FREE NEWSLETTER
Ran across this. Not HD content or indeed probably the average HDer being discussed but interesting on the general problems faced by over 60s
https://sherwood.news/personal-finance/boomers-money-secrets-millennial-gen-z-troubles/
I’ve always thought inheritance would eventually be the only way many of their grandkids would achieve real financial security but it seems some may be passing on a millstone in legacy.
My wife and I are all for the early inheritance camp of “doing for our kids”, but we do it in the way of helping (or all out providing) for experiences for our daughters’ families. We understand how difficult it is to raise kids with the basic necessities that our grandkids (ages 2-13) have.
We provide support via paying for summer camps for our grandkids so that they can have great experiences/ memories, while their parents continue to work during these non-school times of the year.
We sent our daughters to summer sleep away camp and it was a great experience that they always remember and made them much more independent (the younger ones go to day camp programs now, but will hopefully go to sleep away camp when they get older).
We also take our family on a nice vacation each year during one of the school breaks I.e. last year a cruise over Christmas, and this coming President’s week, a trip to Mexico. We know that these extra expenses are beyond the means of young working families and it gives us the added benefit of spending extended time with our grandkids.
With all that said, we don’t deny ourselves the benefits of our hard work throughout our lives and our view on actual inheritance and passing on of wealth to our family eventually is…”If we don’t fly first class, our kids will”. LOL
Referring to the title is this article, this is what I’ve suggested to my children and grandchildren :
1) Start investing when you get your very first paycheck into a Roth IRA
2) Invest in a broadly diversified low cost index fund
3) If you start investing a certain percentage of your income, try to increase that percentage 1% per year
4) Never Stop
Exactly what I have told them all. My grandchildren are too young to act on their own, but I have encouraged my children to set up brokerage accounts for them to get them started. I have encouraged the teenagers to always save something.
One tip you can do for your kids when they’re young, is freeze their credit. Identity theft being what it is these days, young people with SSNs are vulnerable to identity theft. This avoids a nasty surprise when they begin applying for credit in the future.
We are boomers who have never and still do not discuss the details of our finances with our adult daughters or, for that matter, with anyone else except our financial advisor and the CPA who prepares our tax returns.
Frankly, we have not viewed our finances as any of our daughters’ concern. When, as a teen, our younger daughter would ask if we could afford something, my wife’s standard answer was “yes, Dad earns a good living.” When we started making annual legacy gifts to our daughters