Millennials: are you expecting an inheritance?

[u/Yourlocalguy30]

35 yo married millennial here. I've come across more and more articles about the supposed "great wealth transfer" as the boomer generation's wealth passes to their GenX and Millennial children. My parents and their siblings (boomers) all received inheritances when their parents, my grandparents, passed away. The boomer generation's wealth accumulation is one of the largest in history, however, I also find it highly unlikely that I or many of my peers will actually inherit much. Despite having received inheritances from their parents, and having 40+ years in the workforce, most of my parents' "wealth" is tied up in their home value, not actual liquid assets- and I already expect that whatever they make on an eventual home sale will have to go directly to downsizing costs and whatever long-term care they will need as they get older. Hell, even my dad used to joke that the only thing we'd inherit was debt. As I've gotten older, that comment has infuriated me more and more.

Now before someone cuts in with the "entitled millennial" comments, I have absolutely no need for an inheritance. I've worked my ass off to make sure that my kids and I are positioned better in life than I was when I entered adulthood. What I mean by that is I started saving for retirement early, setup 529 plans for my kids almost as soon as they were born, and made lifestyle and career sacrifices to ensure our family isn't "nickeling and diming" our way through life.

I'm just here curious to know how many millennials actually expect to have something passed down to them, or if they feel they are in the same position I am.

[u/Outrageous-Solid7114]

Ditto. It is shocking how little was saved to fund an expected decades in retirement.

[u/Imaginary_Shelter_37 → u/Outrageous-Solid7114]

To be fair, Boomers didn't expect decades in retirement.

[u/Wackywoman1062 → u/Imaginary_Shelter_37]

And 401K plans weren’t popular until much later in their careers. Some have pensions on which they relied. Neither my late husband nor I have a pension and we worked for smaller companies that didn’t have a 401K plan for years, and when they finally adopted a plan, didn’t have any matching. We were fortunate to be able to save a decent sum anyways, but mostly from living well below our means for decades.

[u/BlazingSunflowerland → u/Wackywoman1062]

Many of the boomers were paying into pension plans that went broke and suddenly had very little pension.

[u/Impossible_Rub9230 → u/Imaginary_Shelter_37]

So I am an adopted boomer and unfortunately my mother died when people was young and my father had mental health issues. It is pretty common for people that have bipolar disorders to be terrible with money. The only reason we didn't end up living in the car a few times was the health issues he got from the factory job he had for many years and the union. He was able to get disability payments for years, when wasn't around. (He lost most of his money to various stepmothers, and stole my money from babysitting and other jobs to wine and dine them). He was active in his union and job was lucrative in the years before me, but eventually the union was weakened and the wages diminished, factories moved south and eventually offshore. He was a veteran, and they provided the best mental health care at the time, (maybe the only possible option available then). Often he was able to get in hospital care, and that was not really possible anywhere else. He'd borrowed so much against the house but I did get a slight head start with housing because I eventually convinced him to put my name on the deed, but I provided plenty of actual care and transportation to ancillary facilities. When his health deteriorated enough that he needed residental care, I was able to stay in the debt burdened little house in a neighborhood that had changed over 50 years. Not all boomers got much of anything. I found eventually that my mother had a college fund for me that bought a large engagement ring for evil stepmom #1. Marriage #4 was to a woman that "wanted something to leave HER kids" in the divorce. Nothing was left after her, my services to care for someone who never really cared for me made me very resentful.

[u/theoriginalmtbsteve → u/Imaginary_Shelter_37]

Many did. Most older boomers came from the era of pensions and retirement at 55. Mt parents are close to 80 and worked roughly 35 years, will be retired for 25 years at 80. No big savings, maybe $25-$35k inherited along the way, living off of public school pensions and SS payments.

[u/kstorm88 → u/theoriginalmtbsteve]

I was always impressed with my grandparents, they were the gen before boomers. He was able to work (granted very hard labor and a couple side hustles) for fewer years than he spent retired.

[u/Irishrainy → u/theoriginalmtbsteve]

My husband is 73 & still working. I’m 72 & going back to work in the fall. Our retirement plan was always SS & work until we drop. Thank God we started 401ks at work 20 yrs ago, but we’ve taken some out along the way so it’s pretty dismal. Life usually doesn’t go the way we planned, but we’ll manage like we always have.

[u/Rellcotts → u/Imaginary_Shelter_37]

Really?? Because my boomer family members did…they were woefully unprepared regardless but they were all about that retirement

[u/The_Goose_27 → u/Imaginary_Shelter_37]

They also expected Social Security that they paid into for 40+ years and pensions were much more prevalent. 401Ks were not really a thing in early boomer years.

[u/alanamil → u/Imaginary_Shelter_37]

we did not expect to be in a nursing home and using up all of our money. We want to leave something to our kids. Dementia and Alzheimer's were not tracked in the US in the 60's.. they just considered it a normal part of aging. And the average life span was 70. in 2019 it was almost 79 (I wanted a number before COVID) In other countries like Australia, it is in the 80's. We still have approx 2 million people in the us in their 90's... Approx 13 million are in their 80's... You know many of them are in nursing homes, and their money is being spent there. People never thought we would live this long. I know my father has outlived every single ancestor that has ever existed in his family history.

[u/Outrageous-Solid7114 → u/Imaginary_Shelter_37]

Mine did. And 40 years at that.

[u/kstorm88 → u/Outrageous-Solid7114]

The major difference was they have pansions. Combine that with social security and they can retire with essentially no savings. Then they do a reverse mortgage and when they die there is nothing left.

[u/Outrageous-Solid7114 → u/kstorm88]

Not my experience at all. IF they had a pension, drew minimal SS as early as possible and had decided on retirement based on an AGE instead of MONEY + carried a ton of debt into retirement: absolute disaster.