Don’t count on anything. My dad blew all his money. My mom is selfish and giving it all to my sibling but lies saying it’s shared. Till it’s in hand plan nothing.

How much do you have in your own retirement? You may just have trouble spending money and the “if I had an inheritance is it different” is a red herring. No one says fo go nuts, but you may be able to afford more car or more vacations if you were looking realistically at your financials. I understand you, because I have a good, solid pension, 2mill+ in my 401k, and every calculator on the planet tells me I have more than enough and I can’t bring myself to pull the trigger on a new Honda to replace my 15 year old car. It’s a me thing. There will likely be some inheritance as well, but I don’t count on that and don’t need it for my own financial security.

Never, never trust a boomer! They are very different than their parents. Many fall into cognitive decline and live on for decades falling victim to their own worst impulses or falling for legal or illegal scams.

1. Deciding to squander their savings on “investing” with unscrupulous friends, family and acquaintances.
2. Falling for online scams.
3. Losing large sums to private equity investors.
4. Running into astronomical assisted living and healthcare.
5. One spouse dying before the other, remarrying and your inheritance goes entirely to gold diggers family.

You cannot enjoy the inheritance from your elderly parents because you also will be old by then (their death) and there could be other costs that depletes the wealth.

Grandkids are the true beneficiary of inheritance...and they too would be in their 20s and 30s.

Parents should give the maximum tax-free gift that they can (if they have the capacity) for things they value to their kids and not make them wait for end of life inheritance.

We are UMC now but we do not have big inheritance to give our kids. However, our financial gifts for them till now are
- Debt-free college education
- Have them on our medical insurance till they age out.
- Let them stay with us for free (no rent, no food costs, no cost for using our cars and electronics, no utilities cost, they can host their friends and parties at home) if they work near us - so they could build their nest eggs.
- Gave them access (and covered costs for them) for our Amazon, WF, Costco, dept stores, Uber, Starbucks. Put them on our family plan for various subscriptions.

We also gave them the following because we were able to afford it (since they earned their tuition through merit scholarships) -
- New sedan once they went to college that should hopefully last them for 10 years
- Set up their first apartment - rent for a few months, all basic material things they needed to live comfortably.
- 1st professional wardrobe once they started working.
- Seed money when they starting college. Covered additional costs so that they could use their internship earnings to put in retirement and investments.
- Being financially solvent and secure ourselves so that my kids do not have to fund us in our old age. Taking care of our health and home so that we are not a burden to our kids in the next 20 years.

In future we will pay entirely for their wedding. If we have the financial wherewithal we will help with down payment to their home.

Is any of that $6M in a 401K? If so, you have to pay income taxes on it with ten years so it may be worth far less to you. Ask me how I know.

Live as if you aren't getting anything. I inherited money and am going to try and pass most of it to my children or gift it to them as down payments, etc., because I don't need it but they probably will or it will at least help their retirements. I am glad this is an option for me and it's because I only lived on what we made.

Anonymous wrote:No. Not now. It’s still speculative.

But when/if the inheritance hits, I’m doing massive gifting to my kids. They need it more than us. Need a down payment on a house large enough for manageable mortgage payments and flexibility to not have golden handcuffs to a job you hate? Done.

This is what I’ll do. We have about as much right now and expect to inherit a bit more. Kids are in high school. 2 parents left and they aren’t in great health. The might get scammed out of their money but they won’t be able to use it all on care. I will happily fill pa for private college and a house to get them started.

Everything is a balancing act. Id you save every dollar and don't take vacations you're trading family time and memories for financial security, etc. If I had no concerns about financial security I would definitely prioritize time with my family (including aging parents) over scrimping. This is not the same as saying "stop saving for retirement" or "only drive new cars" -- I would still be financial responsible. Just no longer fearful enough to put saving money ahead of everything.

We're struggling with this. If my parents who are in their early 80s died today I would inherit around $6M. DH will also have a sizable inheritance but that will be more real-estate/land. We still save the full amount in our retirement and 529s etc. But given how much of my parents wealth is tied up in retirement accounts and all the new rules for inheriting/taxes we're starting to think we need a new investment plan. The past couple years my parents have started gifting us around 30K and paying our kids private school tuition. That has helped open up our spending particularly for travel. I bought the extra legroom on our flights over Christmas and we felt like big spenders! Ha. We're debating buying a new car but our old cars are running just fine. It would be nice to get something a little newer and fancier but we're just not car people.

Inheritance taxes could change at any time in the future. This country has major debt. Or that $6 million may not be worth as much as you think. Devaluation of the dollar is real. Inflation is real. We live in uncertain times. You can do lots of things that don't cost a lot and have good memories. In fact, some of my best memories with my family have to do with simpler things that happened closer to home. Just a thought.

Money is so much more useful when you are younger. We inherited some money a couple of years ago at the age of 50. Our kids were already in college/about to start college. We already owned a house etc.

We don’t really need this money as we had saved for college and retirement without knowing we would eventually inherit, and we don’t benefit from it like we would’ve when we were younger (we had some student loans, bought in a not great school district etc.).

I don’t have a direct answer for you but this experience has made us rethink how we can use the money to support our kids while they are in their 20s and 30s rather than just having them inherit it once they are settled and have less need for the money.

The goal of an inheritance is to pass it to your descendants. Build generational wealth. Invest in creation. Only tap a little into the interest.

No. Not now. It’s still speculative.

But when/if the inheritance hits, I’m doing massive gifting to my kids. They need it more than us. Need a down payment on a house large enough for manageable mortgage payments and flexibility to not have golden handcuffs to a job you hate? Done.

I am going to inherit 4M. I do not count on it. Anything can happen. I get $18,000 per year. I do not count on it.

Anonymous wrote:Unless this money is in trust for you specifically, you don't know whether 6M will still be there when they die, OP. Your parents might live to 90 and need very expensive end of life care. Nursing homes can be 20K a month.

We might inherit a few mil from our parents, but we're not including that in our budget.

I don’t think even the most intensive end of life care would burn through 6 mil, but certainly the parents could leave the money to someone else, lose it in a scam, one dies and the other remarries and leaves it all to the new “stepmom” …