Is it a smart evolutionary move to not bequeath wealth to kids?

[MatureDJ]

I was reading an interesting article on how some wealthy parents would rather not bequeath any of their wealth to their own children - in a misguided attempt to "toughen them up".

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/rich-parents-may-inheritance-charity-093900697.html

It seems to me to the height of folly. It seems that the most important thing that a parent should do for his children is to make it easy for them to have grandchildren - to do otherwise would be to lose out in the evolutionary game. But by leaving their children no inheritance, they are relegating their children to being self-sufficient through the exchange of labor in an economic system that values such labor as worthless.

If one's wealth had no bearing on one's marriage market value, this would not be an issue. However, I think we all realize that wealth - at least for a man - is arguably the most important attribute in marriage market value (and probably quite high for a woman as well - and the most important for some men, who wouldn't mind tapping an ugly piece for a life of luxury.) And certainly being able to provide a comfortable home life without the stress of a hard job should lessen the chances of family strife - to say nothing of having enough money for the other things in life, and the ability to fund an intergenerational nest egg that can continue to fund strong families in the future (e.g., like the Kennedy's.)

Am I misanalyzing this in any way?

 

[backbreaker]

I was reading an interesting article on how some wealthy parents would rather not bequeath any of their wealth to their own children - in a misguided attempt to "toughen them up".

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/rich-parents-may-inheritance-charity-093900697.html

It seems to me to the height of folly. It seems that the most important thing that a parent should do for his children is to make it easy for them to have grandchildren - to do otherwise would be to lose out in the evolutionary game. But by leaving their children no inheritance, they are relegating their children to being self-sufficient through the exchange of labor in an economic system that values such labor as worthless.

If one's wealth had no bearing on one's marriage market value, this would not be an issue. However, I think we all realize that wealth - at least for a man - is arguably the most important attribute in marriage market value (and probably quite high for a woman as well - and the most important for some men, who wouldn't mind tapping an ugly piece for a life of luxury.) And certainly being able to provide a comfortable home life without the stress of a hard job should lessen the chances of family strife - to say nothing of having enough money for the other things in life, and the ability to fund an intergenerational nest egg that can continue to fund strong families in the future (e.g., like the Kennedy's.)

Am I misanalyzing this in any way?

i mean i'm not warren buffet or antyhing but i have a decent amount of money in the bank and in my will (yes i have one) my wife gets a lot of it, i give some to the big brothers big sisters foundation and i set aside some for my son's education and a very small amount for him personally.

but i refuse to ever bestow wealth on him without him earning it. i have been around enough silver spoon babies to realize i never want my son to turn out ot be like that. ever. it might make him a better "catch" but it wont' ake him a better man and that's what him to be. if he is going to be successful it's going to be on his own merits not mine. I will make sure his school is taking care of but if he is going to be loaded it's going to be beucase he's very good at what he does and works hsi ass off. nor do i want my son to ever have the wrong notion that he is somehow a better person becuase of who his parents were than someone else.

actually i would probably think totoaly differently for a woman. you can't raise girls like boys. i can't expect a daughter of mine or my 12 year old sister to fight like i had to fight to get where i got.

warren buffet has the same philosophy. lol i think it's his daughter every time you turn around she is tating how she is getting screwed in her dad's will.

 

[sodbuster]

You can leave them say a trust/foundation etc. that will give them a bit of money each year...say 20-30k. THEN they can do anything they want, but they have to do SOMETHING. I know a guy who gave his son properties with 200k income a year...and wonders why his son sits on his fat azz and doesn't work

 

[Warrior74]

I have two associates who are trust fund kids. The catch is, they don't get their money until they are 35 years old. One is a DJ playing all over the globe and running his own music label . The other is his partner who works in IT and has his own business. They both know that in about 3 years they will be set. So they do the things they love and they make sure it makes money to keep the lights on. Of course they are both are kinda douchey, but it would have been so much worse if they were banking 100k a year sitting on their asses in their 20s. Knowing the amount of drugs they used to do, they would have surely been dead by now. I think their parents were pretty smart about it.

 

[Burroughs]

I have a trust fund and I have worked hard all my life...my siblings have not.

So this can go either way. I think money and power are more crucial now more than ever before, whether we're talking book deals or record contracts you have to be 'hooked up' to get anything...that being said money can corrupt and most of the kids that went to high school with me are douchebags who do coke all day and order up hookers...actually that doesn't sound so bad

 

[evan12]

in my opinion it is stupid thing , inheritance is a way that men use to transfer their power to their offspring in all the history .
poeple who dont want to transfer their power to their children are either dont want or they are just influenced by the civility

 

[backbreaker]

my wife's father is pretty well off, owns a huge farm and works it, my wife has a trust fund setup to where she gets a stepiend per month no lump sum. but she's a girl. her brother has the same deal, and her brother has not held down a real job in about 10 years. lives pay check to pay check. I mean the amount is not huge by any stretch but it's enough to live off of. little under 3 grand a month.

one of the worst... no, easily the worst "crack head" i ever ran into when i did that was a dude named Roy. I knew something was different about him when this chick too me to his house in Quapaw area of little rock which is extremely extremely old money area. of course the house was tore up beucase he did not take care of it but still you don't be broke living in quapaw area of little rock. turns out his family was freaking loaded and left him with a trust fund, he gets something like 10 grand a month, and damn near 95% of that **** si blown on crack the first few days of the month, the rest of the month his dealers give him credit beucase they know his check is coming and they charge him crack interest which is generally 100% (you get 20 you owe 40).

lol the first of the month his house looks like the line of a club at Saturday night skanks everywhere lined up trying to get in lol.

nothing positive ever comes from not making your son work for what he has. For every 1 Rockerfeller there are 10 Roy's or my sister's brother... just sit on their ass and wait for the check to come.

