Have you started to give out your money to family now you're older ?

[Spinneret]

For example my uncle started getting more generous as he reached his late 60s when it came to money

 

[TippyThomas]

No, I have no family to give money to. The animal shelter will get whatever is left when I pass. I do give them more and more the older I get though, so I suppose I'm doing what you describe but not with family specifically.

 

[clh2]

We are in our early to mid 60’s. We have 1 married daughter, that has 3 sons, 5, 3 and 1.

Not knowing how much we will have left, or if we will need to go on Medicaid etc at some point in time, this is what we’ve done:
1. When DD was a freshman in college, she paid the down payment for a new vehicle (a ford focus), and DH and I made the payments for 3 years, until she graduated, then we paid the balance off, along with the clean title, we gave her 6 months of car insurance. (the car was 2 months shy of 10 years when the traded it in for a a van).
1. We gave our DD/SIL $20K when they bought their first home. This was enough to put them over a 20% downpayment, of this, it equaled 15k for the down payment, and 5k for painting and carpeting. (The 20% downpayment was huge, as 2 weeks after our first grandson was born (6 months into a 30 year mortgage) a banker called from where there mortgage is at, and talked them into switching from a 5% rate to a 15 year, when rates dropped to under 3%. The refi had very fees, since the appraisal was still valid.

3. We make a monthly deposit into each grandson’s 529 college savings plan.

We have always told our daughter, we will help you out when we can, and when it makes sense! Next big “gift” Will be a Disney cruise…in fall of 2025…I am waiting patiently for the itineraries to be released.

 

[mommyk8]

My grandparents started giving us Christmas checks when I was in college so around 70. As they got older the amount increased. They lived to 94 and 98. They had 2 kids and 4 grandchildren that they gave the money too.
You can give up to 14k a year that your family member will not have to claim on taxed as income.

 

[tvguy]

My mom was always very generous. Both our children got a $1,000 savings bond each for their College on both their birthday and for Christmas. She lent us money at zero interest when we added onto our home, and when we bought our daughter a car. When she hit 80 she decided we would all go on vacation with her every other year. A Hawaiian cruise one year, a trip to visit her family in Canada two years later, and a cruise to Alaska when she was 89 which sadly she could not go on at the last minute due to ill health. And she paid for our daughter's first year of College. She said it was because she wanted to give us part of my inheritance now, while she was here to enjoy it, It also helped her reduce her Income Taxes.
My wife and I paid the traditional Grooms portion of our son's wedding, and took them (and our adult daughter) with us to Spring Training. When our daughter bought her house, we bought her a washer and dryer and a lawn mower as a house warming gift, and paid to have a section of fencing replaced.
Long answer, but yes, we have started to give out what we can afford to to our kids, and my mom did the same with me.

 

[Meriweather]

We have started to add our kids' names to all our assets.
We're getting there.
We have arranged Disney trips for them several times. And a few cruises.

We have always given the grand kids $1000 on their birthdays. We have increased that to $10000 a year.
We have given our children between 10000 and 25000 a few times.
We have added their names to our DVC contracts and our Charles Schwab accounts.
We still need to do our house and bank accounts.

 

[sheilafri]

Yes. We anticipate having enough so we are gifting the max amount each year and set up 529 college fund for DGS. Basically, if it’s a tax deduction or tax deferred we try to do it.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

We have one daughter starting college in a couple of months and will be paying her out of state tuition. Thankfully we have it set aside. It's important for us that she come out of college with no student loans.

 

[Dznypal]

My parents also took our whole family on several great vacations
Their thinking was they’d rather see us enjoy our inheritance then when their gone
Unfortunately both have past in the last few years and we each. There were 4 of us
Got what was left of the inheritance and I can hear my mom saying as we were planning each trip I just love doing trips all of us together
Wish those days were back

 

[cincystamper]

Short answer to your question - YES.

I'm under 50 but am at a point in my life where I can finally start being more financially generous, which has always been a goal of mine. A combo of job promotions, paying off debt, etc. I find myself getting more and more generous with my parents, who are both in their mid-70s and on fixed incomes. I'll buy their groceries, pay for meals when we go out, and I've started paying for vacations, too. I also cover some household expenses like streaming services and their cell phones. It's a new dynamic for all of us and still feels a little weird. My mom hates me paying for her...my dad eats it up. LOL I also don't hesitate to spoil the animals in my life. I have several bird feeders and spring for good quality food for them. And I have four cats that I spoil rotten. Not to mention feeding some neighborhood outdoor roaming cats who come around on a regular basis. I figured as a single person with no kids, I might as well give my fur kids all the fun they can tolerate. My folks, too.

 

[georgina]

Yes. My in-laws were quite generous to their children, and it was very helpful to have that extra money when we were raising 3 kids. They also paid a lot toward their grandchildren's college. We are at a stage in life where we have been giving larger amounts to our kids. Better they have it when they are younger than wait for an inheritance. We realize it is a luxury to be able to gift, not everyone can.

My grandparents started giving us Christmas checks when I was in college so around 70. As they got older the amount increased. They lived to 94 and 98. They had 2 kids and 4 grandchildren that they gave the money too.
You can give up to 14k a year that your family member will not have to claim on taxed as income.

Its up to $18,000 a year now

 

[goofyernmost]

This is a sensitive subject for me. I worked my butt off all my life and even bought a business with what I considered some very valuable real estate with my retirement in mind. All the best laid plans of mice and men syndrome kicked in as I reached my late 50's. My wife had gone back to school and got two degrees. Although she had a few free rides, nothing is free and it cost a lot of money.

