I'm pretty sure all of us have given up on any boomer giving us anything anyway
Lucky for me my parents were both "I didn't save anything for retirement, my kids will take care of me when I'm older", so I don't have to suffer through this.
Guys, don't buy into this. This is class warfare. This is the billionaire class trying to get young people angry at their parents instead of young people angry at the billionaires who are stealing from us all the time.
My mother was a wonderful person, poor, and a boomer. She never had anything handed to her.
We need to stop shitting on specific generations (it's a distraction ) and target our hate towards the class divides between us instead.
This is a bad faith take that only reflect the experiencs of the wealthiest boomers. There are elderly people struggling with Medicare and social security being cut. Remember, there's not an age war, there is a class war.
My parents worked hard all their lives and have had very little to show for it. As much as I didn’t realise it at the time, I never really wanted for anything, but I’m sure my parents skipped meals on occasion.
Now they’re retired they have a bit of money from state pension and superannuation funds, as well as a bit my mum inherited from her parents. It’s still not a lot, but they’re able to live in the comparative luxury they always deserved.
A couple of year back they splurged and took a trip to the UK, which had been on their bucket lists since before I was born. They seemed to feel like they had to explain why they were spending the money, and I reassured them that it was their money, not mine.
My wife and I are in good, stable jobs and we don’t need their cash. Let them enjoy themselves while they still can.
I want my parents to enjoy the money they worked their entire life for. I believe work allows to live, and not the contrary where you live to work. I would 10000x rather my parents enjoy the effort they put for their money instead of dying of exhaustion without being able to use their money
My dad - who was an amazingly racist conspiracy theorist - gave all his money to 2 redhead women he started fucking after divorcing the woman he married after my mom died.
He chose not to leave me anything because I called him out for using the "n" word any time he talked about African Americans.
I'm out $150k
He is out having a legacy. My kids will never know his name, story, or hate.
When my grandparents passed away they left my boomer mother a fully paid off duplex...
Which she immediately reverse mortgaged to fund her retirement because she has nothing.
A house my grandmother designed, and great grandmother financed and built, where 4 generations of my family lived and literally died, will be pissed into the wind when my mother dies.
Somehow, I grew up in the one neighborhood in the city that hasn't had a spike in value in the last couple of decades. My mom refuses to move out to a retirement community (at this point she would need assisted living). She likes to talk about improving the property and what color she should paint the upstairs. Watches flipper shows all day.
I don't have the heart to tell her that I have no interest in inheriting the property and that it will be a huge burden to liquidate all of the 'antiques' she has gathered over the last 80 years that now stink of cat piss and many colors of mold.
She's always been there for me in my darkest hours, though, and so has that shit mid century ranch.
I'll still let her win at Wheel of Fortune, as long as she can remember my name.
told me they'd give my hypothetical grandchildren something because (and I cannot express to you enough that they explicitly stated this OUT LOUD WITH WORDS) that they would love the grandchildren more than me. My mother has talked to me at length about how she already likes these people that don't exist more than me.
Are constantly critical of my appearance. When I tried to wear makeup as a child they didn't want me to look "promiscuous" (because somehow using an SAT word makes it ok to tell your 10-year-old they look like a whore). My mother was constantly critical of how short clothing looked on me because I was so tall or how my chest looked in shirts because it was too big. Now that I've gotten those tits removed and I dress more masculine even though I never even really "came out" as anything because I just don't care enough about gender that's also not ok because I'm not acting my gender.
They don't comfort me when I'm upset. They either tell me I'm upset about something stupid or say that I should be worried about more other things. I worked in Healthcare while in nursing school through the first half of COVID them graduated mid-pandemic and every time I'd mention stuff about how broken our Healthcare system is they'd want to have a "fun debate" about MAGA shit then make fun of me for getting emotional. One time I was sitting suicide watch because a guy kept ripping the ventilator mask off and begging me to let him die. The only thing that got him to keep it on was me summing up the plots of the last five books I read because after the first four hours I ran out of things to talk to him about to keep him distracted. Y'all. They thought my PTSD flashbacks were funny.
My parents are both rocket scientists but they're not sending people to the moon or Mars. I don't know how they reconcile a belief in Jesus with arms dealing but I'm pretty sure those dead Palestinian kids are paying for my nursing degree.
Anyway I unloaded the exact content of all those PTSD flashbacks on them, told them their voting choices were going to lead to them dying in a ditch full of maggots, then dumped all the shit my whole family talk behind each other's backs in the groupchat and changed my phone number. Its been a year and I haven't felt the need to drink since.
Love me? You don't even like me. Die alone, assholes.