 

[SoldMySoul]

This really depends on how your children (thank God I have none) are living their lives. The trust as another mention is pretty solid advice. I will use the adage help others that help themselves. If you have a sorry excuse for offspring that have issues/ substance abuse problems then you could facilitate more of the same.

For the most part, if you did your job as a parent and there are a lot of people that haven't, and raised your child to the best of your ability....many times they turn out decent enough for "government work." They should receive it.

Where else is the money going?

Again, I agree with the trust!!! At least they will not blow it all within months, weeks or days. If you did have a responsible child throughout their life, then will it all over.

 

[backbreaker]

This really depends on how your children (thank God I have none) are living their lives. The trust as another mention is pretty solid advice. I will use the adage help others that help themselves. If you have a sorry excuse for offspring that have issues/ substance abuse problems then you could facilitate more of the same.

For the most part, if you did your job as a parent and there are a lot of people that haven't, and raised your child to the best of your ability....many times they turn out decent enough for "government work." They should receive it.

Where else is the money going?

Again, I agree with the trust!!! At least they will not blow it all within months, weeks or days. If you did have a responsible child throughout their life, then will it all over.

that's easy to sit back and say but knowing you have a very large lump sum coming just, sucks the motivation out of the avg person. **** i knew i had 10 million dollars coming to me at age 25 there is no way in hell i would hvae started my business. i would have sat at home and played dreamcast (that is what was hot back then lol) and keep telling my oneitis how i was going to spoil her when i got paid lol.

at worst I can see myself setting aside some money for strickly a house

 

[Desdinova]

Very interesting discussion...

As it stands right now, my brother gets the bulk of my estate. My boy has a bank account that I opened for him in trust. If he turns out to be a dumbass like his mother, he's not getting anything. If he is successful in establishing himself as a hard-working adult, I'll have no problem leaving him everything.

 

[SoldMySoul]

Very interesting discussion...

As it stands right now, my brother gets the bulk of my estate. My boy has a bank account that I opened for him in trust. If he turns out to be a dumbass like his mother, he's not getting anything. If he is successful in establishing himself as a hard-working adult, I'll have no problem leaving him everything.

^^^^^^^^^hahahahahahahahaha^^^^^^^^

ABSOLUTELY SOLID GOLD!!!!

BB, you are right...But sometimes I think if I had a decent amount of money, 10 million is way above decent... I would still work. 10mil, uhhhh no! I would let the money work for me though.

 

[MatureDJ]

It looks like my thread has finally developed some popularity.

I think if I knew that I would be getting enough cash to be decently comfortable for life, I would have geared my college studies to my true interests of astronomy, probably going on to get a PhD and just do my own research by offering my services emeritus to a university - i.e., they give me access to data, I do work on it, etc. Of course, I would do this in the context of doing cheap world travel - probably with stretches of teaching English to meet chicks. etc.

 

[backbreaker]

i'm re reading the fountainhead this month and i am towards the end of the book and i thought i would share this paragrph from the book. If you have read the book you know what this is

What's he so arrogant about? Just beucase he made that fortune himself? Does he have to be such a damn snob just because he came from Hell's Kitchen? It isn't other people's fault they weren't lucky enough to be born in Hell's Kitchen to climb out of! Nobody understands what a terrible handicap it is to be born rich. Because people just take for granted that beucase you were born that way you'd be just no good if you weren't.

 

[Jackblaster]

Set up a trust to match they're annual earnings for like 10-15 years, with some clause for rehab/medical issues. It will inspire them if nothing else.

 

[AAAgent]

My dad forced my brother and I to work at all of his businesses from the bottom up. He treated us exactly the same as everyone else. He always set the example of a great rigid leader.

As i kid, i swore that i was being put to child labor for all the crap that my dad made me do, but when i think back its made me such a better person today. When you work with people less privileged than you are, especially on a daily basis, you learn the meaning of hard work, a hard life, humility, etc.

All my dad's employees would say my father was a good man and that i should take advantage and learn as much from him. I don't know if he'll split his wealth amongst his 3 children, it doesn't matter to me as i plan to make more money than he can give me.

Will I give money to my kids? Only if they deserve it, and they'll have to work as i did to prove they have what it takes make good use of the money as opposed to spending it on luxury items, drugs, and women.

My brother was a major problem in the family, as a 10 year old, he stole a few g's and went and bought platinum necklaces and blamed it on the nanny. He got caught. He then stole alot more than that as an adult and bought his gf a car and put it under her name. When he wasn't stealing from me or my family, he was hustling drugs and bringing in a lot of money, enough to put down 10g's in cash at bestbuy for a tricked out bachelor pad. He's wised up a lot but still can't convince him to go to school.

Now, if i had a son like that, i'd put in some clauses like, only starts to get a trust fund if he finishes school with a 2.5gpa or higher. gets 10k once he gets his first firm full time job offer or something of the same caliber.

 

[Kailex]

I don't get it.

I expect absolutely nothing from either of my parents if they were to pass. All I would hope is that whatever they left behind would be enough to cover the burial expenses.

Anything else is a bonus.
And still, I could care less, I'd rather work for my own money than to expect anything from an inheritance. This has nothing to do with toughening me up and only God knows whether I am actually getting anything from either one.

Frankly, it doesn't matter and no amount of money could ever replace what they've given me during their lifetimes.

And I might have had a "hard" lifetime due to a lack of wealth, but I'm definitely grateful for everything I've afforded.

But that's just me.

 

[AW1983]

i'm re reading the fountainhead this month and i am towards the end of the book and i thought i would share this paragrph from the book. If you have read the book you know what this is

Ha good ol' GW. Man I've read that book at least 6 times. That and AS are so applicable to...well...pretty much everything.