Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Duh?

I started from humble beginnings. Worked hard and invested in individual companies. No Ivy League education with the connections, not a lawyer, not a doctor, not a business owner, not an OF contributor. Just smart and lucky investing. I’m now 42 yo and NW is $25M+ (~$11M in a Roth).

Anonymous wrote:We live in McLean and completely self made. We grew up poor immigrants, worked hard and now earn a seven figure income.

Our first home was a 300k house in New Haven, CT. We then bought a $900k home in DC and eventually bought a $2m home in mclean that is now worth 4m.

+1

I don’t see why it’s so hard. I mean, yeah, our college and graduate school was fully paid for and my wife received a down payment on our first house from my in-laws. Plus our wedding was fully paid for and we receive annual gifting up to the limit from both sets of parents. Isn’t this normal?

We’re just two working professionals with kids that made it on our own and bought in these places in our early 30s.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

We live in McLean and completely self made. We grew up poor immigrants, worked hard and now earn a seven figure income.

Our first home was a 300k house in New Haven, CT. We then bought a $900k home in DC and eventually bought a $2m home in mclean that is now worth 4m.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yes, but you do have a fair number of people who have family either paying for/contributing to school costs and helping with large downpayments/housing.

It’s common my parents paid for school and gave me 200k to buy a house.

My parents paid for school, including law school, and bought me a car. We can't do that for our kids because DH is supporting both of his parents right now, and it's a huge drain. I've got 529 plans covered for any undergrad (I had to set up direct paycheck contributions so they are out of sight, out of mind to DH), and if they make a sensible choice, they would have some left over for grad school. Moral of the story: figure out when you're dating if your partner intends to support their parents and at what cost. Don't be surprised, then resentful, like I was.

yes, definately figure out what your future spouse plans to do with their parents. I agree, you need to help your parents if you can, but your own immediate family should come first and if you cannot afford to fund your parents, then you don't

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???

Well most with "generational wealth" go on to continuing building wealth. Sure there are a few losers who just live off a trust, but vast majority of kids who have parents who fully pay for college, give them first cars and downpayment for a home were simply setup to excel in life. They grew up expecting to do just that, so the financial assistance is just a means to ensure they can easily excel at life. But most that I know are still high earners and have high goals for their careers. It's what you have grown up being expected to do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yes, but you do have a fair number of people who have family either paying for/contributing to school costs and helping with large downpayments/housing.

It’s common my parents paid for school and gave me 200k to buy a house.

Lucky you! I didn’t know that parents helped with down payments until I was in my late 20s and saw it happening for friends.

My spouse and I are high earners and this is definitely one of our financial goals. Giving our kids no school debt + a down payment is such a head start in life.

Children without parents able or willing to pay for school or to help with a home purchase can still do fine if they make sensible decisions and choices. Obtaining an affordable education rather than incurring debt is one path often not taken by those who complain about their financial position. Obtaining a relatively useless education which predictably won't result in highly compensated employment is another. Seeking out jobs in fields which pay poorly is obviously self-defeating in terms of financial well-being. Taking on rent or mortgage payments which exceed a reasonable percentage of income leads to reduced savings and investments, no matter how much you don't want to live in less expensive housing.

+1

Affordable education is the key. There is absolutely no reason to take more than the federal student loan amount of ~$27K total for the 4 years. Your kid can earn $10-12K/year to contribute, take the ~$5-6K of loans yearly and that leaves the parents with $10-15K for state U. If they cannot manage that (don't have any saved) then you search for merit. My 1220/3.5UW/No AP kid could have attended our "2nd State U" for $20K with the merit they got. And they attended a T100 school (had 3 with similar offers) that only cost us $40K/year (5 years ago--merit awards would make it similar costs still). But they could have attended 2-3 instate schools for under $20K, that my kid could have almost paid for themselves with student loans and working (summer/breaks/10 hours PT during the year). Had we needed the $$, they could have done it even cheaper, they simply didn't search for merit as it wasn't needed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's possible, we did it. You have to delay kids to your mid to late 30's to give yourself time to save and invest for a house in Mclean. Most younger people are blowing money on stupid stuff like Starbucks, fake nails, tattoos, travel,

meh. We met in college, got married soon after graduation and had two kids by the time
we were 28. Bought our first house at 23 and our 2nd inside the beltway in NOVA by age 26. Combining incomes and having parents who paid for college and cars we had for years for both of us was a huge leg up. We are now 48, careers in full swing near career peak and one kid who has graduated college and well employed and another who is mid college, starting our family early was a big bonus.

Generational wealth

DP. Is it? We are doing that for our kids, on middle class incomes. It isn’t a leg up so much is making sure they aren’t starting out in a deep hole.

If you can simply help with college and encourage them to go somewhere they won't end up with more than the $27K federal loans for undergrad, you have given them a huge advantage. They can pay that off in 3-4 years (or less).
I personally don't understand why anyone would take massive loans to attend college. It puts you in a deep hole that can be challenging to dig out of.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yes, but you do have a fair number of people who have family either paying for/contributing to school costs and helping with large downpayments/housing.

It’s common my parents paid for school and gave me 200k to buy a house.

My parents paid for school, including law school, and bought me a car. We can't do that for our kids because DH is supporting both of his parents right now, and it's a huge drain. I've got 529 plans covered for any undergrad (I had to set up direct paycheck contributions so they are out of sight, out of mind to DH), and if they make a sensible choice, they would have some left over for grad school. Moral of the story: figure out when you're dating if your partner intends to support their parents and at what cost. Don't be surprised, then resentful, like I was.

You would have made him a huge favour by marrying someone rich like you instead.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yes, but you do have a fair number of people who have family either paying for/contributing to school costs and helping with large downpayments/housing.

It’s common my parents paid for school and gave me 200k to buy a house.

My parents paid for school, including law school, and bought me a car. We can't do that for our kids because DH is supporting both of his parents right now, and it's a huge drain. I've got 529 plans covered for any undergrad (I had to set up direct paycheck contributions so they are out of sight, out of mind to DH), and if they make a sensible choice, they would have some left over for grad school. Moral of the story: figure out when you're dating if your partner intends to support their parents and at what cost. Don't be surprised, then resentful, like I was.

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???

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yes, but you do have a fair number of people who have family either paying for/contributing to school costs and helping with large downpayments/housing.

It’s common my parents paid for school and gave me 200k to buy a house.

Lucky you! I didn’t know that parents helped with down payments until I was in my late 20s and saw it happening for friends.

My spouse and I are high earners and this is definitely one of our financial goals. Giving our kids no school debt + a down payment is such a head start in life.

Children without parents able or willing to pay for school or to help with a home purchase can still do fine if they make sensible decisions and choices. Obtaining an affordable education rather than incurring debt is one path often not taken by those who complain about their financial position. Obtaining a relatively useless education which predictably won't result in highly compensated employment is another. Seeking out jobs in fields which pay poorly is obviously self-defeating in terms of financial well-being. Taking on rent or mortgage payments which exceed a reasonable percentage of income leads to reduced savings and investments, no matter how much you don't want to live in less expensive housing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yes, but you do have a fair number of people who have family either paying for/contributing to school costs and helping with large downpayments/housing.

It’s common my parents paid for school and gave me 200k to buy a house.

Lucky you! I didn’t know that parents helped with down payments until I was in my late 20s and saw it happening for friends.

My spouse and I are high earners and this is definitely one of our financial goals. Giving our kids no school debt + a down payment is such a head start in life.