Are you guys for real?

Since this forum attracts people who actually have some capital—many of whom likely inherited it—I figured I’d drop this here.

Given the discussions regarding🙂what constitutes a "normal" standard of living, including any sort of inheritance, it felt appropriate to start this thread.

Everywhere I look, people are talking about fixing up a house left by a grandmother or an aunt. Meanwhile, my bank account is looking pretty slim.😁

I’ve set up a poll with three options, just so we’re all on the same page about my definitions.

By "inheritance," I mean:

- Any amount exceeding $10,000, whether it’s cash or physical assets.
- Money gifted by parents specifically to help purchase a home or apartment.
- By "financial burden," I am referring to the lifelong responsibility of supporting parents or other family members.

Alright, I’ll go first... nothing yet, really, but I definitely want to, assuming my family doesn't blow through all our savings before then. 😁

Maybe in like five or ten years? That feels realistic, I guess, though who actually knows what's gonna happen.

I’m certainly not expecting any miracles.

My folks never really found their footing in the old system, and from the looks of things, I’m not going to fare much better in this one either.

silvertiger11 said:I’m certainly not expecting any miracles.

My folks never really found their footing in the old system, and from the looks of things, I’m not going to fare much better in this one either.

Wait, if you aren't expecting anything, how can they possibly have nothing? Or maybe there are just too many of you.😁

So I’m just sitting here looking over all the replies now... I think I mentioned earlier that I was expecting this, but honestly, seeing everything under the "hard work" category? I don't even know what to say about it. 😁

Essentially, everything I own will eventually belong to me in its entirety...
It isn't exactly a fortune—just the house I’m living in, two small apartments, and a little rural property tucked away somewhere in the middle of nowhere. 😛

Altogether, it wouldn't even cover half the cost of a modest condo in Washington, D.C.... But then again, I only have my own little corner in a quiet part of America, nestled in the hills above the Po River and San Francisco, yet still relatively close to civilization.
I haven't quite decided if I'll stay put or head out somewhere else—but if I do stay, I’d certainly prefer to raise the kids here, far away from all that big-city concrete...

Checking in with you all 😁

Up until now, I’ve managed to pass down a portion of what I inherited from my parents—funds that I eventually funneled directly to my children once they reached that milestone of moving out on their own after many years...

Looking ahead, I’m expecting to inherit a house in New York City, a vacation cottage, and some acreage, since I’m an only child and I trust my siblings won't try to tear the estate apart...

My only real concern regarding this inheritance is that I’ll be reaching a very advanced age by the time it actually comes into my hands, so it won't do much for my husband and me personally; I'll likely end up directing most of it toward helping the kids pay off their student loans...😁

Honestly, if I had been in control of all these assets during my 40s, things would have turned out so much differently, because I truly believe I could have managed everything more effectively, allowing us all to build significantly more wealth together, whether we're talking about property value or liquid cash...
I’ve always had a bit of a knack for making money grow...

I honestly feel like I owe my ancestor a massive thank you every single year because all he ever did was pour his earnings into buying up land that wasn't worth much at the time. Between 2000 and 2010, the value of that property just exploded from maybe $30 a square foot—since most of it eventually got rezoned for development—to an insane $350 per square foot. Of course, getting paid was always a huge headache since those construction companies would try to haggle you down constantly; they’d basically demand compensation because if you were selling, say, 10,000 square feet at $300 a pop, that's $3 million on the table, which is a massive sum they didn't actually have sitting in the bank. They figured they could just build some cheap apartment complex and try to sweeten the deal by throwing in some commercial space or a few condos, but you'd never actually see the actual cash
Once we finally subdivided the parcels, things got way smoother because the guy would just finish a building on the other side of town, grab his profit, and then circle back to pay me for the next phase of construction
Everything ran pretty smoothly until the whole "crash" hit

