Lucky for me my parents were both “I didn’t save anything for retirement, my kids will take care of me when I’m older”, so I don’t have to suffer through this.
Oh this is me. Their house is packed and they keep buying more shit and going on international cruises. We’ll get nothing.
And that bothers you? Do you only care about money?
Related Twilight Zone clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMGJLZDLpUg
I’m pretty sure all of us have given up on any boomer giving us anything anyway
That should work out since most boomers didn’t get anything from their parents either.
Haha, that was long spent before I was out of grade school.
Inheritance is weird. My partner and I stand to inherit a good bit when the parents on either side pass. Both sides of the family had successful middle class careers saved and invested well. Even considering the siblings on both sides, we could inherit an amount around $1M from either side.
But it’s weird in two ways. First, it’s not something that can be counted on. On either side it could be completely eaten up by nursing home care and medical costs for our parents. So we’re not planning our own retirement assuming a windfall from inheritance. Second, on either side, unless they’re unlucky, at least one of the parents is likely to live into their late 80s or 90s. So we’ll already be in our 60s or 70s.
In other words, while we stand to likely inherit a good chunk of change, it will come so late in life that we won’t really need it. Unless our parents die younger than expected, we will already be well into a fully funded retirement by the time they pass.
I feel inheritance made a lot more sense in the past. A farmer or a craftsman would will their farm or business to their children. And that child would take over that business while the parent was still alive, but too old to work it anymore. The child got the business or farm, but in turn had to support the parent in their later years.
But now? You’re basically just inheriting your parent’s house and whatever is left over of their retirement accounts. And you’re doing so at an age where it really doesn’t necessarily help you. Sure, if you yourself are unable to retire, then that windfall will be a godsend. But considering how wealth reproduces through generations, if you’re in a position to inherit substantial funds from your parents, odds are you probably have a pretty big nest egg yourself built up by then. The people who could really use an inheritance to fund their retirement are unlikely to have parents wealthy enough to give them one.
But yeah, this is why I support strong inheritance taxes. For most people who inherit anything substantial, by the time you actually inherit something, you don’t really need it anymore.
In my family the house was sold so that we could pay for the funeral. (Funerals are super expensive and the house was rotting)
However, if you do get some money later in life you could always invest and grow it so that it can be passed down. By the time you die hopefully your kids will be responsible enough to manage it (I am assuming you have kids)
This money you use to pay for your children or grandchildren’s college, house, whatever. Same as the last hundred years
I was sitting in the room while my friend’s dad was having a argument with his horrible dad. The horrible dad threatened to write him out of his will, and my friend’s dad respond, “Why do you think I’d want 1/6th of fuck all anyway?”
I wouldn’t be so blunt with my mother about things, but every time she talks about inheritance I encourage her to just spend the money on herself. Anything will be spilt between 7 kids overall (3 hers, 4 my late step dad). She is holding on to an expensive ring because my very well off, money hungry sister, has basically demanded it, so I’m working behind the scenes to try get her to sell it so she can invest in making her last few years that much easier.
I don’t think what’s talked about enough is kids having the talk with their parents about not being able to take care of them when they get old because you can’t afford to take of yourself and didn’t save anything for retirement. So you hope SSN will be enough for them. I know my mother always asked me if I would take care of her when she got old.
She would say that’s why she had kids. But I had to sit her down and run the math and I said it’s not about if I have the will or not it’s is it possible and the math just doesn’t workout and I have an okay job. I can only imagine what people lower down on the ladder are going through.
There are a lot of boomers that about to get a horrible wake up call and a lot of heartbreak watching our parents suffer at hands of their own making.
They will be drowning and some kids are going to jump in and get pulled under when trying to rescue them and the ones who know they don’t have to proper equipment. Stay out of the water and mourn the loss.
I’m sure there is more to it but telling you she had kids so you can take care of her sounds pretty bad - even though I know it’s not uncommon.
I have had to have this talk with my parents as well since I moved to a different country at 19. I’ve told them to prepare for me not to be able to be around all the time, and luckily they have done that. It still feels selfish after so many years and they have been great about it, so I can understand this conversation being extremely difficult when the parents expect to be taken care of.
Ahh yes, the genereation widely know for being obnoxiously entitled, making obnoxiously entitled memes.
I want my parents to enjoy what they’ve earned and to have enough money to handle expenses of aging. I’m an anti natalist but I don’t fault then for doing something that was expected by everyone at the time which was having kids, and they really did their best. I have dedicated my life to gerontology and helping the aging population. If humanity is going extinct, let’s go out with compassion.
How dare they raise you and then spend their own money?!
I would argue that the stereotype is that most Boomer parents did not actually do much “raising.” They had kids out of some sense of obligation and then kept on focusing on themselves.
Boomers, as a cohort, are incredibly narcissistic and obstinate.
That said, I don’t particularly care about an inheritance; I want my Dad to live as long as he can and be happy and healthy.
Gen X and especially millennials are the first ones to be mostly raised by two working parents. We’ve been fucked since we left the womb.
Boomers: Stay at home moms were the norm.
Before that, huge families and “it takes a village”
Nowadays, it takes three jobs to be able to afford daycare.
I’m all for the average retiree spending freely and enjoying what they earned. They spent a lifetime working; it’s their money. Inheritance issues create way too many family disputes.
I’m not quite a boomer, but I do see this generation as just wanting hand-outs. -Oh wait… that’s just how it appears online because they’re the ones with all the time to post about it.
Inheritance is clearly societal ill, and even on a personal level, depending on inheritance might cause family troubles
I’m suing my sister right now because her low life boyfriend talked her into short changing us. Then my mom died so I’m getting double. Yeah. Family troubles indeed.
My thought is that if you’re going to give money, don’t wait until you die. The earlier you help someone, the more of their life it can improve. Help your kid buy their first house or something. Then spend everything before you die.
Us child free Gen Xers on the other hand…
Same!
No one should expect to inherit anything when their loved ones die.
The worst people are those that are too lazy to build something on their own, but sit around praying for their parents death so they can inherited and live an easy life.
Lewis Carroll has an interesting piece about that. Brings up the point that if someone works hard to benefit the community, and their wealth represents the response of the community to repay that person’s work, perhaps it’s not unreasonable that that person’s request is, “repay it to my children,” i.e. inheritance.
My aunt talked her mom out of kitchen remodel because it’s going to cost so much (that she’ll get smaller ineritance then) while my grandmom, who already spends most of her time alone at home then can’t even spend her savings to make her surroundings a bit nicer.
