It’s extremely hard to raise kids in a nice neighborhood without generational wealth

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate the term "generational wealth'. I feel like this is all we hear about these days.

Are people done with building their OWN wealth???

I think we hear about it a lot more because hopefully it will encourage more families of all income levels to work on building their wealth.

1. There are more programs to help families buy a home that they can pass to their next generation.
2. Encouraging life insurance. This will help the next generation keep up with assets.
3. Retirement funding. You can start with small amounts and keep it going.

Too much generational wealth is toxic.

Most of us are not just passing it on to our kids. our kids have good careers and would do exceptionally well in life without any help. We are not just giving them $500K for a downpayment and telling them they don't need to work. At least in our family, if you don't have a meaningful career, you are not getting funding (unless there are serious mental/health issues or you speak with us and choose a path to a much lower paying career that is highly beneficial to society ---as in, I'd fund my kids being a teacher or social worker if that's what they love and I'd give them more to raise their overall quality of life. )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the frustration is that people here in their 50s with objectively nice balances of $1-5 million and get mocked, having worked and saved their whole lives.

Then there are the 30 somethings bragging about having higher networth but don't acknowledge their parents gift them money every year, their undergrad and law school were paid for, grandma left them an inheritance and parents gave them money for the down payment of their homes and they are like isn't everyone rich?

Everyone I know who has parental gifts acknowledges that, same with my kids. They fully recognize their privilege

Guess you only know a$$holey well off 20/30somethings

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Is the generational wealth canard passé yet? What will be the next excuse of the envious and lazy?

I used to not even think about it and assumed everyone rich got that way from working. But then I met several actual trust fund babies around here and my perspective changed.

People living on trust funds are very much a minority. You could also point to lottery winners with as much relevance.

There are people without trust funds who simply get tons of money from their parents and rely on them to fund their lifestyle. It’s actually very common because there’s a lot of rich people out there. There are over 2 million American families with 8 figure net worths, if even 10% help their kids you have 200,000 rich kids with huge financial handouts concentrated in major metro areas. It’s probably more like 30-50% are helping their kids and some have way more than 8 figures net worth

This. And a lot of these kids getting help from parents worth $10M+ also have high paying jobs because their parents set them up for success via good educations, extracurriculars, etc. Then they married another high paying professional they met at Harvard or Yale or Amherst. It’s not either / or.

This isn’t new. There is nothing about this that is new.

+1000

Why yes, kids who grow up with financially successful parents tend to also go on to have good educations and good jobs. Not that shocking.

And for those of us without financially successful parents? No complaints about having to work ourselves up the ladder in our own time. Sure, it might take me 10 years longer (at 40 instead of 30) but I seriously DGAF. It’s life and you work with what you got.

If you’re an adult and moaning about what mommy and daddy didn’t give you, grow up and get it yourself.

Exactly! However, don't look down on kids who happen to come from UMC+ families and who have family help. I would have killed for that when I was struggling to pay for college. However, it motivated me to not be financially unsound. That meant I paid off my debts, chose a field where I could do well (I double majored in music performance and CS/Engineering, and I chose to pursue the CS/Engineering because I preferred not to have to struggle financially, and did music on the side) And then I and my spouse built a very nice life for ourselves, we did it all ourselves with no assistance (financially or otherwise).

But personally I guess I just dont' hang around with people who would complain mommy and daddy are not giving them enough. Our kids are not spoiled brats and greatly appreciate what we help them with. They are fully aware of their privilege, to go on nice vacations, not have college debt, start off with a new car and be able to max their 401K match and max their Roth IRA. They have good jobs and "live within their means". If we didn't gift them $$, they would still save for retirement before spending on non-essentials. They live in an apartment they can afford (early 20s/mid 20s not ready to purchase yet) on their salary easily. They recognize that not having a car payment and not having student loan payments gives them an advantage. And they largely just save the extra they make. They budget and make financial choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate the term "generational wealth'. I feel like this is all we hear about these days.