At the same time both my daughters were in college. So my wife was in Boston at UMass, one Daughter at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Co and the other one attended Tulane University in New Orleans, La. If that wasn't enough we had run up thousands of dollars in Credit Card debt just to make all that happen and then the business that I had owned was reliant on placement of people that were Mentally challenged, physically challenged and elderly (a group home so to speak) ran into a glitch because the people that referred those to us had a change of heart and thought it was be better to spend thousands of dollars more to place everyone in private apartments so they took all of the people out that were actually easy to care for and left me with the difficult.

Problem was there weren't enough of them to enable me to meet my expenses of labor, facilities and food to feed them. I had to close down and ended up giving the property back to the mortgage holders and declare bankruptcy. Both my daughters got married and my wife decided that she no longer wanted to be married anymore and filed for Divorce (which I didn't contest). By the time what was left of the assets were divided I was left with enough money to buy a used mobile home, a used Dodge Caravan and $2k in the bank. That, in turn, left me with just 10 years to build up any savings so I could retire. I retired and if it hadn't been for the Veteran's Administrations health plan, I never could have retired when I did. Even though my 401k is presently more than I was able to put directly in it after collecting for the past 5 years the total is not as significant as I'd like it to be and since I don't have the ability to know how long I am going to live, what I have, I have to hang on too. So at the point there is no extra to give to my children. What is left after I am gone, is what they will get as a gift from me. So the more they get means the sooner I left the mortal coil and joined the 999 haunts in the mansion and I am hoping to stay alive until I have spent that last dollar on myself. So I guess the answer to the question is no, I haven't started to give out my money.

I have so many friends that have a comfortable life that is financially solid because both are still alive and both had paid into a 401 and are now doing well with that and two Social Security incomes. My advice, try to stay married for as long as you can. By the way, I'm not looking for sympathy. My life is quite comfortable and my age and physical condition has kinda left me with limited things I can spend money on. When I retired I sold my mobile home and moved to North Carolina where not only is the cost of living much less than in Vermont which is basically my home state, but I live close to my daughters and grandkids. My X-wife had a stroke and passed about 7 years ago and I spend a lot of time writing up long, useless posts on the Disney Forums. You're Welcome!

If anyone would like to make a movie based on my vastly exciting life, just PM me and we can do lunch. (If you're buying)

 

[shh]

Not me. Too risky. Have no way of knowing how health will be, what care or extra support I'll need in those final decades. You're doing fine - until you're suddenly NOT. Definitely don't want to be at the mercy of most medicaid facilities if I can help it.
I've seen those facilities first hand.

I guess I subscribe to the "Put your own mask on first" philosophy. It'd be different if I had lots of extra moolah to spare.

 

[mommyk8]

I definitely agree about take care of yourself first. In think of you get lucky with minimal health issues and can stay in your house and not have to pay for skilled care nursing your expenses are less.

 

[barkley]

i'm also in the camp of wanting to ensure we are sufficiently financialy covered for the duration. i know/hear of far too many people who financialy struggle b/c they are faced with helping to meet their parent's elder life needs-i want in no way, shape or form to put anyone in that situation. we also have a disabled adult child and i would prefer to know that there will be monies for his needs long after we pass. as for my other adult child-who knows if social security will be around in a decade let alone decades from now when retirement looms? inflation is high and it's difficult for young people to meet basic needs let alone set aside what is reccommended for retirement (which in my experience is a woefully low reccommendation) so while treating to grand vacations might be enjoyable in the short-term i think inheriting a comfortable nest egg is preferable (fingers crossed and nothing bad looms on our financial horizon).

 

[NYCgrrl]

My children are well aware that they will not be left anything of monetary wealth upon my death; it goes to the grands as a family tradition.

I do hope they are situated in life by the time I leave this earth: if not, too bad, so sad, what a shame. Maybe your kids will give you an allowance?

 

[amcnj]

I can’t say I have started to “give out” money yet. I do sometimes pay for things like meals or travel expenses. But nothing to date has been a large amount of money, at least not in my opinion. Hopefully I will be able to help out when some larger expenses do arise.

I remember my parents started giving more to my kids for birthdays, etc at some point. I think they just didn’t want to bother changing their wills!

 

[georgina]

My children are well aware that they will not be left anything of monetary wealth upon my death; it goes to the grands as a family tradition.

I do hope they are situated in life by the time I leave this earth: if not, too bad, so sad, what a shame. Maybe your kids will give you an allowance?

This made me curious, does that mean your children inherited money from their grandparents? We only have a 2 year old grandson now, and my other 2 kids may never have children, so that scenario would not seem fair to me.

 

[barkley]

My children are well aware that they will not be left anything of monetary wealth upon my death; it goes to the grands as a family tradition.

I do hope they are situated in life by the time I leave this earth: if not, too bad, so sad, what a shame. Maybe your kids will give you an allowance?

if the grands are/may be minors at the time of the grandparent's passing i hope the monies go to very well worded trusts. one of the most heartbreaking duties i had working for dshs was informing parent(s) seeking a desparatly needed form of public assistance for one or more of their children was they had ineligibility due to accounts set up by well meaning family members for the benefit of the minor children. one parent or child in a household desparatly in need of supplemental medical coverage that the parent's high cost health insurance either did not cover or had maxed out required emptying every single household member's savings-including each of the siblings.

 

[NYCgrrl]

This made me curious, does that mean your children inherited money from their grandparents? We only have a 2 year old grandson now, and my other 2 kids may never have children, so that scenario would not seem fair to me.

Yes, as have other generations at least on the paternal side of the family.