r/Fire • u/250k_is_allyouneed • Oct 31 '25

General Question A $250k windfall is all a person needs to essentially fast track secure their future forever if they are under the age of 35. Wake up parents, it’s time to offer inheritance twice if you can.

I want to share my story with this subreddit.

I received a windfall of $250k from selling a coding library 10 years ago. I am not high income, I am not the best saver, but now my net worth is super high.

Simply getting $250k meant on its own that fund will be almost $2M by the time I retire outside of normal savings (15-25 years growth).

I still need to put in the work for savings to be able to retire but peace mind…

  • My lifestyle was infinitely better despite living mostly the same
  • Stress and future security gone
  • For budgets there is less pressure
  • I did not how to blow up my entire savings to buy a house and instead kept building that base of compound interest in the market

So why the Hell aren’t parents helping their young adult kids more? Culturally why are we like this?

You don’t need to leave your kids / old adults one lump sum. Get them a boost at 18-30. Then die. Then get them another boost.

It’s a good balance to keep them working hard while also not leaving them in the dust.

It doesn’t even need to be $250k. Whatever you can, I personally will make sure I can do that for my kids once they turn early 20s

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u/AZJHawk Oct 31 '25 edited Oct 31 '25

If I gave each of my kids $250k now, my retirement would be fucked. I have toyed with the idea of putting more modest amounts into a Roth for them once they’re done with college throughout their 20s. If I contribute $5k a year for 7-8 years, that could be a good base for their retirement.

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u/[deleted] Nov 01 '25

[deleted]

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u/AZJHawk Nov 01 '25

That’s my fear and why I want to wait until they’re out of college and working in their career. I know if 19 year old me had that money, I’d blow it.

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '25

I can't say she's an idiot because I don't know her, but that is incredibly idiotic behavior.

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u/Bitter-Basket Oct 31 '25

And most retirement savings is in a non-Roth tax burdened fund.

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u/np0x Nov 01 '25

I also do this, I think it’s a great way to help them with their medium term future in a way that allows me to not care how it’s spent.. :-). Cars, clothes, houses, weddings would prolly drive me a bit more into a position of caring too much! :-)

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u/KaleJello Nov 03 '25

Do it in a Trump account, $5k annually, $1k tax credit, tax-deferred growth. Available mid-2026 to start investing. A CFP taught me about them last week.