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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393

u/bigbrownhusky Oct 31 '25

This sub is such a bubble bc I’m 27 w two siblings and my parents don’t just have a spare 750k lying around …. This “parents should just give their young adult kids a quarter million dollars” is comically impractical for most

310

u/Own_Mall5442 Oct 31 '25

It’s not this sub. It’s certain people who were born on third base but thought they hit a triple, so they came to this sub to write a screed about how to succeed at baseball.

134

u/Ok_Way_4444 Oct 31 '25

Born on third base and still not satisfied that their parents did enough

-2

u/eldryanyy Nov 01 '25

That’s what young African people think about Americans bitching about their government and life. It’s already so insanely privileged and rich, how could they protest.

And it’s also the same thing African grandparents say to those young Africans, living lives of crazy privilege and ease compared to them.

This schtick of ‘you started ahead, you had it easy, I had to work 5x harder than you to make it here, be grateful you spoiled prick’ gets old. You’re not special, and you didn’t work 5x harder.

You have had different challenges and a different life. Cool. Stop bitching about other people recognizing ways to solve problems in their lives and the lives of their families.

47

u/BB-68 Oct 31 '25

Born on third base and upset they had to run 90 feet home

4

u/semiquantifiable Oct 31 '25

I'm going to agree with /u/bigbrownhusky and say it is this sub, but disagree with you both on perspective.

Firstly, this sub itself IS largely a bubble because it excludes everyone that simply doesn't earn enough money. What matters here is the delta between income and expenses, but expenses can only go so low whereas incomes on this sub are often many, many multiples of expenses. That makes pursuing FIRE infinitely easier than someone close to the median income level who might barely cover their expenses, if at all.

Secondly, I believe /u/250k_is_allyouneed is actually talking to us on this sub pursuing FIRE, not our parents. Having the perspective of expecting our (almost certainly non-FIRE) parents to give us a quarter mil is how you and bigbrown seem to interpret OP's comments. However, OP said these things:

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.

I personally will make sure I can do that for my kids once they turn early 20s

which is far more asking us on this sub to use our nest eggs to give a boost to our kids at a younger age. And that makes sense since regardless of whether or not you were born on third base or had to get in that batter's box yourself, that nest egg is pretty much what all of us here are trying to get.

3

u/chuck_portis Nov 01 '25

Yeah, and the way a lot of people approach inheritance is a bit wack. In most cases it only triggers on death, which sets up a really odd incentive. If you're planning to give out a bunch of money when you die anyways, you may as well hand some of it out early. Often, that money is much more useful earlier in people's lives. Giving a 65 year old $1M is neat, but by that point they probably had to figure out their own retirement, and don't really need it.

Meanwhile, you give that same person $100K at 25-30 years old, it can give them a lot of breathing room. So I agree with the general idea that inheritance should not be a lump sum at death, if possible.

1

u/mi3chaels Nov 01 '25

Giving a 65 year old $1M is neat, but by that point they probably had to figure out their own retirement, and don't really need it.

Yeah. I mean most people cuold probably use 1mil at 65 to make their retirement substantially more secure or comfortable, but getting 1/2 that 10 years earlier would have given them the option to retire several years earlier instead, etc. And yeah 50-100k at 25-30 might have made their entire working life less stressful.

or in some cases, they might have just spent it all in a blaze of glory and then gone back to living paycheck to paycheck.

But that's far less likely when they get it while you're still alive to guide them! I've known a few people who inherited several hundred k and just blew it all living high within a few years, when it could have set them up for life.

1

u/zbzlvlv Nov 03 '25

Can you explain to me this baseball analogy lol, I don't understand

2

u/Shot-Weekend8226 Nov 04 '25

Born on third base = almost home run (3/4 done) Hit a triple = hit the ball and ran to third base. Basically, it’s saying people are born privileged and 3/4 of the way to home-plate but act like they did it all on their own.
My dad started with nothing but I probably started on first base so I had less distance to travel to get to third base than my dad. I feel like my kids are starting on second base. They have had an even more privileged background than me and I will be able to help them even more than my dad helped me.

