In my family it’s indeed over after three generations. My great-grandfather started a ceramics company which flourished - grandma had a huge inheritance which she managed well, my dad and his siblings just inhereted whatever she left them (not sure about details). Not sure they’ll have much, if anything, left for us.

Generational wealth seems to be a modern buzzword, it was rarely used prior a few years ago for the simple reason there are so many variations and definitions. Like PP, we're on the 5-6th generation of college educated, each generation was solidly comfortable, but no massive wealth or anything approaching it. What does it really mean? That each generation did provide advice, support, knowledge, family stability that allowed the next generation to establish itself.

We seem to be in a continuous loop of parents paying for most of college or providing a viable way and children inheriting something. 5th generation heading to college soon.

My mother’s paternal family had some extra money but it was lost in the Depression. College was still provided.

I know several families who have weathered the generational storms. They have made it to g3, g4, g5 and are only stronger. They are not the majority, but there are some very special families who have navigated the struggles of immense wealth and have the robust family networks to prove it.

The crack in the armor happens at G3. Keep a firm hand and maintain the discipline of G1.

My great aunt's friends created generational wealth. The husband became rich through the production of a part that became incorporated into automobile seats and other furniture right when autos began to be mass produced. He and the wife lived off of the interest and passed the assets to their only daughter and then the grandchildren. They live off the interest so the wealth will pass to the next generations.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grandfather patented two very profitable things that are still in use today. We should all be filthy rich but he divorced my grandma and remarried. She outlived him and I assume her kids/his stepkids are doing very well.

So it goes.

Sounds like this is still generational wealth, only not for you or your kids.

Sort of, if you squint? I think people use generational wealth to mean handed down through the family, and it's not in the hands of anyone with his blood. And it's not like they were his "stepkids" in the sense he raised them or would think of them as his own. They married later and each of their kids were in their 30s/40s at the time. But it's a new generation for the second wife, if you count that.

Anonymous wrote:Grandfather patented two very profitable things that are still in use today. We should all be filthy rich but he divorced my grandma and remarried. She outlived him and I assume her kids/his stepkids are doing very well.

So it goes.

Oh yikes. I wonder if this is what happened to someone I know. I’ve been so confused by why she doesn’t seem as rich as she should be and works in biglaw.

Everything is on a scale.

$100M is more than $10M is more than $1M is more than $20K is more n $3k is more than $0 is more than inheriting a sibling or cousin to care for.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you define generational wealth?

Literally the term means when wealth (any money or real assets) are passed from one generation to the next. Any other definition is DCUM bs.

Really? So when grandpa gives a grandkid $20, that's generational wealth? When a parent passes away and leaves $10,000 split between three heirs, that's generational wealth?

If that's really your position, all future conversations regarding generational wealth are pointless.

3 generations in our family. My great grandparents were “wealthy” Midwesterners. Nothing like the wealth of today, but had enormous home, owned lots of real estate, drivers, maids, very privileged lives. They had 10 children and so the wealth was divided and my grandmother got some, but not much. She left money to all of her children and they all blew it. I got a much smaller amount, blew it (I was 21!), and that’s the last of it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you define generational wealth?

Literally the term means when wealth (any money or real assets) are passed from one generation to the next. Any other definition is DCUM bs.

By that definition I have generational wealth on my Mom's side that has been going for 3 generations. But if I talk about it here everyone will tell me that I'm actually LMC and I don't know what "wealth" is.

My grandfather started a company in 1955 that continues to generate about $1 million in dividends split among 5 now adult grandchildren in their 50s. Some of us have used this to save for our own kids, one cousin lives on it entirely. We’ll see what happens with the next generation.

My fathers family is on 5 generations.... i plan on leaving my kids a healthy start in life, but they are going to have to work full time just like i did.

I don't know much about wealth in my family. My mother was the child of poor immigrant parents. Grandfather drank himself to death. Grandma lived until her 90s with various children. Died with zero.

My father came from a wealthy mother and a working-class father. Not sure where the wealth of my great grandparents ended up, but my father and his brother received about $400k each in 1994 when their mother died. Unclear if there was ever any "squandered" or not, but doesn't seem to be.

My parents worked steadily and are worth about $5M now in their 80s. There are three kids so we will each get $1.5M or so. Not sure if that qualifies. My plan is to place it into a separate account and use it for things like helping our children with weddings, down payments, cars, and college for their kids. I hope they will use any inheritance from me and my spouse to do the same. Is that generational wealth? Maybe, but we are all working.

Anonymous wrote:How do you define generational wealth?

Literally the term means when wealth (any money or real assets) are passed from one generation to the next. Any other definition is DCUM bs.