Generational Wealth

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is evidence that the world is pretty messed up. This kind of weath should not be concentrated in the hands of so few. So called generational wealth is a poison to our society. The current wealth gap will not end well.

What's your proposal? What should be the cap for annual income? And what should be the cap for overall wealth?

There are places you can go live if you want a "cap on annual income and wealth". The beauty of the USA is that we don't live like that. Many wealthy people got their on their own. I know we did. It's the years of hard work, owning a business, working for a small company with lower pay with the hope that stock options are eventually worth something (for us it took over 20 years for the long hours to pay off)

Not sure how wealthy you are (we'll be at about $10 mil by the time we retire) and I don't agree with a cap on annual income but definitely think a cap on wealth is appropriate. What that number should be is where I suspect there's not a lot of agreement. I'm not OK with the govt. telling me that I shouldn't leave enough money for my kids and their kids to be taken care of. At the same time, I'm not OK with Bill Gates, Bezos, Musk, and a couple of hedge funds buying up all the agricultural land and real estate either. Imagine a scenario where Billionaire, Inc. owns all the companies, land and housing and you are back to being the serf that your ancestors were before they ran away to the US.. Of course, you'll have your iphone and daily rations..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is evidence that the world is pretty messed up. This kind of weath should not be concentrated in the hands of so few. So called generational wealth is a poison to our society. The current wealth gap will not end well.

What's your proposal? What should be the cap for annual income? And what should be the cap for overall wealth?

There are places you can go live if you want a "cap on annual income and wealth". The beauty of the USA is that we don't live like that. Many wealthy people got their on their own. I know we did. It's the years of hard work, owning a business, working for a small company with lower pay with the hope that stock options are eventually worth something (for us it took over 20 years for the long hours to pay off)

Not sure how wealthy you are (we'll be at about $10 mil by the time we retire) and I don't agree with a cap on annual income but definitely think a cap on wealth is appropriate. What that number should be is where I suspect there's not a lot of agreement. I'm not OK with the govt. telling me that I shouldn't leave enough money for my kids and their kids to be taken care of. At the same time, I'm not OK with Bill Gates, Bezos, Musk, and a couple of hedge funds buying up all the agricultural land and real estate either. Imagine a scenario where Billionaire, Inc. owns all the companies, land and housing and you are back to being the serf that your ancestors were before they ran away to the US.. Of course, you'll have your iphone and daily rations..

How do you propose to make that cap? At what income level do you say "nope, you cannot buy that or own that property?" The best solution would be to tax over X Million. Not sure what that amount would be and in reality, you'd need to clean up the tax loopholes because most that wealthy find a way around it legally.

Just like the Estate tax---so many ways to legally get around it with trusts, very simple ways. Everyone worth more than a certain amount does it. We do it, as we live in a state with an estate tax as well. We've already paid massive amounts of taxes to both the fed and state on all of our income. They don't need to tax it again when we die---there are simple legal ways around it.

We are at 3-4X your position and could be at 8-10X by retirement (or not). I certainly don't think someone in our position should be restricted. We earned that money, donate a lot to charity and our children will continue to do so as well (it's set up with the trust rules).

[Anonymous]

My in-laws don’t have 10’s of millions but they have enough that they paid off our mortgage and help us with kids’ college. Then we are able to save more and pass that to our kids eventually. I consider that generational wealth even though it’s not a huge amount.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is evidence that the world is pretty messed up. This kind of weath should not be concentrated in the hands of so few. So called generational wealth is a poison to our society. The current wealth gap will not end well.

What's your proposal? What should be the cap for annual income? And what should be the cap for overall wealth?

There are places you can go live if you want a "cap on annual income and wealth". The beauty of the USA is that we don't live like that. Many wealthy people got their on their own. I know we did. It's the years of hard work, owning a business, working for a small company with lower pay with the hope that stock options are eventually worth something (for us it took over 20 years for the long hours to pay off)

Not sure how wealthy you are (we'll be at about $10 mil by the time we retire) and I don't agree with a cap on annual income but definitely think a cap on wealth is appropriate. What that number should be is where I suspect there's not a lot of agreement. I'm not OK with the govt. telling me that I shouldn't leave enough money for my kids and their kids to be taken care of. At the same time, I'm not OK with Bill Gates, Bezos, Musk, and a couple of hedge funds buying up all the agricultural land and real estate either. Imagine a scenario where Billionaire, Inc. owns all the companies, land and housing and you are back to being the serf that your ancestors were before they ran away to the US.. Of course, you'll have your iphone and daily rations..