Are people done with building their OWN wealth???

I think we hear about it a lot more because hopefully it will encourage more families of all income levels to work on building their wealth.

1. There are more programs to help families buy a home that they can pass to their next generation.
2. Encouraging life insurance. This will help the next generation keep up with assets.
3. Retirement funding. You can start with small amounts and keep it going.

Too much generational wealth is toxic.

Most of us are not just passing it on to our kids. our kids have good careers and would do exceptionally well in life without any help. We are not just giving them $500K for a downpayment and telling them they don't need to work. At least in our family, if you don't have a meaningful career, you are not getting funding (unless there are serious mental/health issues or you speak with us and choose a path to a much lower paying career that is highly beneficial to society ---as in, I'd fund my kids being a teacher or social worker if that's what they love and I'd give them more to raise their overall quality of life. )

Unbelievable. I can only imagine what jobs someone like you would consider meaningful. If you had significant assets you would have to be transferring them already or at least put them in irrevocable trusts where you no longer have ownership of the assets and cannot take the assets back. To be that controlling and dictating to adult kids, bullying them into only taking jobs you approve is one way to ruin what could have been a healthy relationship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate the term "generational wealth'. I feel like this is all we hear about these days.

Are people done with building their OWN wealth???

I think we hear about it a lot more because hopefully it will encourage more families of all income levels to work on building their wealth.

1. There are more programs to help families buy a home that they can pass to their next generation.
2. Encouraging life insurance. This will help the next generation keep up with assets.
3. Retirement funding. You can start with small amounts and keep it going.

Too much generational wealth is toxic.

Most of us are not just passing it on to our kids. our kids have good careers and would do exceptionally well in life without any help. We are not just giving them $500K for a downpayment and telling them they don't need to work. At least in our family, if you don't have a meaningful career, you are not getting funding (unless there are serious mental/health issues or you speak with us and choose a path to a much lower paying career that is highly beneficial to society ---as in, I'd fund my kids being a teacher or social worker if that's what they love and I'd give them more to raise their overall quality of life. )

Unbelievable. I can only imagine what jobs someone like you would consider meaningful. If you had significant assets you would have to be transferring them already or at least put them in irrevocable trusts where you no longer have ownership of the assets and cannot take the assets back. To be that controlling and dictating to adult kids, bullying them into only taking jobs you approve is one way to ruin what could have been a healthy relationship.

Where did I say"only take jobs I approve"?!?!

I simply stated that they have to have a "meaningful job" to get the funds. That means they cannot be sitting at home playing video games all day and only working at the 7-11 for 10 hours a week and expect us to "help" we are not funding them sitting on their asses all day doing nothing.


Also, each kid already has $10M in a trust from us. However we gift yearly to minimize state taxes (at the state level--and also at federal because even with 15m per person it will be an issue ) and the trusts have guidelines in place so a kidding the wrong path cannot drain the trust to buy drugs, gamble etc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate the term "generational wealth'. I feel like this is all we hear about these days.

Are people done with building their OWN wealth???

I think we hear about it a lot more because hopefully it will encourage more families of all income levels to work on building their wealth.

1. There are more programs to help families buy a home that they can pass to their next generation. Hopefully, people will also build/modify homes to accomodate generational living as well as build ADUs, helping to conserve wealth for the elderly and the young
2. Encouraging life insurance. This will help the next generation keep up with assets. Not just life insurance, but other kinds of insurances too that will protect quality of life. Disability, long term care, term life insurance etc
3. Retirement funding. You can start with small amounts and keep it going.Also teach teens to start Roth for
4. College funding. Start small but contribute regularly before kids are even born. Maximize the education dollars. Go to state schools if majoring in STEM (where school prestige does not matter). Convert unused college funds into Roth for kids if allowed.

Good points. I added my thoughts in red.