When I opened the WSJ article I could still read it, although it was partially obstructed by the sign-up box at the bottom. But if you keep scrolling you can read the entire article above the box, a few lines at a time. Irritating, but I am not paying for it so I can deal with the incovenience.
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Weird. Opened just fine on my phone. I just clicked on some arrow to close the box obscuring the article.
This:
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I did the same on my Mac without a problem; no login needed.
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There’s definitely no “wrong” way to handle your assets - inheritance, charity, helping children out. It’s mostly a reflection of what you value, and your own risk assessment.
At the moment, once I’m comfortable with my own health, and potential long term care needs (number 1 priority is to not be a burden to my children or anyone else), I plan to spend money with helping my kids out and charity along with travel. That’s mostly shaped by own experience. Hopefully I won’t get any inheritance from my parents until I’m well into my 60’s. But also at that point in time it won’t actually help me out all that much. It falls into this is nice, and definitely appreciated, but as far as impact, it would have been much more impactful if they helped me out with college savings, or things of that nature when I was in my 30’s and 40’s.
We’ll see what actually happens when I reach that age though, social security benefits might be less, or health care more or what not, and I’ll have to be more careful with how I draw down my portfolio.
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I’m there, and my #1 concern is making sure I have enough money to take care of our (H’s & my) needs throughout our lives. I see firsthand how expensive it is to live to be 99 & still chugging along … my MIL is there. She is unable to take care of her own needs, and she needs more one-on-one assistance than the Assisted Living facility can provide.
If MIL doesn’t live forever (she just might), she will probably leave H some money. We aren’t counting on that, so we would gift that to our two kids.
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I feel the same and think once we turn on all four income streams (two pensions, two SS) in less than 10 years, we’ll have a better idea of how our expenses go and are more likely to give kids significant (to us) money then. In the meantime, perhaps your inheritance you can give straight to the kids. We passed some to my kids when my mom died.
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This should be a gift link for anyone unable to read the article already
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I am all for passing down before dying if possible. I think about my FIL. He is 81. He is the only parent my wife and I have left. He is the type that could have a net worth of $300K or $3 million. Neither would surprise me. Very tight lipped about finances.
If he lives another 5-10 years anything passed down will only help our retirement, which we plan on having fully funded without any help. So we would probably start our passing down earlier.
He is somewhat typical of his era. He needs a new recliner but won’t buy one because the one he has still has some miles left on it.
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I think it all depends on how much money one has. If I have a couple million in my late 80’s, I imagine I will be comfortable with gifting money to my kids and GD. If I have drawn down my savings (which is my “pension”) to a point where I might have to worry about how my final years will be funded should I need paid assistance, I probably won’t feel comfortable gifting … in that case, the “gift” would be making sure my kids don’t get stuck taking care of me or paying for my care.
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I agree with that as well. What care in the late late years might look like is the big variable to me. A person might go from living on $2-3K a month to needing care that costs $10-12K a month.
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Interesting read.
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Interesting indeed. I really don’t care for the title, though. The boomer bashing thing is getting old ( no pun intended).
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My mom has quite a bit saved and most likely won’t use up most of it. The issue is 90%+ of her assets are not in IRAs, but in after tax brokerage accounts. A lot of stocks were purchased at very low prices. If she were to wait when she passes away, we could get a step up and avoid paying taxes on the capital gains. None of us, including our children need the money now. I told her to wait.
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Depending on her income, there may be “space” in zero tax bracket
from Nerdwallet
screenshot
my notes:
- chart is for taxable income, after std deduction
- cap gains could cause more SS to be taxed
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My in laws had to sell some stock to pay for my fil’s spilling nursing care. A lot was paid in capital gains.
Their FA and accountant say that my mil got stepped up basis when fil passed away and that we will also when she passes away. We don’t need the money either.
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In cases with huge nursing home expenses, the medical writeoff (amounts over 7.5% of income) could maybe offset much of the tax burden?
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He got sick in the fall and passed away after 2 months. It’s a blessing that he didn’t suffer but they did take a hit on the taxes.
The good news is that they can afford it.
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You would have to have very little income to qualify for 0% capital gain. Most people would pay 15%.
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Up to 99K income (after $32k std deduction) is in the 0% cap gains tax bracket I think that lenty of retirees are in that range, especially if pension is low or non-existent (and drawing mostly from non-taxable assets). Or maybe I am misunderstanding things… hope not since I actually gave this info to somebody today. screenshot
People with less than 100k income probably shouldn’t be gifting because there could be a lot of unexpected expenses as one gets older. People who could afford to gift probably would have a lot of dividend, interest or annuity income. It is in my mom’s case, but I am still concerned about her possible long term care expenses.
I personally think our parents and ourselves should enjoy our savings instead of worrying about gifting our kids. We have raised them well and they could make their own ways.
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