How do you propose to make that cap? At what income level do you say "nope, you cannot buy that or own that property?" The best solution would be to tax over X Million. Not sure what that amount would be and in reality, you'd need to clean up the tax loopholes because most that wealthy find a way around it legally.

Just like the Estate tax---so many ways to legally get around it with trusts, very simple ways. Everyone worth more than a certain amount does it. We do it, as we live in a state with an estate tax as well. We've already paid massive amounts of taxes to both the fed and state on all of our income. They don't need to tax it again when we die---there are simple legal ways around it.

We are at 3-4X your position and could be at 8-10X by retirement (or not). I certainly don't think someone in our position should be restricted. We earned that money, donate a lot to charity and our children will continue to do so as well (it's set up with the trust rules).

My questions as well. However, the problem of wealth concentration is real and needs to be fixed. Maybe cap wealth at $50 mil and index it to inflation? Maybe $100 mil? Eliminate all wealth hiding trusts, of course. And no, people won't stop working or inventing the next Tesla or cancer remedy because of that. It will just become the new normal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is evidence that the world is pretty messed up. This kind of weath should not be concentrated in the hands of so few. So called generational wealth is a poison to our society. The current wealth gap will not end well.

So if you had $10-20M, you would just donate it all and tell your kids and grandkids they are on their own?

Interestingly, most would not do that, they just make the above statements because they can only wish they had it.

Those of us with "generational wealth" are typically also very generous with our charity choices. But we earned our money (we are the start of the "generational Wealth" in our families) and we definately want to ensure our kids and grandkids are supported in life to do great things

Who is this “we”? The people who have 20 million dollars give or take aren’t the problem. It’s the billionaires holding about $40 trillion dollars of wealth and paying very little in taxes.

Warren Buffet who’s worth over $100 billion dollars said that his secretary pays more in taxes than he does. Our tax system favors billionaires which allows them to hang onto a majority of the wealth. Doesn’t make sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is evidence that the world is pretty messed up. This kind of weath should not be concentrated in the hands of so few. So called generational wealth is a poison to our society. The current wealth gap will not end well.

So if you had $10-20M, you would just donate it all and tell your kids and grandkids they are on their own?

Interestingly, most would not do that, they just make the above statements because they can only wish they had it.

Those of us with "generational wealth" are typically also very generous with our charity choices. But we earned our money (we are the start of the "generational Wealth" in our families) and we definately want to ensure our kids and grandkids are supported in life to do great things

Who is this “we”? The people who have 20 million dollars give or take aren’t the problem. It’s the billionaires holding about $40 trillion dollars of wealth and paying very little in taxes.

Warren Buffet who’s worth over $100 billion dollars said that his secretary pays more in taxes than he does. Our tax system favors billionaires which allows them to hang onto a majority of the wealth. Doesn’t make sense.

True. But very, very hard to address -- both politically and practically. I spent a great deal of my energy in law school studying how to use adjust the tax code to address this. I never found a workable answer. And during part of my career I worked in tax policy with some of the greatest minds looking at these issues. Still -- no workable answer. You can propose a somewhat workable policy that is practical -- but it won't survive political scrutiny. And the proposed policies that might survive politics won't end up working to close the gap in any significant way. I've devoted a lot of energy toward this issue, and I'm stymied. More importantly, I've watched people smarter than I try to figure this out, and they are stymied as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Generational wealth is just money passed from one generation to another -- with the definition of "wealth" being something DCUM could argue over 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 100 years and never agree on.

Agree

[Anonymous]

I think when each kid gets more than 500k I’d call it generational wealth. Less than that I’d consider in the range of normal inheritance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is evidence that the world is pretty messed up. This kind of weath should not be concentrated in the hands of so few. So called generational wealth is a poison to our society. The current wealth gap will not end well.

So if you had $10-20M, you would just donate it all and tell your kids and grandkids they are on their own?

Interestingly, most would not do that, they just make the above statements because they can only wish they had it.

Those of us with "generational wealth" are typically also very generous with our charity choices. But we earned our money (we are the start of the "generational Wealth" in our families) and we definately want to ensure our kids and grandkids are supported in life to do great things

Who is this “we”? The people who have 20 million dollars give or take aren’t the problem. It’s the billionaires holding about $40 trillion dollars of wealth and paying very little in taxes.

Warren Buffet who’s worth over $100 billion dollars said that his secretary pays more in taxes than he does. Our tax system favors billionaires which allows them to hang onto a majority of the wealth. Doesn’t make sense.