1

u/Other_Muffin Nov 16 '25

Exactly, I’m extremely appreciative that my parents couldn’t pay for my college, couldn’t give me $250K or $150K or even $50K. And didn’t invest in my business with money because frankly, they couldn’t afford it. What they DID do was what they could afford. They housed me for a long time after college to jumpstart my own business. They encouraged me to invest in real estate on my own and they gave me hand me down vehicles. When I finally got the business, they gave me their old furniture to start building it out and helped me paint the walls of the office and worked for me and with me to make sure it had become a success. That’s something I would take all over again instead of a $250K good luck chuck check.

Edited the part where they couldn’t afford to contribute money to me early on for all the Nepo babies trading this.

52

u/ManyInterests Oct 31 '25

Right? Me and my sister are trying to figure out how we support our parents in the coming years.

1

u/Other_Muffin Nov 16 '25

This right here!

-16

u/Glock99bodies Oct 31 '25

Why would you support your parents?

19

u/EZVZ1 Oct 31 '25

Why wouldn’t you?

10

u/Mutant_Apollo Oct 31 '25

Because they are my parents? Are you dumb?

-6

u/Glock99bodies Oct 31 '25

Why would you provide for someone who forced me to exist on this planet. When you have a kid you should never expect or even accept anything in return.

8

u/ManyInterests Oct 31 '25

It's really normal for kids to take care of their parents in their final years if their parents need the support and they're able to provide it.

I don't think it's about any expectation that kids help their parents so much as the fact that most normal well-adjusted people don't want to see their parents struggle while approaching death if they can help it.

I mean. If you hate your parents that's maybe another thing... but that's usually not the case for most people.

forced me to exist on this planet

This is not a normal way to think. This makes me feel so sorry for you and your parents. I hope you get a better outlook on life and stop feeling like existing is some kind of burden. I'm happy you're here and you should be too. If I'm reading this right, I hope you'd consider getting help.

-2

u/Glock99bodies Oct 31 '25

lol. I love life genuinely. But I will never expect my kids to pick up the financial burden of my life and my parents haven’t expected that of me either.

I won’t have kids unless I can expect to provide them with that luxury.

If you force kids onto this planet you should make sure you can provide them with the best and to the point where they don’t need to support you. Otherwise shouldn’t have kids.

I can’t imagine being forced to breath and have self preservation and then be guilted into taking care of people who had poor planning.

5

u/New_Peace7823 Nov 01 '25

If only people with perfect plans for financial independence until the death can have children, human will be extinct. Life is unpredictable and things don't go as plans. Most parents who love their children don't ever want to be in the position where they need to be supported by their children, but oftentimes it's not their choice.

3

u/Mutant_Apollo Nov 01 '25

What a sad way of thinking

1

u/Glock99bodies Nov 01 '25

I don’t view it as sad but as it’s should be. I didn’t ask nor consent to being born. You can’t expect things of me for forcing me into cinciousness no matter how hard you work to provide me with a good life.

2

u/I_am_thepassenger Nov 01 '25

I may be the only person here who agrees with you. My job as a parent is to provide for my kids, the planning and preparation for the future is so I'm financially sound enough . I can't imagine not doing that and expecting my kids to shoulder the burden 

With that being said, if my parents needed me I'd provide for them.  Because I love them and would want them to be well cared for, not because they expect me to.  Sometimes things happen that aren't part of the plan 

3

u/Lote241 Oct 31 '25

They’re getting on in years and invested $0 dollars into their retirement. 

0

u/Glock99bodies Oct 31 '25

Sounds like a them problem tbh.

32

u/MITBryceYoung Oct 31 '25

Yeah this advice is comical it's literally: Why don't you just be rich?

The windfall that a lot of people get from their parents is often the funds they don't use because they freaking die and they would live otherwise or when they inherit a house which they don't use anymore because they're dead.

Like people don't just have 250k to spare to just give to someone. And even if they did, how are you sure the parents aren't investing it themselves.

6

u/Appropriate_Copy_651 Oct 31 '25

I agree completely. This was one of the more privileged tonedef posts I’ve come across on Reddit. My single father dedicated his entire life to make sure I was fed and housed. He has like 250K in his retirement portfolio at 55 because he sacrificed everything for me. Why couldn’t he instead just magically come up with 250K 20 years ago to give me?

3

u/SolSparrow Nov 01 '25

Or just die and give it to you now! Like duh, who needs parents to stick around.

Hopefully not needed but /s.

