I have been wondering what others think about leaving their money to someone in the family who just squanders their money and is not a saver.
I have seen it happen. I know one 20 year old who got a lot of money from her grandfather's passing and blew it all in less than a year.
And she had nothing to show for it.
I am thinking about my FIL. He is giving his house to his three sons. It will be sold and 2 of the sons will squander the money in less than a month.
I am not leaving anything to my adopted daughter. She has had 38 years to get her act together and it just is not happening. She is still on the "system", does not work and only gets in touch with me when she wants more money.
I honestly want to leave my money to people that will take care of the money and put it to good use.
What are you going to do?
Yesterday, I saved $4 at bilo buying meat on sale and the braves won, so that is $5 more to add to the challenge.
Prev. total $20,950.00
today 5.00
new total $20,955.00
Will you leave your money to someone who is not "good" with money?
September 24th, 2007 at 03:35 pm
September 24th, 2007 at 03:58 pm 1190649509
Fortunately, you can leave specific conditions in your wills (if you want) that will limit how the money will be spent.
I don't know exactly how that works or even what kind of wording I would have in my will to prevent wasteful spending (because, um, I don't have much to pass on right now anyways
Of course, there's always charity. Or me, Ima.
September 24th, 2007 at 04:06 pm 1190649991
Right now, we have wills leaving everything to each other, but we want to add to it, to leave money to a veterinary teaching college to pay for people who can not afford to have their animal treated.
September 24th, 2007 at 05:09 pm 1190653783
I don't believe in welfare, but there are truly underprivileged children. It's not their fault having parents who are not very responsible or financially reliable. So, I would love to help those children who are in need for higher education.
September 24th, 2007 at 05:17 pm 1190654230
I would be careful about leaving your $$ to anyone on the forum, only becus there are all kinds of people out there and you have far less opportunity to ascertain whether they are sincere when you haven't even met them.
Leaving money to the vetineary teaching college is a wonderful idea. Perhaps the money would be better spent when applied to a whole group rather than a single individual or family?
Being childless and single, i may not have any heirs, either, but i have already earmarked a signficant portion of whatever's left when i die to my favorite non-profits.
September 24th, 2007 at 05:51 pm 1190656319
September 24th, 2007 at 06:38 pm 1190659119
A good solution is to have a trust and in that case, an attorney that can set it up with limits to the person. Who knows, they could change one day and the money would come in at a good time.
Actuslly, you should try to enjoy some of your money in your golden years and then you won't care what happens to it after you are gone. I'm only afraid that most of us worry about how it is spent because WE are doing without and know that the others won't do the same when they have it.
September 24th, 2007 at 07:36 pm 1190662610
If you fear that the resources will be squandered, do a trust. If your potential squanderer gets public benefits of any kind, whether TANF (welfare), SSI, VA, etc., you will need to do a Special Needs Trust to protect the money. These are not hard for a probate attorney to do and are well worth the cost. At the risk of promoting my blog, I have written on the subject of
September 24th, 2007 at 07:37 pm 1190662679
September 24th, 2007 at 10:15 pm 1190672146
September 24th, 2007 at 10:44 pm 1190673884
beholden to no one and it sure feels good.
September 24th, 2007 at 10:46 pm 1190674001
I have read that if you specifically don't want to give your only heir the money, or you want to give two of your children money but the third nothing, you should explicitly say in the will that that person will not get it, or leave them $5 or something. I've read that they can contest it in court, saying that you must have forgotten about them. Also, any retirement accounts or mutual funds need to have beneficiaries set up...these sometimes aren't covered by the will.
But, as for the original question, it is your money. If you want to help your daughter but not just give her a huge chunk of money, you could set up a trust to give her so much every year. You could even say, "if you want the money for this year, you have to do these things" and have the person in charge of the trust make sure she did those things.
But, if you don't want to give her the money, don't. I think helping someone treat their pet is a great idea! Have you thought of establishing a scholarship in your name to help someone become a veterinarian? You could award the scholarship based on financial need and aptitude, and they would have be in the right coursework in order to keep receiving the scholarship. If you have one school you would like to give money to, I'm sure they would help you get started.
September 25th, 2007 at 04:29 am 1190694558
DH & I will have to get our wills redone after we move to Texas (since laws vary by state, any time you move to a new state you have to have your will redone). I have been thinking about my older sister, the one I wrote about on the forums who buys lottery tickets and goes out to eat frequently but did not have the money to pay to have her cat put to sleep. She has been making progress with her personal finances and is slowly building up an emergency fund, but I do still fret about what would happen if she inherited money from me. I would really hate to see our hard-earned and saved money blown on Lotto. I'm contemplating having her share of the inheritance go to a charitable annuity, so that she would get a fixed amount every month and any money leftover would go to charity. I know that she might be offended that I don't trust her enough to just give her the money in a lump sum, but I guess knowing that the money isn't being squandered is better than having her a bit pissed off at me after I'm dead. I'm driving 2,400 miles next week (Seattle to Austin), so I'll have plenty of time to think about this.
Oh, and Ima Saver, don't forget to remember little Holly in your will, just in case (GOD FORBID!!!) something were to happen to you and your DH at the same time. If you are leaving money to a veterinary hospital, maybe you could make it a condition of receiving the money that they take care of her?
September 25th, 2007 at 03:18 pm 1190733498
September 25th, 2007 at 04:41 pm 1190738486
September 25th, 2007 at 04:58 pm 1190739539
September 25th, 2007 at 08:18 pm 1190751489
My family is known for being highly unusal (meaning fair and generous) about money. I take it as a compliment when my friends say how much they envy us. Of all the issues I may have with my brother I am happy to say that neither one of us is a jerk or mean spirited enough to see the other get less than their share or suffer in any way due to a lack of money.
That's why I hope you do leave some to your adopted daughter. At least to keep a roof over her head.
September 27th, 2007 at 06:42 pm 1190918574
Right now, my parents are my primary beneficiaries with my two sisters being my secondary beneficiaries. Neither of my sisters are super savers but they don't they blow through money either, so I would feel comfortable with any of my family members getting my money as it stands now.
September 28th, 2007 at 09:27 am 1190971626
On a somewhat related note I don't like how people feel entitled to something when their parents die. In most cases by then you're grown and should be supporting yourself. So who knows what we'll do with it.
September 28th, 2007 at 11:42 pm 1191022944
How much better to provide to an organization that will be a good steward of the money so that it's value is shared by many, many who will appreciate it.
It's a tough one Julie...but I am a strong believer that if you follow your heart...you cant go wrong.