True. But very, very hard to address -- both politically and practically. I spent a great deal of my energy in law school studying how to use adjust the tax code to address this. I never found a workable answer. And during part of my career I worked in tax policy with some of the greatest minds looking at these issues. Still -- no workable answer. You can propose a somewhat workable policy that is practical -- but it won't survive political scrutiny. And the proposed policies that might survive politics won't end up working to close the gap in any significant way. I've devoted a lot of energy toward this issue, and I'm stymied. More importantly, I've watched people smarter than I try to figure this out, and they are stymied as well.

It’s almost becoming like a third world country where there is a king or dictator and he and his family and a few others hold all the wealth and there’s nothing anyone can do because they also have all the power.

And the worst part is how some of them brag about how they legally paid virtually no taxes on billions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is evidence that the world is pretty messed up. This kind of weath should not be concentrated in the hands of so few. So called generational wealth is a poison to our society. The current wealth gap will not end well.

So if you had $10-20M, you would just donate it all and tell your kids and grandkids they are on their own?

Interestingly, most would not do that, they just make the above statements because they can only wish they had it.

Those of us with "generational wealth" are typically also very generous with our charity choices. But we earned our money (we are the start of the "generational Wealth" in our families) and we definately want to ensure our kids and grandkids are supported in life to do great things

Who is this “we”? The people who have 20 million dollars give or take aren’t the problem. It’s the billionaires holding about $40 trillion dollars of wealth and paying very little in taxes.

Warren Buffet who’s worth over $100 billion dollars said that his secretary pays more in taxes than he does. Our tax system favors billionaires which allows them to hang onto a majority of the wealth. Doesn’t make sense.

Not true at all. He said she pays a higher RATE. He pays fat, far more.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2012/01/warren-buffett-and-his-secretary-talk-taxes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have $9.7 million which is not quite there. 15 or 20 million?

It's always "double what have now" .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best generation wealth is money education. Setting that up something that lasts multiple generations is kinda stupid, esp. considering that your grandkids and beyond don't really give a sh*t about you. You are only paying the banks to manage the trust.

Here are things you can do for your next generation, and to some extent, grandkids. Do what you can from this list to the best of your ability.
- Down payment on a house
- Front load each grandkid's 529 to the max; In fact, double this so they have money left over for their own kids.
- Pay for grandkids' private school
- Gift to maximum extent possible each year
- Pay for their vacations and big purchases
- Set up an irrevocable trust that pays out a certain % each month such that it runs out by the time they hit 90 (pick a number); If you have enough money, maybe set one up for each gradkid too, managed by their parents.
- Most importantly, educate them on what you did and ask them to do the same for their next generation. Some will, some won't and you are none the wiser because you'll be gone. At least you've helped the ones you really cared about, your kids and grandkids. Beyond that, C'est la volonté de Dieu.

- Give to more deserving people than your spoiled spawn

Yeah. Report back when you do that. Everyone has advice for others that they won't themselves follow..

Thers why we need to get off our lazy butts and eat the rich already. Need a little motivational fear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Using our lifetime exemptions we have set up generation skipping irrevocable trusts (Almost fully funded) so that our children will receive the income and ultimately our grandchildren will inherit the principle. Or maybe our great grandchildren as it get very confusing. The amount will definitely benefit future generations but it’s designed so that the principal is only used for things like big medical expenses and not to buy a Ferrari at age 21. I won’t be around to see how it fully plays out. We’ve also put a lot into 529s and we will put in more once the trusts are fully funded. A lot has already gone into a donor advised fund and whatever is left over in our estate will go to charity and not the IRS. I only inherited a very small amount so I hope what we are doing doesn’t demotivate anyone from working hard.

It's going to medical marijuana expenses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You all need to catch up with the times.

Generational wealth = something all white people have by virtue of being white.

Har har har. But it does seem like no one ever talked about "generational wealth" till the last few years as part of the DEI/CRT trend.

Why would you brag about your ignorance?

[Anonymous]

I wish I did have a solution but I strongly believe the gap between the well off and the poor underlies much of what is going wrong in our society. I’m in favor of something like an inheritance tax. Something where you can leave a reasonable amount of money to each of your children but the rest goes to the government. That’s probably impractical but it might be a start. And by reasonable I mean $5 million or $10 million. Something indexed for inflation. But this idea of having huge amounts of money passed to the next next generation seems a little off to me.