The people who are cool with this going "why shouldn't my parents enjoy what they made, why would you want anything you didn't work for?" are sort of missing the point. The real phrasing, that they probably would agree with, is "why should I support my children and future generations, my enjoyment is more important than their survival and secured future"
If you really think that you should only get what you work for, give back every Christmas or birthday present or any gift you've gotten or are getting in the future immediately. Turn down any bonus you get at work. Hell start paving your own roads.
Supporting others, especially family, is a good human trait, and shouldn't be erroded.
Reading this thread, I feel like having a nice rant:
"Waah, all our problems are caused by the boomers! They're all rich and selfish, they had the easy life and got all the money and the houses and ruined the environment while our lives were ruined!" Keep believing that and stay distracted! while the oligarchy laughs it's ass off at you.
Pay no attention to all those poor boomers who could never get a house, who are scraping to get by--those are the exceptions that prove the rule, they must have been especially lazy or stupid boomers, if they're not rich like the vast majority of boomers! Yeah, that's it.
Pay no attention to the corporations that have bought up all the housing so they can rent it to you at any price they like, that has nothing to do with housing costs--it's the boomers who were too selfish to leave you their house when they died who are to blame! Yeah, that's it.
Pay no attention to the oil companies and big corporations that control congress to keep their profits private and costs socialized so they can spew their effluent into the environment as the world burns and the ice caps melt, it's the boomers' fault! Boomers only started the environmental movement and demonstrated and pressured the government into creating the EPA, Clean Air Act, and many more, but so what, all the bad things are still their fault.
Stay distracted! Keep believing what you're told and blaming who you're told to blame as you get older and older and the boomers all die, and then enjoy how Gen B and Gen C, etc. hate you and rail against you and blame you for all their problems. Why didn't you--yes you! stop global warming? You could have, but you didn't give a fuck. You who had it so easy, living your selfish life with your fresh water and electricity and air conditioning and video games and all those nice things, while their lives were ruined? It's all your fault!
Never the oligarchs, though. Not them.
[I can also do another version of this for the right wingers, substituting immigrants for boomers].
Yeah, my parents go on regular vacations all over the world, have redone their kitchen THREE times in the last decade (along with every room of their entire 3000 sq ft house), and can't be bothered to help me out when I encounter a major expense.
I don't know what they think is going to happen when they are too old to take care of themselves, but I can barely afford to take care of my immediate family so there's no way in hell I could support them too. Hope they set aside some of those fat stacks of cash for a nursing home because my retirement plan is dying poor at my workdesk (or on the street if I become too old to work).
Watched my mom work her ass off to raise me and save everything she could for retirement. She got to do some fun things, but not enough. I'm glad she had good insurance and a little money saved for when she got sick. I inherited a house with a mortgage, taxes, insurance, and repairs that are bleeding me dry and I'm pulling money out of my retirement to cover it. I'm thankful that it's given my son a decent place to live for the last year and i hope to break even when we sell it. I'm fine with that. I didn't earn it. I didn't take care of her for money. If you're only helping your family because you want money, you suck and they're probably better off without you.
I was sitting in the room while my friend's dad was having a argument with his horrible dad. The horrible dad threatened to write him out of his will, and my friend's dad respond, "Why do you think I'd want 1/6th of fuck all anyway?"
I wouldn't be so blunt with my mother about things, but every time she talks about inheritance I encourage her to just spend the money on herself. Anything will be spilt between 7 kids overall (3 hers, 4 my late step dad). She is holding on to an expensive ring because my very well off, money hungry sister, has basically demanded it, so I'm working behind the scenes to try get her to sell it so she can invest in making her last few years that much easier.
In other words, the rich are eating the middle class. They will buy up all property and normal people will be permanently priced out of the market. They have no reason to sell.
I know poor and wealthy people in every generation. Why aren't we blaming the banks for the 08 crash, the politicians for taking away almost every social service and trying to take away more, and the psychopath CEOs who care about their dick measuring contests every quarter? This generational divide obscures the real issues.
I was sexually/otherwise abused by my mother for most of my life. When I brought it up to family, I was basically told to shut up about it/“go to therapy.” They spent thousands torturing me in troubled teen facilities, and provided me with nothing for college (which I paid for with multiple jobs and sex work.)
I will never own a house. I spent almost two years after my divorce to just be able to afford an apartment. My family has never valued me - I will not give them the comfort they denied when it is the end. My entire life has been a hell.
My mom is "choosing" to spend it at a retirement home because we can't have her live with us and my brother is an asshole. And honestly, I'd rather have her spend her last years in comfort (we won't even be in the same country) than get some windfall when she dies.
Retirement homes aren't cheap. She's in her early 80s, but both of her parents lived until their 90s, so I'm guessing there won't be much of any inheritance left over.
This is my parents. I found out from a relative that after my mom suffered an injury, that her husband was spending $2000 a month on fast food. Literally TWOOOOO THOUSAND dollars on fried chicken a month.
