We want to answer your questions about money. Email us and you may hear yours on the air: askpete@petetheplanner.com
In this week’s episode we explore whether or not asking your family about your inheritance makes sense.
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Peter Dunn a.k.a. Pete the Planner® is an award-winning financial mind and a former comedian. He’s a USA TODAY columnist, author of ten books, and is the host of the popular radio show and podcast, The Pete the Planner Show. Pete is considered one of the foremost experts on financial wellness in the world, but he’s just as likely to talk your ear off about bass fishing.
I listened with interest to the inheritance discussion because both my brother and I inherited seven figure brokerage accounts from our parents. And there is one huge gap in the discussion I think. In most cases large inheritances come from successful highly educated and healthy people. All those traits correlate well with net worth and longevity. So does permanent marriage to one partner. So in that case statistics indicate that at least one of the two parents will live until 90 or so. If your parents are 90 then you will be around 60. I was 58 and my brother was 60 when our last parent passed. This is the normal case for inheritance of large amounts. My point is money inherited at 60 has no usefulness during most of your life. It’s a little pad to your retirement at best. Both my brother and I were multimillionaires by 60 on our own efforts and so will be most of your listeners, I imagine. At that point another one or two or three million dollars is nice but it is in no way life changing. The simple fact is that normally, most of the time, inheritances pass to old people. And what if one parent makes it to 100? That is becoming common with modern healthcare. You’ll be 75 by then and long since retired. Just saying, I hear this discussion all the time but nobody factors in the real time line and that they’ll be old timers when the money comes. And who wants to sit around for 60 years waiting on a promise? You just have to pretend it isn’t there and live your best life. And then when it happens, if it happens, build a vacation cabin out on the side of a mountain like my wife and I are doing with it.