kids and their spouses (none yet) have better lives by living closer to work and in a great school district (huge supporter of public schools still), that is awesome. Knowing they dont' have to save as much for retirement or their own kids college is huge---remove that from the equation and your lifestyle improves greatly.

But we earned our $$$ ourselves, no inheritances for us, so we get to choose how it's spent (family versus charity) and while a lot will go to charity, we will work to ensure the next 2-3 generations (and hopefully beyond) have a very nice lifestyle. It can last several generations if everyone uses it to supplement and has a great work ethic as well. That is the goal and how the trusts are spelled out

[Anonymous]

We have a very high net worth, in the high 8 figures all from hard work, saving from an early age and investing smartly. My husband led the turnaround of two companies and equity was a big part of his compensation. Our lifestyle is not "ultra" but likely consistent with someone with a net worth of $20M so it's pretty darn nice. Our married adult children are all very successful on their own and we didn't gift them anything until they were in their early 30's. Yes, we did pay for their educations which is a big gift. Now we fund nice annual gifts plus we have set up 529's for all of their children and that funding took place soon after birth. We have set up irrevocable trusts that are generation skipping so the majority of the principal will go to our grandchildren and their children. Our kids will benefit from annual interest and dividends and be very helpful for their retirements. With the high lifetime exemption continuing and growing next year to $15M we will likely stop putting money into the trusts and just straight gift the annual increases to our kids since they won't get principal from the trusts unless needed. Finally, a big percent of our NW is in a charitable trust and when we die what ever is left over in our estate (e.g. sales of homes) will go into that trust which will then be managed by our children. The goal is to avoid any estate taxes. Other than the trusts we have avoided complex estate planning which is all designed by expensive lawyers to avoid taxes. Giving it to charity will help us do that. Making all of this easy is that our kids are great, succeeding on their own, are best friends and really work hard to succeed on their own as we did.

[Anonymous]

Man, I wish I knew some of the kids of parents here when I was growing up. I went to a school and was friends with some very, very wealthy kids. I was upper middle class but no where near on their level. I was only in with them because I was good at sports, smart and pretty.

I mostly liked those kids at the time, but looking back, they were total shits. Definitely not aware of their privilege and lacking empathy in a lot of respects. I am 100% sure their parents thought they walked on water in all respects and loved to talk about their “volunteering.” Made me very well aware of my place. Would be much nicer to have run with these incredibly wealthy but equally self aware kids of parents posting here!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am upper middle class but have known a lot of RICH people and can say that upper middle class wants-for-little-but-flies-premium-economy-on-their-own-dime is the best scenario. You have everyting you need, almost everything you want (almost is KEY), can afford education and experiences for your kids, who then have to go work to replicate the lifestyle and don't have an easy opportunity to fall into bad lifestyle habits (laziness, drugs, etc...).

“Almost” is key.

When people can buy everything they could possibly want and more, that’s when they get often get weird. It gets harder to get that dopamine and endorphin rush that the rest of us get when we finally buy those nice winter boots we’ve had our eye on or that Viking range we’ve always wanted.

If they’re well-adjusted, they seek it by being charitable (Melinda Gates, MacKenzie Scott).

If they’re not, they seek it by breaking laws, lying, cheating, stealing, and doing risky, stupid things. Hence Epstein Island, piloting their own planes without proper training, and diving to the titanic in a makeshift submarine.