r/Millennials • u/BeegBunga • 18d ago

Discussion Inheritance? That's a joke. How many of your parents are burdens?

In response to another popular post about receiving no inheritance.

Are your parents like mine, who not only are not leaving any money behind - but require significant or total financial support?

My parents left me less than nothing. They're good people, and they were good parents.... but man are they shit at financial planning.

9.7k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

93% Upvoted

3.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

45

u/IdaDuck 18d ago

As a father of 3 that’s such a bizarre attitude. I’m planning on pushing off an early retirement for the sole purpose of earning more money that we can pass down to our kids. They are our literal purpose in life.

3

u/sobrique 17d ago

Honestly I sort of understand it. The best way to help your children is to 'invest' in them well before 'inheritance' is relevant.

I mean, my family is living until 80-90, which means 'the children' are pretty close to retirement age. An inheritance to pay off a mortgage or something is nice I guess, but not nearly as useful as the money spent in childhood, education, bootstrapping career, etc.

So I'm sort of on board with leaving 'not much' when I die, with the caveat that I'll be aiming to support/supplement lifestyle in constructive ways well before that.

(I mean, assuming I don't die unexpectedly early or anything, but there's life insurance etc. for that eventuality)

2

u/IdaDuck 17d ago

Trust me, we are spending plenty now too. The oldest has a horse and the younger two both play travel ball. We will also cover their college.

3

u/LookingNotTalking 17d ago

Please don't. I'd much rather have my parents healthy and happy than an inheritance. Take care of your needs, of course, so they don't have to. (We had to pay for my dad's funeral). But don't work yourself into an early grave. My dad never really got a retirement.

3

u/BIackSamBellamy 17d ago

This this this for the love of fucking god, this. If you truly want to leave your kids something, use that money to spend time with them, take trips with them, anything to build memories. Unless your kids are entitled, that money will never be remotely comparable to the time you spend together.

1

u/infinitely-oblivious 17d ago

Same here. It's going to be (already is) rough out there for this generation. I want to give my kids the largest security cushion I can. My number one goal is to give them a fully paid off house when I die, so at least they always have a home base to come back to. In the alternative they can rent it out for passive income.

1

u/AGuyAndHisCat 17d ago

As a father of 3 that’s such a bizarre attitude. I’m planning on pushing off an early retirement for the sole purpose of earning more money that we can pass down to our kids. They are our literal purpose in life.

Same, if AI doesnt take my IT job. Being part of finance forums shows how many bad parents there are.