Retire early vs work to leave for kids

[dvalley]

Leaving for kids is a noble idea but now I see it as an icing on the cake because:

1. I'll fund their college (a big chunk of it anyway)
2. I'll leave them my house, which might not be in an ideal location because I too plan to move from SoCal to a LCOLA area but hey that's for them to decide if they want to keep and live in or sell and use the money.

Beyond those things if I have anything left then great it's their's but I'm not working longer.

In my case I got nothing more than college expenses from my parents (I'm eternally grateful to them for that). After I graduated I never asked for a single penny and had to build my own dynasty (I use the word loosely) from scratch lol.

 

[ChiliPepr]

Good heavens! Warren Buffet's tax rate is less than 20% - fire your tax advisor pronto!

Warren Buffet does not live in California.

Warren Buffet also has only a tiny portion of his yearly income from salary, most comes from long term gains and dividends that are taxed at a lower rate than salary.

 

[Golden sunsets]

I beg to differ. I plan and hope to leave money to my kids. My parents wanted to leave money to their kids (and did). My grandparents wanted to leave money to their kids (and did). All my friends and family are hoping and planning to leave money to their kids. I find it very atypical to plan otherwise. Not to say it is wrong, just that it is not what I find common among people I know.

Well said. +++1

 

[Golden sunsets]

You must have lived in a different society than I did growing up. My parents left about enough to buy a new car. That is just what was in their accounts when they passed. I paid for the late DW's father's funeral. Her mother is still alive and she may pass some money to her favorite grandkid, but I doubt that there will be anything for anyone else. When we lived in Virginia there were people we knew with inheritances, but no one here in Colorado. If my kids get an inheritance, it will just be a matter of the situation at the time. It seems quite likely to be the case right now.

Not all folks have the wearwithall, but given that folks do, I agree that a desire to leave a legacy is pretty common, if not the norm in our circle and our economic class in general.

 

[bloom2708]

What if 7 of the next 10 years are "down" years with negative returns? You cannot be happy now living 10+ years in the future.

Figure out how to be happy/content in the present. That is the key.

Set a reasonable asset allocation for your age, low cost index funds, diversified. See what happens and hope for the best.

 

[friar1610]

I retired at 58 (72 now) and working longer for legacy purposes never crossed my mind. I hope to leave my two daughters and three granddaughters a legacy. If I'm unable to, at least I'll go to the grave having given my daughters excellent educations for which they carried no debt, their first cars, help with first home down payments and a number of other financial and non-financial advantages.

There are a few things I won't do to increase the chances of a legacy (or of a larger one):

- invest more aggressively than I'm comfortable with to increase theoretical portfolio terminal balance.
- take any risks that could potentially decrease my wife's quality of life/comfort in her widowhood.
- live (either me, my wife or both of us) in substandard conditions in our old age to preserve the portfolio

That said, we live well within our means, don't spend lavishly and barring something like an extended nursing home stay, there should be a nice payday for each daughter when we're gone. But we scrimped for them (without any regrets) in our earlier years and, short of a dire emergency in their lives, don't plan to in our old age.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

I retired at 58 (72 now) and working longer for legacy purposes never crossed my mind. I hope to leave my two daughters and three granddaughters a legacy. If I'm unable to, at least I'll go to the grave having given my daughters excellent educations for which they carried no debt, their first cars, help with first home down payments and a number of other financial and non-financial advantages.

There are a few things I won't do to increase the chances of a legacy (or of a larger one):

- invest more aggressively than I'm comfortable with to increase theoretical portfolio terminal balance.
- take any risks that could potentially decrease my wife's quality of life/comfort in her widowhood.
- live (either me, my wife or both of us) in substandard conditions in our old age to preserve the portfolio

That said, we live well within our means, don't spend lavishly and barring something like an extended nursing home stay, there should be a nice payday for each daughter when we're gone. But we scrimped for them (without any regrets) in our earlier years and, short of a dire emergency in their lives, don't plan to in our old age.

Well said- that's our plan too

 

[brucethebroker]

When we fly on a plane, the flight attendant explains use of the drop down oxygen mask during the safety speech. We are told to put on our mask first, before helping dependents use theirs....

Good financial advice, also.

Like many here, we seem to be increasing our NW without trying to. We live as we want, but still within our means. Apparently, the kids will do OK when we pass without any extra effort on our part.