Inheritances

[ysi]

I haven't inherited anything, unless you count handmedown furniture :-) My parents thru the years have inherited money from their parents, aunt, brother. I don't know my aunts arrangements but I suspect if they have anything left it will go to their church. My retirement plan has choices of monthly payments for lifetime, larger monthly payments for abbreviated number of years, plans that have an inheritance factor versus plans where if you die early your heirs get nothing, etc.

Have you inherited? What did/will you use the inheritance for? Will anyone inherit from you? Relatives only, or do you want to leave money for church, charity, etc?

[Anne_in_VA]

I didn't inherit anything - brother got it all. But then, I never expected anything anyway although I would have liked to have a few things.

My mom did distribute some things to my sisters and I a few years before she died, but my brother got the house and everything else.

[cronewitch]

I still have a mother and hope to be elderly before she dies. If she has anything left it will go to my brothers and I evenly.

She was 80 when her mother died and left her and her sister 65K, she put it in the bank with her other money.

I will leave mine to a niece and nephew who are about 20-25 years younger than be so they should be retired or to my boyfriend if he is still around.

I hope nobody you love dies when you are young enough for the money to matter to you.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

. . o O (You mean we don't get to take our money and stuff WITH us?)

[Bluerobin]

I got a few small inheritances. The money was invested. I am leaving my money to the Salavation Army, SPCA and the House goes to Habitat for Humanity. The nephews get first choice of the furnishings, etc in the house.

[TD2K]

My grandmother sent me a check before she died. Not a huge sum till you figured out how many grandchildren she had. I talked to her but she assured me she could do this and wanted to do it now rather than after she died and my Dad also confirmed she was financially okay.

[Peace Of Mind]

I've received an inheritance from my real father's side of the family. I purchased lake front property with it. DH and I will leave a small amount to relatives ($50K each) and the rest goes to charities near and dear to our hearts. I have a trust set up for my kitties with one of my best friends who is a lawyer and another friend who gets first choice of who she takes in. She will get $10K per kitty with an annual allowance per cat, but she doesn't know that. It will be a surprise for her and it gives me peace of mind knowing they will be cared for properly. <<waits for people's heads to explode>>

[MN-Investor]

My DH and I both inherited from his dear bachelor uncle. I thought he might leave my DH a token amount, like $5K. He left both of us 6-figure amounts. Needless to say, we were flabbergasted. At that point in our lives, we were in our early 50s and had a good sized nest egg of our own and really didn't need anything, so we've just added it to our investments. In fact, it was the need to figure out what to do with this money which led me to YM in the first place!

We don't have children. Right now our wills are written to leave the money to nephews and nieces and one sibling. I think they will be surprised. Of course, we may just live long enough to blow it in retirement, and that's ok too. No one expects money from us, so no one would be disappointed.

[cronewitch]

My dad gave us money in 1985 he called an inheritance. Thirteen thousand each, he wanted to watch us spend it. I was divorced and looking for a house, I found a house for 51,500 and put 11,500 down and used the rest for closing cost. My good brother was unemployed most of the year before and that year while raising kids and a wife in college, he already had a house. He spend his on a side of beef, hot tub and 10 cords of firewood. He heated with wood so it was years of heat. My other brother didn't get money dad got him a new van to haul his kids and made him promise to not borrow on it. He did anyhow, dad was mad.

[haapai]

I got one of those early inheritances too. Grandma gave me $10k in mutual funds that were inappropriate for a person of her age. It was my first emergency fund. About 40% disappeared when the tech bubble burst and I squandered the rest of it by sitting on my butt for a year.

It's not a pleasant memory.

About five years later, another distribution was made, also for $10K. That one landed up in my 401(k). All of it. Plus the amount that I had reduced my taxes. I set up a fairly complicated set of automatic transfers to make sure that happened.

[suziq38]

You don't inherit anything because with medical costs, caregiver, and nh costs, there isn't much left.
That is O.K. by me. I didn't pay a cent for it (the inheritance).
I say, "Don't count on it these days."

[sesfw]

I just received an inheritance from my father and I haven't decided what to do with it yet. Have an appointment with 'my guy' next week to talk about it. Several options.

[T Skeeter]

Haapai, sounds like your Gran was pretty savvy. Some money to learn about managing money. Then some money that you actually manage effectively, a little later.