I’ve got an even better example from a coworker of mine who’s from out by the coast in Palm Springs; apparently, his old man was considered the "bad son" because he ended up with this worthless stretch of beachfront land where nothing would grow, while his uncle got the prime land 6.2 miles closer to the water that was perfect for farming, back when tourism wasn't even a real career path yet
So now, the "bad son" is living large off interest and rent from about 30 vacation rentals, while the "good son" is still out there breaking his back working in a vineyard
Sometimes, being the "bad" one really pays off😁

Nancy Howard4, an old colleague of mine used to have a way of putting things regarding this topic: you're considered wealthy if your ancestor was...

well, in your case it's an ancestor, but I suppose that's really all there is to it 😉

Honestly, nobody expects anything from me. I guess I’ve just been living in some alternate reality.🙄

Man, this poll is missing some key options! We definitely need stuff like "I haven't gotten there yet, but I'm grinding hard to make it happen" and "I've put in all this work and still have nothing to show for it."

I sure do—my parents' house in New York City and some land out in Appalachia.

Yeah, I've got an apartment in Washington, D.C., that needs a total overhaul. And I’m expecting to inherit about a sixth of some land plus half a floor of a house in Malibu sometime in the next 20 to 30 years. Though that house will probably need a massive renovation too—I'm thinking at least $10k to $15k per floor.

No worries for now. My parents are healthy, active, and still working away in our wonderful private sector.

Back home in the States, everything was settled for me once I hit my eighteenth birthday. I ended up inheriting two apartments within our family home, along with about 8,000 square feet of land, which I suppose is decent, though I can't say I'm exactly thrilled about it. I am just incredibly grateful that it’s located on the California coast, just a stone's throw from the ocean, rather than being tucked away somewhere deep in the Midwest.

Everything I have came down through my father's side. My mother didn't leave much behind, of course—she grew up in the Midwest with five siblings, and they all have to share a single house. To be honest, I don't lose much sleep over that house; at this point, my little patch of land near the coast feels far more valuable than any property out in the heartland.🤣

That is why I always tell people you should marry someone from the coast; those girls from the interior rarely come with any assets to speak of.🤣

I didn't get anything, and honestly, I'm not expecting much.

Drew Gonzalez12 said:Back home in the States, everything was settled for me once I hit my eighteenth birthday. I ended up inheriting two apartments within our family home, along with about 8,000 square feet of land, which I suppose is decent, though I can't say I'm exactly thrilled about it. I am just incredibly grateful that it’s located on the California coast, just a stone's throw from the ocean, rather than being tucked away somewhere deep in the Midwest.

Everything I have came down through my father's side. My mother didn't leave much behind, of course—she grew up in the Midwest with five siblings, and they all have to share a single house. To be honest, I don't lose much sleep over that house; at this point, my little patch of land near the coast feels far more valuable than any property out in the heartland.🤣

That is why I always tell people you should marry someone from the coast; those girls from the interior rarely come with any assets to speak of.🤣

🤦

rustywalker42 said:I didn't get anything, and honestly, I'm not expecting much.

🤦

It might seem like a significant amount to you, but when you step back and look at the bigger picture, it really isn't. For instance, my younger cousin is set to inherit two condos from his father and three vacation rentals in Malibu from his mother, whereas I won't be inheriting a single thing from my mother.🙄

I can't help but feel a bit of regret that my mother hails from the Midwest rather than somewhere like Malibu where my father is from.😁 It seems that many local families here possess substantial properties or sizable plots of land that remain quite valuable—even if about 80% of that real estate has already been snapped up by foreign investors. To give you an idea, one of my neighbors could easily walk away with 2 million dollars if she decided to sell off all her acreage.

I mean, does anyone else ever wonder if they’re actually going to inherit some liquid cash—you know, a significant amount of money you can actually spend—rather than just a bunch of real estate, bricks, dirt, or some random pile of rocks? 😁

Honestly, I bet a lot of other people are sitting there asking themselves the exact same thing while they're busy daydreaming about inheriting a cool two million dollars. 🤣

I guess I might have jumped the gun a bit with my last reply, so maybe I don't have everything totally straight yet, but honestly, we're still just in the very early stages of negotiations.

