Comments on: Squandering the Kids’ Inheritance

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 19:08:03 +0000

Kitty, I totally agree. Parents do play favorites too. For anyone reading this: long term insurance is a farce. You end up paying co pays, etc. Plus, with the new Health Bill, there won’t be long term care; people will be euthanized by death panels. Cancel your long term care ins. now; it’s a fraud!!

By: Kitty LeBouf

Kitty LeBouf — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:12:21 +0000

Hey, if my parents want to spend all their money on vacations and second homes, that’s their perogative. But don’t expect me to bail you out later when you need to go to the nursing home or are disabled because you didn’t allocate funds for that rainy day.
How about when my parents spend their dollars helping my siblings build second homes and fancy vacations and not me simply because I don’t ask for a handout? Thats their business too. But once again, don’t come to me if you run into trouble down the road.

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:01:32 +0000

If you have a good, loving relationship with your parents and your siblings then how ever your parents divide, desolve their estate will likely be fine with you, because you know then, care for them, and love them. But without the relationship, they could likely split it perfectly with you and your siblings, and give some to charity, and you will still find ways to see the division as unfair.

Parents and children, focus on the person not the money, and then the money doesn’t matter.

My wife has 2 other sisters and the relationship with their parents are tough for 2 of the three, and because of it we can already see issues with dealing with the estate. It is too bad, because with all the generosity of the parnets, its still going to end in a fight, because no one has a healthy relationship with ‘Dad’.

With a healthy relationship, no one would even care about the money. It is sad. Love each other and don’t worry about the money.

Blessings to all and their families.

Brian

By: averagejoe

averagejoe — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:54:12 +0000

Mr. Go To,
As more and more Americans come down a few notches in their own financial lives, they are going to hate and despise anyone who is above them. How dare you own two homes! The nerve of you! Don’t you know in socialist/communist America, we can only own one home, it can only be 625 feet per 2 people and no one gets to have a water view unless they’re an endangered dolphin.

Sorry, dude. But your audience is going to shrink and shrink unless you start giving canasta lessons and double wide decorating tips because that’s about as affluent as the new Americans are going to get.

It’s called ‘wealth distribution’ courtesy of the Obamamaniacs.

My advice is to zip it, less’n ‘they’come to your home and start divying up your assets. Watch ‘Dr Zhaviago’ and you’ll understand.

By: Kathryn

Kathryn — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:12:51 +0000

Dear Mr. GoTo:

I just discovered your website/blog, and I take it for what it’s worth: a place where you write and share YOUR experiences with pre-retirement. Your articles are not going to reflect every person’s situation in pre-retirement, any more than all the gloom and doom articles reflect every person’s situation.

I have enjoyed what you’ve written, and as with any other site, take what I need and leave the rest.

Whatever our varied financial situations, we all face a variety of issues and concerns as we approach retirement — a status that, for some of us, has come sooner in this economy.

I appreciate what you write and what you share. Thank you.

I also read that article which you cite in your own blog, and I saw what you, and the article, were getting at.

I agree with your reader that whatever our parents do with their money is their own business and an inheritance is not an entitlement; however, I also have seen firsthand that some people who have modest funds to last them throughout their own retirement years may be squandering their funds, with their own entitlement mentality: that their kids, or the government, are going to take care of them.

I suppose that’s why long-term care insurance and annuities are becoming so popular.

At the bottom of all this, is, I guess, the sad fact that parents and kids may not spend enough time with each other, and parents can use money either to bribe the kids to come around or to ‘buy’ the companionship they don’t otherwise obtain.

By: Mr. GoTo

Mr. GoTo — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:34:17 +0000

Cathy – Point taken about my “lofty perch.” Unfortunately, I can only write about what I know (or think I know) and what I experience. But I will make a better effort to relate to a broader audience. As for the CNN article I referenced, perhaps you and I see things differently. I have no desire or plan for inheriting but if I discovered my parents wasting their money to a point where they would run out (which happens all too often), I would try to intervene to preserve their finances, not an inheritance. The point of the article I cited was that treating your parents nicely can help in that effort because parents would then be less-inclined to waste away what they have. Anyway, thanks for reading and commenting.