[TrixAre4Kids]

I got kind of an early inheritance from my folks too, about $30k. Sadly, this was back in days of listening to Suzy Orman. Can I say her name here? So I invested it in my roth 5k per year, which is where she recommended you put your 'emergency fund'. Then does anybody remember the market meltdown of 2008? Snicker. Can anybody figure out what happened to my 'emergency fund' - HA! Expensive lesson learned. DON'T invest your 'emergency fund'?!?!?! And take Suzy with a grain of salt!

[Deleted]

No inheritances coming for me. Thats why I'm trying to steal a line from Dave Ramsey's book 'change my famliy tree'. Its true that maybe my savings will be wiped away by medical cost or market meltdown or some other unfortunate event, but I would like to be able to leave something behind.

[debtheaven]

DH and I both inherited a modest sum at about the same time. We both kept our inheritances separate and just left them for about four years. We ended up buying a few investment properties with most of that money. We live in a HCOLA so we bought 1BR apts. We left the rest for college for two of our kids, and for the occasional vacation. This said, we live in Europe and college isn't crazy expensive here like it is in the US. And we bought those rentals six or seven years ago, before real estate went through the roof.

We contribute to charities of our choice regularly (not 10% of our income though). We plan for our children to inherit, but only once we're gone. Hopefully they will all have made their own way before that happens, as we did. Until then, those rentals will help pay for our youngest child's college, and then our retirement.

We intentionally took out a 12 year loan on the most expensive rental so that the loan would be paid off just as our youngest child finishes high school.

[alabamagal]

I have inherited very little. My family (and DH) is definitely middle class, and I really expect nothing from inheritances, if I get a little bit that is left over, that is great. DH and I are both late 40s, we have gone through the grandparents deaths so far. DH got nothing from his. From mine, the first set to pass on left me about $1000, I invested in my kids college funds (3), so really just a small amount. Also received a dining room set, which we needed for our new (at the time) house. Other set left us $2000, which we used to purchase an electronic piano. The piano sat unused for ~10 years, but DS has shown a great interest in it. We have told him he can have it once he finishes college and gets a semi-permanent place to live.

Our parents are in their 70s now. On DH side, they have absolutely no money, and we worry that they do not have enough to live on. On my side, my parents are very "comfortable" in their retirement, but they spend a lot of their money on travel (motorhome). I belive they should spend their money. I don't really know much about their financial situation, but they have a ~$500,000 home (that they paid $10,000 for 40 years ago) that is completely paid off. I don't believe they will touch this money. With 2 brothers, I would expect to get some money upon their deaths, but I am certainly not counting on, or really expecting it.

[breezy]

After my Dad died, my Mother gifted to me for a few years - a total of $50,000. I opened a 529 college savings a/c w/half of it and put the other half into a Roth.

I would love to be able to pass the Roth on to my son, but I may have to use it to fund his college.

As far as future inheritance, I'm not counting on any. My Mom is pretty well off, and she is also very healthy. So, I hope to have her around for many years to come. She is very generous and if I ever needed help she would surely give it.

I think its important to make my own way and not count on someone else's money.

[Gardening Grandma]

Have you inherited? Not me. DH did inherit about $150K from his mom a number of years back.

What did/will you use the inheritance for? He paid cash for the lot we built our house on. The rest was invested and we draw the earnings each month (we're retired)

Will anyone inherit from you? I hope to leave something for my kids & grandkids. At a minimum I want to leave something for my disabled DGD.

Relatives only, or do you want to leave money for church, charity, etc? If I had a ton of money to leave, I'd definitely leave something to the local homeless shelter & humane society.

[kimber45]

Have you inherited? Nope and I am not looking to get anything from my parents. They have inherited money and blown it all. Now as to DH, the IL's have been giving us small amounts every year instead of one chunk all out once.

We only have one child, so when DH and I go, he will get everything (well, at least what's left)

[thyme4change]

I got $5k when my Grandma passed away. I bought a new A/C. My Gran was very practical, so my Dad and I agreed she would have loved that purchase.

I got another $5k (I think) when the other Grandma passed. We didn't really have anything going on then - so we just threw it on the pile of money. I guess I probably lost a bunch of it in the stock market disintigration. I don't know - I never tracked it seperate.

My parents have a decent amount of money and my father has mentioned many times that it will be split evenly between me and my sisters. However, my parents are healthy and strong and we come from a long line of people that live into their mid or late 90's, so I suspect most of my parents' money will be eaten up before they go. That's is great. I'm not counting on a penny - I'd rather have them - no question.