Of course, this is going to cost me something, you know? Financially speaking, and I probably won't be able to talk them out of it easily, because I have zero intention of moving to where they live, and they aren't planning on relocating either, so our interests just don't really align.

But, hey, it’s not really an issue, I suppose. The main thing is reaching an agreement where everyone walks away happy, and making sure my dad doesn't have to keep working all the way until retirement.

As for the assets, let's say they're pretty typical for someone from California. There's a house, maybe around 3,700 square feet, sitting on a lot that's about 7,000 square feet... oh, and there's a larger 22,000 square foot plot in a small town near the coast, plus a few smaller, less valuable parcels—some of which can only be sold to the neighbors unless we find a buyer for one specific one, which is currently in progress. There's also an old, semi-dilapidated house in that same town, another plot a bit further from the coast, and a house over in Mexico.

They seem to be overvaluing everything, though. I'm trying to stay grounded and realistic here; if I had to guess, the current value is somewhere between $1.6 to $2.1 million.

So, look, if we settle on a deal where I pay $1,300 a month, and I factor in average life expectancy, it would basically cost me about $390,000 in total economic terms. So, yeah, strictly looking at the math, it actually makes sense. 🍿

P.S. Oh, right, they also have a loan. It's not some massive mountain of debt or anything, but it would end up costing me a little bit more if we decided to pay it off all at once.

Zachary Collins2 said:Nancy Howard4, an old colleague of mine used to have a way of putting things regarding this topic: you're considered wealthy if your ancestor was...

well, in your case it's an ancestor, but I suppose that's really all there is to it 😉

Back in the day when grandfathers and great-grandfathers were hauling gravel that they basically dug up by hand and hauled away with horses, hardly anyone around here could brag about having eight heavy-duty workhorses in the stable and farming maybe 25 acres of their own land while picking up extra cash plowing fields for neighbors—that was all before World War II.
Then the government stepped in and seized some of the land, but they didn't actually build anything useful on it, so we just kept working it since the local authorities around New York City didn't really bother with those kinds of small details.
And once the US was formed, we easily got all that land back, and honestly, during the 90s, none of it was worth a dime until the city started expanding and all that new construction kicked off.
The real heavy hitters were out in the outskirts near the industrial zones, and by the way, that massive arena downtown was built right on a plot owned by my wedding best man, and nothing would grow there except during floods, so people used to joke that they should just start growing rice instead.
Nowadays, people live off interest from those deals, and I actually know the guy who owned the land where the Mall of America stands; the mayor tried to play middleman during the sale to pocket a commission, but the guy totally shut him down and cut a deal directly with the buyers. It was the same situation with the city trying to bid on the site because the mayor wanted to take city funds, buy the land, flip it to investors, put the money back in the treasury, and pocket the difference for himself—that happened with pretty much every major plot in New York City.
But anyway, that's a whole different conversation.

Drew Gonzalez12 said:Back home in the States, everything was settled for me once I hit my eighteenth birthday. I ended up inheriting two apartments within our family home, along with about 8,000 square feet of land, which I suppose is decent, though I can't say I'm exactly thrilled about it. I am just incredibly grateful that it’s located on the California coast, just a stone's throw from the ocean, rather than being tucked away somewhere deep in the Midwest.

Everything I have came down through my father's side. My mother didn't leave much behind, of course—she grew up in the Midwest with five siblings, and they all have to share a single house. To be honest, I don't lose much sleep over that house; at this point, my little patch of land near the coast feels far more valuable than any property out in the heartland.🤣

That is why I always tell people you should marry someone from the coast; those girls from the interior rarely come with any assets to speak of.🤣

It varies, but even if you spend two months working by the ocean and make a decent profit, I wouldn't bet on being able to survive the rest of the year on what you pull in during those two months.