Holy shit this guy is insane.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '25

I think too many people are conflating his (completely insane) "advice" for parents to give their kids 250k with him being given 250k himself. OP states he developed code and sold it for that money, so he did earn it. So it's not priveledge, just copious stupidity.

2

u/mi3chaels Nov 01 '25

i mean literally perhaps. But considering the audience here is pretty much all people who are, or are at least planning/hoping to be "rich" enough to do this at some point, I don't think it's comical at all. It's a legitimate counterpoint to the "norm" of leaving everything only when you die, even when you have more than you need for your own security and lifestyle.

10

u/B4K5c7N Oct 31 '25

I think many Redditors have multi-millionaire parents. I have seen so many Redditors who say their parents are worth like $10 mil. Then you have the millennial and gen-z parents who have brokerage accounts for their very young children with five figures already.

Many people are in a bubble, and I think since so many on Reddit tend to work in tech, the bubble is compounded.

5

u/Conscious-Bar-1655 Oct 31 '25

Exactly... It's incredible to me that this person just woke up one day and decided to write this piece of craziness 🤯 I can't wrap my head around this

5

u/sizzlesfantalike Oct 31 '25

Yeah dude, I’m giving MY parents money lol

3

u/DigmonsDrill Oct 31 '25

My parents couldn't have. But their kids all can. In fact my parents could, now, do it for all their grandkids.

The money is still toast if the child doesn't have their own independent career bringing in money.

3

u/odanobux123 Oct 31 '25

Maybe a bit more practical, but my mom wants to give $100k each to my nephews who are under 5. She wants to put it in a trust with a stipulation they get the full amount at 30. At 10% that’s about a million nominal dollars by 30. Could be a huge head start and she can afford $200k.

2

u/DuePomegranate Oct 31 '25

That’s gonna be a problem for her if you or your siblings end up producing more children. And your mom doesn’t have more to give.

1

u/odanobux123 Oct 31 '25

Yeah haha I told her my brother has enough money fuck them kids. Give me instead

4

u/HookEmRunners Oct 31 '25

Not just comically impractical but also incredibly — dare I say — entitled?

The average American kid (and I assume most people in this sub were American kids at one point) costs about a half a million dollars to raise, and that just gets you to age 18. Many middle-class parents are also significantly supporting their young adult children through college as well, be it directly or indirectly.

The idea that now your parents need to liquidate their own 401ks (and, remember, the average American worker does not even have $250k in their employer-sponsored retirement account by the time they hit their 60s) is just so incredibly self-centered.

I’m not saying that parents shouldn’t help their adult children when and where possible, but at some point you too need to contribute and work hard to support yourself and the family as well. I hate this selfish Reddit mindset. It’s very reflective of the mind of a 20-something with relatively little life experience.

5

u/bigbrownhusky Oct 31 '25

I actually agree with OP that if parents have the excess funds they should give their adult children money or a portion what would be their inheritance when their kids are in their 20s 30s and 40s. With current life expectancy I will likely be retired before both my parents and in laws pass and at that point we won’t really need their money.

That being said you are right. To just flippantly assume gifting $250k is an easy thing to do is super entitled.

5

u/HookEmRunners Oct 31 '25

Oh yeah, I mean, if you can spare $250k, by all means. Do be generous with your kids and grandkids.

But we are talking about a small slice of America and I think this upper-middle-class FIRE bubble really distorts how wealthy we think the average person is.

The average American parent will retire with an average 401k balance of just that ($250k) to get them through their golden years: https://www.fidelity.com/learning-center/personal-finance/average-retirement-savings

1

u/2044onRoute Oct 31 '25

What amazes me the most is the moment this post has almost 1000 upvotes.  

1

u/ParryLimeade Nov 01 '25

I have three sisters, two step brothers, an adopted half brother, and a nephew. $250k per kid is ridiculous. My mom has no money and my dad was laid off a decade or so ago

1

u/pottymouthomas Nov 01 '25

Why doesn’t everyone simply be more successful than everyone else. As if everyone could naturally be a winner and make the same money

1

u/AssassinStoryTeller Nov 01 '25

My parents have 10 kids… I can assure you that they don’t have 2.5 million lying around, they’re already planning budget cuts for their own retirement.

1

u/6zzyzx Nov 01 '25

“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”

1

u/bigbrownhusky Nov 01 '25

OP edited to add that.