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| Monday, October 27, 2008 |
| Midlife women long for their father's money |
The Slate article: A Bequest of One's Own has writer Bonnie Goldstein wishing she was on the receiving end of some family inheritance windfall. When I was a little girl in the 1950s, my mother mistakenly believed she was an heiress. We lived modestly, but my mother's father, Poppa Jack, had founded and built a successful company that manufactured high-school-athletic letter jackets. When his heart gave out suddenly at 56, an estate attorney informed my mother, her two sisters, and their younger brother (then all in their 20s) that their prosperous father had left substantial riches to be divided among them. The siblings—referred to in the family as "the kids" for the next 40 years—would get their "inheritance" at the expiration of a lifelong trust to support their mother, my Grandma Rose. With the piñata of a future fortune hanging out of reach, my mother, inheriting her father's entrepreneurial spirit, opened a dress shop.
Financially comfortable, Grandma Rose married the estate attorney, Fred, and they lived happily into their ninth decades. The coat company for years churned out orders for leather-sleeved jackets in every combination of high-school colors. My step-grandfather, who generally kept a dignified veil over questions about Poppa's estate, once told me the factory was intended mainly as a source of employment for family members. Indeed, copious cousins of questionable competence found jobs there. In the long run, dynastic socialism was bad for business. Poppa Jack's well-intentioned legacy ran out of gas and into receivership just as his daughter became a grandmother herself. Perhaps I was fortunate that my family has never had the luxury of inherited wealth - not even the faint hope of such a thing is on the horizon. My Mother once disclosed to me that in her will she is leaving me her prized Hummell collection. So one day I may be rich in squat little german figurines, but even that may not come to pass if I can convince her to liquidate them on EBay at some point. |
| posted by Boston Gal @ 10:04 AM *
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| 4 Comments: |
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Oohhh ... Hummell's! I have a friend who is line to inherit 1/3 of a Hummell collection ... she appears to be as thrilled as you are at the prospect. :)
I'm not anticipating any type of inheritance (not even a Hummell). It is kind of nice to not have the prospect of an inheritance. My Brother and his wife will likely inherit some major $ in the future, but they have no idea exactly what and they would kind of like to know in terms of their financial planning. I can see their point ... but I think they should just plan to get zilch and be pleasantly surprised with anything.
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Yeah, it's tough, but counting on someone dying is not the best financial plan, IMHO.
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Ah, where there's money and family members, there's usually troubles. I had to fight my uncles in court for my late mother's portion of my grandfather's "estate." It wasn't a lot of money, especially once the lawyer took his cut.
In the end, I lost two uncles, but gained a nestegg which paid for adoption expenses for my two daughters. I would rather have my kids in my life, instead of those two old goats.
-Sarah
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I find her hopes for independence for her children a bit silly, given that she's still paying for stuff for them in their 20s! I don't have as much a problem with the kid in college, but the loan for the house? I thought that wasn't even allowed (when we bought our house 8 years ago, we had to say that none of the down payment came from anyone or anything other than our personal bank accounts). But when I was in college, my parents contribution to my "tuition and rent" was about $1000/year, plus they drove/flew me home for school breaks. I think I was far more ready for independence when it was gradually built up through college rather than having them continue to pay my rent! (I went to grad school completely on my own.)
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Oohhh ... Hummell's! I have a friend who is line to inherit 1/3 of a Hummell collection ... she appears to be as thrilled as you are at the prospect. :)
I'm not anticipating any type of inheritance (not even a Hummell). It is kind of nice to not have the prospect of an inheritance. My Brother and his wife will likely inherit some major $ in the future, but they have no idea exactly what and they would kind of like to know in terms of their financial planning. I can see their point ... but I think they should just plan to get zilch and be pleasantly surprised with anything.