[debtheaven]

For those of you who say you'd prefer to have your parents than an inheritance, as if it were a badge of honor ... DH and I would have greatly preferred that too. However, nobody ever asked us which we'd prefer, our parents, or the inheritances.

So having inherited, like it or not, we tried our best to "do right" by our parents and honor them by using their money wisely.

I just wanted to point that out. Not a day goes by that we do not think of our parents and all they have given us, and the inheritances are pretty low on the list.

[thyme4change]

We all know that death isn't something anyone controls by wishing. And frankly, I would rather my parents die quickly and painlessly and give all their money to charity then to have the long, drawn out death that both of my grandmothers had. Alzheimers is a painful process to watch. My Grandmothers would just sit and cry because they didn't know what was going on. There just doesn't seem to be a good answer.

The only reason I spelled out that I didn't want my parents dead is because I brought up this topic before and I got accused of wanting my parents to die so I could have their money. I don't have the temperment today to have some loser think they know I'm a heartless jerk and judge me on this money board. Maybe tomorrow we can go back to calling me names - but really, I want my parents to live a long, happy, healthy life and do whatever they want with their money.

[debtheaven]

Thank you for clarifying that Thyme, I appreciate it. And I know that you can love your parents dearly and want them to be healthy and live as long as possible, AND, anticipate a time when they are no longer around.

We were both around 40 when we lost our parents (all four of them in under 23 months). So old enough to have "made it" on our own, but not high earners. So we were in a place where we could really think about how to use that money intelligently, and in a way that would "honor" them as well as helping us. We also really wanted to use that money to benefit the next generation (our kids). Hence the rentals, some college tuition (again we are in Europe not the US) and a vacation fund.

Thyme I'm sorry about your grandmas. My close friend here was an Alzheimer's nurse for over 10 years, she couldn't take it any more and left that specialized nursing home two years ago.

[thyme4change]

debtheaven - I am so sorry you lost all your parents around 40 - that is just too young. I am just over 40 now, and I'm thinking I'll get another 20-25 years out of my parents.

[cronewitch]

I would be really sad to lose my parents at 40, I was 45 when dad died and it was much too soon. Mom is 84 and claims her doctor said she can live to 120 since she hasn't got anything that will cause her death. She has been on a diet since Feb and lost 47lbs, taken up walking 2 miles a day and doing all the yard work except mowing, she goes to the yard several times a day to pick up pine cones and rake needles and dig dandelions. If she leaves pine cones the dogs use them for balls and might cut their mouths. Even if she doesn't make 120 I expect to have her for another 15 years or more.

[Deleted]

DH got a sizable inheritance about 12 years ago. It was a pass through from his grandmother's estate some 30 years before. Because we were already pretty comfortable, we have simply treated it as our retirement money. It will allow DH to retire early, at 53 in 18 months.
I've not inherited much financially but that's ok. I used to joke that I'd be lucky if I didn't have to make payments so my parents could retire. Although I miss my mom, I'm grateful that her untimely death at age 70 was quick (41 days from diagnosis to death) otherwise it would have been horrible trying to deal with both her dying as well as complete financial melt-down.
We have no kids so our wills/trusts give some token amounts to my niece and nephews. Then a trust for the cats with the balance split between an animal shelter and a land trust (to preserve wildlands). That assumes, of course we don't spend it all. DH's grandfather lived to 102!

[dancinmama]

Anything we inherit will be added to our retirement emergency fund.

We have one son who will inherit the home we live in (if we don't sell it first). We don't "plan" to have much cash left at "the end".

[Wisconsin Beth]

DH and I were gifted with $500 from his grandmother's estate as a wedding present. Don't know if that counts as an inheritance or not.

We're not expecting to get money from either set of parents. His have a houseful of stuff we'll have to wade though. With mine, I've got dibs on the books and the ugly pots from Aunt Stell's place.

I am so not ready to lose my parents. Dad had a stroke almost 13 months ago and that made us sharply aware of our parents mortality. I try to treasure them while I've got them now.

[The J]

Luckily, I've only lost one grandparent so far, so I haven't inherited anything. Right now, if I die, my assets are set to be split among a couple of family members who I feel need it more than others. If my sister starts having kids soon, I think I'd change it to provide for their education (at least until if/when I have kids of my own).