We Have Over $8 Million and Can Retire, but Can’t Shake the Idea We Should Keep Working for Our Son

One of the most challenging things any parent has to do at some point in their lifetime is decide how much or how little to give their children financially. This is a decision millions of baby boomers are going through right at this very minute, as the “greatest wealth transfer” in history is in its early stages. 

In the case of one Redditor, she and her husband are on opposite sides of the coin. The couple has a net worth of $8.1 million, has already helped their child with higher education costs and stock account. Posting in r/fatFIRE, there is now a question of how much is too much regarding an inheritance for a child and whether they should build up a bigger nest egg. 

The Scenario

The bottom line is that there is no easy answer when it comes to setting up your children for an inheritance. This is entirely up to the parents, as it’s their money, and they can do whatever they want with it, including going to a casino and betting everything on red. 

This said, in the case of this Redditor, she and her husband are both 48 years old and, through good jobs, have accrued a net worth of approximately $8.1 million. Currently, the couple doesn’t have a home, so there is limited outstanding debt. They hope to retire at the end of the year and potentially move overseas or away from their current high-cost-of-living area. 

The original poster, the mother, feels guilty about walking away from the workforce when they are in their prime earning years and can build a bigger nest egg to ensure their child has more money coming their way. At least part of the guilt stems from the mother knowing her son is lining himself up to go into a field he loves but isn’t necessarily high paying. 

However, the father feels slightly different and wants to be more selfish as the couple has already set the son up to have no loans through both undergraduate and grad school, plus a stock account worth $250,000. In other words, he feels they have done enough. 

What Should Parents Do? 

Unsurprisingly, the mother turned to Reddit, looking for the opinions of anyone else in a similar situation, and wondered how they had handled or are thinking about handling this type of inheritance scenario. 

On the one hand, one Redditor in the comment section makes an excellent point in that the child has already been set up with $250,000 in a stock account. If you assume the son is in his mid-20s, by the time they are ready to retire, at a safe 6% interest rate, this money would compound into $2.5 million by the time the son turns 65. 

Even at a more conservative 4%, in 40 years, this stock account will be worth over $1.2 million, so there is no question that his parents are already setting him up to have money available for retirement. This is why some Reddit comments felt spot on when they say this child has already received a free education, free grad school, and a significant retirement account. What more does he really need? 

Of course, you have to consider that the parents may not blow all $8.1 million either (which is still likely to grow), so the mother has to believe that more money will come to the son one day as well. This could allow the mother to rest easy because she has done more than enough to set her child up for success. 

Room for Compromise 

While this won’t be true for all scenarios, the husband and wife may want to compromise somewhere in the middle. Instead of continuing to work and trying to build up more of a potential inheritance for the son now, maybe they can help with some other tangible things. This could include setting up a 529 account for future grandchildren or helping him with a down payment on a home after grad school. 

There are some definite opportunities here that the wife could bring to the husband that might allow them both to feel like they are getting a bit of a “victory” in this discussion. The husband would retire on time, and the mother would know that she did just a little bit more to help her son live the best possible life she could give him. 

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