what do you plan to do with your extra money?

[FIREshrink]

I’m guessing most people here will leave significant estates, or have tons of extra money to dispose of late in their lives.

What do you plan to do with yours?

Heirs, charity, spend it all?

The 4% rule means there is a 95% chance you won’t run out of money. Make it 3% and it’s close to 99%. Most of us are here because we enjoy working with and talking about money and are pretty good with it. Most of us will have under a 4% SWR, so most of us will end up leaving an estate.

[CM]

.

[Hatton]

I am struggling with this now.  I think I will end up with quite a bit left over.  I am waiting to see what happens with inheritance taxes.  I am starting to fund a daf and trying to decide which nieces and nephews to enrich.

[RogueDadMD]

I plan to wait to see which of my children please me the most. Then I will decide which of the 3 gets it.

Alternatively I may build a scoring system into my will/trust to help decide. Kids won’t get to be told how to score or unlock achievements. I plan to leave hidden clues throughout their life — they must decode the puzzles to learn the criteria.

[q-school]

Spend it. Last check bounces.

I have pretty big life insurance so almost certainly kids will be rich when we kick the bucket. Trust created to make sure they don’t blow it too quickly.

Obviously depends on what else is going on wrt grandchildren and our health.

Maybe they will have figured out a way to transplant my brain into new body by then.

[NaOH]

.

[VagabondMD]

q-school wrote:

Maybe they will have figured out a way to transplant my brain into new body by then.

Click to expand...

Hmmm, I would rather they transplant my 25 year old brain into the new body.

hatton1 wrote:

I am struggling with this now.  I think I will end up with quite a bit left over.  I am waiting to see what happens with inheritance taxes.  I am starting to fund a daf and trying to decide which nieces and nephews to enrich.

Click to expand...

I have a better idea! You can adopt me. I don’t eat much, and my educational expenses are behind me, so I am a relative bargain.

Rogue Dad, M.D. wrote:

I plan to wait to see which of my children please me the most. Then I will decide which of the 3 gets it.

Alternatively I may build a scoring system into my will/trust to help decide. Kids won’t get to be told how to score or unlock achievements. I plan to leave hidden clues throughout their life — they must decode the puzzles to learn the criteria.

Click to expand...

I can simplify it for you. A cage match.

Joking aside, I am not as optimistic as some and prefer not to count my chickens. If I am approaching the finish line with a significant largesse, I will do some combination of philanthropy and helping the downstream generations. On the way to the line, I plan to have a pretty good time.

[CM]

Vagabond MD wrote:

Hmmm, I would rather they transplant my 25 year old brain into the new body.

Click to expand...

But if they can do that, can they just regenerate my 25 yo body? (Please hurry.)

[q-school]

CM wrote:

Vagabond MD wrote:

Hmmm, I would rather they transplant my 25 year old brain into the new body. 

Click to expand…

But if they can do that, can they just regenerate my 25 yo body? (Please hurry.)

Click to expand...

I want a better body.  Well a better brain too but right now my body is falling apart faster than brain.

This technology may make early retirement impossible however.  

[Kamban]

Estate for child.

Make a plan for giving to charitable causes. My dear to heart causes include saving habitat, especially tigers in the wild. Education for the really poor in third world countries. Combating hunger in children who can't get even one meal a day.

When both my spouse and I are no more the money, minus the estate for heir, goes to charity.

[CM]

q-school wrote:

This technology may make early retirement impossible however.

Click to expand...

There is no retirement if you're broke, and I'd trade my entire portfolio to be 25 again (especially if I could go back knowing what I know now).

[jhwkr542]

Probably all going to kids via wife who will outlive me.

[uptoolate]

Children.  And the pets of course!

[FIREshrink]

From experience I can tell you the park bench only costs five grand. That leaves a lot to be distributed.

Spending it all down the stretch sounds great but in reality it won't happen. If you're terminal you likely won't have the energy or desire to do expensive things. If you're not terminal you'll be afraid of outliving your money. That seems to be the crux of the problem.

Some on this board will have eight figure estates. That is more than an heir needs, and could be more than is good for them. Or maybe not.

I like the idea of nieces and nephews. However one side of our family is well off, maybe better than us, and they certainly won't need the money, plus it feels weird to leave them anything. The other side is of more modest means so leaving them something would be nice.

[uptoolate]

Yes estate will be eight figures but fortunately had the good sense to have four children so that none of them would be burdened with too much money.