Gifting now vs after passing away

[Alan]

We have been gifting cash to our 2 children every year for the past 7 years and will continue to do so.

 

[Koolau]

Or fund the kid's Roth for them if they are unable to do so themselves?

This is what I favor also, but we all have different goals and methods when it comes to watching over our kids as they grow up.

 

[folivier]

Family dynamics play into gifting, at least in our family. Last Christmas we gifted money to both sons. Our older hasn't spoken to us in 2 years despite living 20 miles from us. Never came by to get his gift. So his money is going to his 2 daughters' college funds. Both last year and this year.

 

[Still Learning]

We like to gift now while living and our estate planning is in place for our daughter who is our sole beneficiary. She (32) just wed this past September and we picked up a son in-law (37) that we like very much. We have already gifted a couple times which they used to purchase CDs as they look to start house construction mid 2025.

They have been asking us about investing and I'll start a separate thread on that.

 

[rbdudeman]

Someone mentioned gifting Roth IRA money to their kids. I started pushing money as soon as my kids were young and elgibler into Roth's for them. I always felt I would stop contributing when they hit 18, but I kept it going. Then watching my parents and how they handled their money I decided to max their Roth's. The max is doable for my wife and I. We see it as an early inheritance. It's not their goal per se but it's going to put them both in a position to potentially retire comfortably at 55. Another poster above wrote there's only three ways to spend your money. 1) spend it 2) gift it 3) government spend it. Can't control the future but if something debilitating happens to my wife or I and all our years of saving goes to fund care (#3...government mandates it's spent on care), we at least were able to pass something to the kids now which is important to us. The other advantage we found is both or our kids are dumping a lot of money into their own work Roth IRA's.

 

[rembrandt]

If I gift after I pass away, it would be difficult to sign the check..

 

[Sunset]

An interesting topic. I inherited nothing, in fact I paid for mom’s cremation. Dad did give me $1,000 for college in 1976.
Wife and I built our $4.5 mill estate on our own. Mostly dumb luck and frugality.
My kids spend like crazy. All pretty poor financial managers. Not very charitable. Frugality is skipping a generation. “Money is for spending”
As a result, we’ve earmarked 1/4 of our estate for charities. Estate Lawyer was shocked to see that we were not giving all to kids.

We will do some warm hand gifting but I have to accept that anything I offer my kids will turn into season football tix, tattoos, new F150 pickup. Not much for generational wealth building, paying off the mortgage or investing.

After watching our kids, my frugal wife has become an advocate for blowing our own dough.

If you have any grandchildren, perhaps some trusts to give them some $$$ and bypass the big spenders will help future generations.

 

[Koolau]

If I gift after I pass away, it would be difficult to sign the check..

Heh, heh, someone will sign checks for-your-"benefit" after you are gone. An attorney, a spouse, etc. SOMEONE will blow your dough!

 

[MichaelB]

Heh, heh, someone will sign checks for-your-"benefit" after you are gone. An attorney, a spouse, etc. SOMEONE will blow your dough!

So true

 

[rembrandt]

Heh, heh, someone will sign checks for-your-"benefit" after you are gone. An attorney, a spouse, etc. SOMEONE will blow your dough!

Not quite what I meant, but OK.

 

[Bikechuck]

Interesting thread ... we are self insured for Long Term Care so one gift that we are giving is trying to manage our portfolio in a manner that will cover those costs should they be needed without becoming a financial burden for our daughters. Meanwhile we have paid off both of our daughter's student loans when they became parents. We are paying for music lessons and some camps for our older granddaughters and helping with some529s. When our granddaughters reach college age we would like to help with some but not all of those costs if our portfolio is holding up well when the time comes. That is only 4 years off for our oldest granddaughter .. how in the world did that happen?

 

[Koolau]

Not quite what I meant, but OK.

Sorry, just me being a smart Aleck.