When the topic came up of them writing a will, they said that I'd be getting the family pictures. That's it.
My father was extremely open about his plans to spend it all. My in laws as well. I did get a small inheritance once, a few thousand dollars from a great grandpa that went to me because the legal battle for it outlived my mom. I hope I get sentimental things from my grandparents because that's the remainder of my incoming inheritance
My dad just died destitute and my mother will probably have nothing when she passes. I’m ok with that, I am my own person. People complaining about losing out on inheritance are fucking spoiled brats. “ you spent the money you worked for? Boo hoo hoo, I wanted your money though “
My mom just wanted to make enough to spend it over her lifetime, and that seems fair to me. She got nothing from her parents and had to support her own mom in her old age, and didn't want to cost us anything.
I would argue that inheritance is a huge driver of inequality. I have gotten small amounts from the estate of my dad's parents (my dad died when I was 16) and a childless relative and even those amounts jumped us ahead some, I can imagine what some huge amount unearned would do - but it's just that. Unearned.
I’m all for the average retiree spending freely and enjoying what they earned. They spent a lifetime working; it’s their money. Inheritance issues create way too many family disputes.
What's infuriating about this? Why the heck should I inherit something I haven't worked for? I've always told my parents and grandparents that dying with an empty bank balance is the ideal way to go. Hell, preferably be in debt.
I never really considered an inheritance an option. Seems so off-worldly to me, even though I am by no means from a poor family, just lower middle class.
I think the entire concept of inheritance is something more prominent in developing countries like US or India, where there isn’t a well-established safety nets already in place by the government itself.
Of course we have inheritances too, I know a few who got something, but most of it gets taxed away upon receiving or vanishes covering the deceased’s debts, so I’ve never heard anyone I know get anything other than maybe a weekend vacation in the city next over or maybe a small chunk of student debt away.
Then again I’m not very well-off, and I do know there are the upper class families that have a long standing generational wealth passing over to the new generations. I guess it really depends on the circles one’s in.
But I still think it’s not as common here, at least I’ve never considered it to be normal, and I’ve known well people from upper middle class too.
No one should expect to inherit anything when their loved ones die.
The worst people are those that are too lazy to build something on their own, but sit around praying for their parents death so they can inherited and live an easy life.
What doesn't get spent on enjoying a retirement we will never get, will be claimed by medical bills from failing health. Generational wealth doesn't apply to us, and no one is coming to save you.
Suckers I inherited a cane from one side and a watercolor of a dog from the other. Behold my wealth and cry into your lentils. My lentils are salty enough.
I don't think what's talked about enough is kids having the talk with their parents about not being able to take care of them when they get old because you can't afford to take of yourself and didn't save anything for retirement. So you hope SSN will be enough for them. I know my mother always asked me if I would take care of her when she got old.
She would say that's why she had kids. But I had to sit her down and run the math and I said it's not about if I have the will or not it's is it possible and the math just doesn't workout and I have an okay job. I can only imagine what people lower down on the ladder are going through.
There are a lot of boomers that about to get a horrible wake up call and a lot of heartbreak watching our parents suffer at hands of their own making.
They will be drowning and some kids are going to jump in and get pulled under when trying to rescue them and the ones who know they don't have to proper equipment. Stay out of the water and mourn the loss.
Inheritance is weird. My partner and I stand to inherit a good bit when the parents on either side pass. Both sides of the family had successful middle class careers saved and invested well. Even considering the siblings on both sides, we could inherit an amount around $1M from either side.
But it's weird in two ways. First, it's not something that can be counted on. On either side it could be completely eaten up by nursing home care and medical costs for our parents. So we're not planning our own retirement assuming a windfall from inheritance. Second, on either side, unless they're unlucky, at least one of the parents is likely to live into their late 80s or 90s. So we'll already be in our 60s or 70s.
In other words, while we stand to likely inherit a good chunk of change, it will come so late in life that we won't really need it. Unless our parents die younger than expected, we will already be well into a fully funded retirement by the time they pass.
I feel inheritance made a lot more sense in the past. A farmer or a craftsman would will their farm or business to their children. And that child would take over that business while the parent was still alive, but too old to work it anymore. The child got the business or farm, but in turn had to support the parent in their later years.
But now? You're basically just inheriting your parent's house and whatever is left over of their retirement accounts. And you're doing so at an age where it really doesn't necessarily help you. Sure, if you yourself are unable to retire, then that windfall will be a godsend. But considering how wealth reproduces through generations, if you're in a position to inherit substantial funds from your parents, odds are you probably have a pretty big nest egg yourself built up by then. The people who could really use an inheritance to fund their retirement are unlikely to have parents wealthy enough to give them one.
But yeah, this is why I support strong inheritance taxes. For most people who inherit anything substantial, by the time you actually inherit something, you don't really need it anymore.
My thought is that if you’re going to give money, don’t wait until you die. The earlier you help someone, the more of their life it can improve. Help your kid buy their first house or something. Then spend everything before you die.
Yeah, one of my parents likely isn’t getting anything from theirs, but the other did, and I’m sure they’ll have it all spent. My wife’s family is the same; the generational wealth ends with her parents. We’re fucked, as a whole generation.
Most people need to sell their estate to pay for end of life care, just tell your boomer parents they can spend their last days in whatever dumpster their meagre estate can afford and they might rethink their next cruise.
Isn't that better anyway? Inheritance makes the world less fair, as children of rich parents will get a huge advantage. If that money is instead spent, it hopefully distributes over society again instead if staying in the rich families.
It's obviously not that black and white, getting some money is a great help to you get people. And obviously a parent will want to help their children, that's totally fair. But as a larger trend it doesn't seem like a bad thing to me.
I am not one of those children that clutches their pearls for family members to give what they busted their ass for away for free. My father just paid off the mortgage of his home. It is his.
And he paid it for over 25 years as people like us lived in and left it. It is just unearned entitlement for any of us to come to him, demanding or expecting something he earned through hard work.
And it is something generations after his wont understand. You try being 66 years old and enduring the grind for so long to finally have something like a home to yourself. And not have a thought of reluctance of just giving it away.
It is ironic considering how much of a clutch todays generations have with their phones. Does anyone think they are the kind to give a home away when it is paid off? You tell me.
Stark self sufficiency and individualism is their philosophy. Too bad they forgot what their parents gave them so they could reach that point. Including the political atmosphere of unions and good paying jobs.
I eat far too much avocado toast to save for retirement or college. I'm happy to spend my twighlight years drinking myself to death under a highway overpass.
Honestly, I'm young, and I know older people that would spend it better than their failkids.
That's not everyone, of course, but maybe instead of blaming people born at a slightly different time we should focus on being mad that there's no non-hereditary path to wealth in the first place.
I want my parents to enjoy what they've earned and to have enough money to handle expenses of aging. I'm an anti natalist but I don't fault then for doing something that was expected by everyone at the time which was having kids, and they really did their best. I have dedicated my life to gerontology and helping the aging population. If humanity is going extinct, let's go out with compassion.
My grandparents from one side of the family left me nothing, and the other side left two weeks rent. I know the direct descendants come first but at least give the grandkids 15% or something, it would have helped so much. We're all working twice as hard to afford half the lifestyle our parents had
In the same way that we should stop consuming media that blames everything on millennials, we should stop consuming media about how uniquely difficult it is for millennials.
Complaining about the younger generation, and the younger generation complaining that they have it uniquely difficult, has been the experience since the invention of teenagers. It was my experience, and it'll be the same experience when millennials are my age.
My father would endlessly yap about his retirement plan and 401k and all shit like that, as if the US Dollar is going to still be a currency in circulation in 2030.
I'm relying on my inheritance from my mum to get a house, but that's mostly from selling her house, I'm sure her actual savings will be quite low by the time that comes around.
Yeah... How entitled are you? Do you NEED your parents money to get by? I barely make enough to afford rent and yet I still don't ask my parents for shit. I love them will all my heart and they make good money.
But it's money they earned, they are not obligated to give it to their kids.
And for those of you who are about to tell me "that's not the point", yes it is the fucking point. Your material worth is based on what YOU do to make ends meet. Your parents already lived through what we're going through now.
Oh and also: I GUARANTEE 90% of you are going going to do the exact same thing when YOUR KIDS ask "Mom/Dad can you buy me a car".
Of course not! You can barely buy your own car, let alone buy one for your kids and then THEY are gonna post the exact same thing about you on the internet. Because YOU didn't save YOUR money. Instead you spent $50 a month on your monthly services like Hulu, Netflix, Crunchyroll, Disney+, also your Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, and any other goods/services your spending your cash on.
You could, instead put that $50 a month and any extra money into your savings and by the time you retire, you would too would have money to spend. And if you raised your kids right, they would do the same thing instead of relying on OUR hard earned money.
So get the fuck off your high horse and start saving your money.
Let me tell you, as someone with potentially a bit of wealth to give out when I kick the bucket, every week with my kids I get this idea at least once. In some ways, it's the last bit of power we have until becoming of unsound mind. I'm hoping they'll grow out of making me feel that.
What's the problem? One of the common complains on Lemmy is that they claim to ban inheritance, for everyone. So this would be the logical conclusion right?
I'm not quite a boomer, but I do see this generation as just wanting hand-outs. -Oh wait.. that's just how it appears online because they're the ones with all the time to post about it.