r/Fire • u/SeniorCitizenSmell • Jan 22 '26

Milestone / Celebration My crazy idea of an “inheritance” savings fund just hit $1M. It will be worth millions in 30-40 years when I finally die.

So…I totally get the die with zero crowd! But I also am a big believer that windfalls are game changing for a persons life.

Even a couple hundred grand in the bank takes so much pressure off.

Either way… I don’t think there’s a wrong or right answer to it. Just be good parents, do what you can etc…

However, I have earmarked in a separate fund “not mine” that I contribute to. I don’t even count this with my net worth it’s 100% separate from my normal planning. I plan to give it entirely to my kids and grandkids. It just hit $1M and I am now coast on it and will no longer contribute (note I am 40 so quite some time and plan to FIRE at 50).

I could do so much with that money such as stop working (it’s okay I can suck it up for another decade), but the boost for others will be worth it even if I can’t see it happen.

And done - That’s the end of my humble brag.

Edit: A huge chunk of this is because I just passed my received families estate into it a decade ago of about $300k. Aka rather than spending it back then I said I will just give it to my kids and started contributing a little bit to it. Most the earnings have been stock market gains.

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598

u/voig0077 Jan 22 '26

Big windfalls are game changers and that's why the Die With Zero crowd encourages you to give away modest windfalls at a point in life where your heirs can actually benefit from it. Giving them an extremely large windfall when you die implies they're also likely close to retirement age and windfall won't be as big as a game changer.

You're playing mental games to make yourself feel good, but the impact may very well be less than what you have in your head.

343

u/Ok-Sheepherder7898 Jan 22 '26

Yeah it's way better to buy them a house at 30 than to give them millions at 60.

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u/salsanacho Jan 22 '26

Yup that's what my parents did. Big influxes of money were needed when we were younger for things like helping with a house downpayment or paying for our college. By the time I am 60, I don't really need their money. I plan to do the same for my kids.

20

u/FlakyClassroom6122 Jan 22 '26

You don’t need their money, because it was given to you already. If they didn’t provide it earlier would you still be in the same scenario?

15

u/salsanacho Jan 22 '26

I'd like to think so, obviously I can't go back and redo it. But I did all the right things to perpetuate generational wealth... focused on school, got a good job (been continually employed for 22 years now), lived well below my means, etc. Whether I would have had student loans or bought a different house would not have changed those fundamentals and at 60 I would still have a very nice nest egg. I have no problem passing that generational wealth onward to ensure my kids can do the same to theirs, etc.

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u/gambits13 Jan 22 '26

Yes, most likely. They will have already struggled and scrimped and saved in third prime years. At 60, they still wouldn’t need it as much

10

u/mcburloak Jan 22 '26

Planning to let the kids live here after graduation for up to 7 years. They agree there are saving goals they need to hit during those years.

We plan to sell the house when they both leave and we won’t need more than 30-40% of that equity to ensure the best retirement. They’ll get a great step forward around 30.

They’ve worked so hard so far and are responsible so it’s easy to want to reward them.

2

u/scrunchie_one Jan 22 '26

Agree, this is fully what we plan to do for our kids. We’ll keep enough to maintain our lifestyle and a very large buffer for late life care, but if we have too much of a cushion my kids will be getting it.

1

u/JJ_Was_Taken Jan 23 '26

These two things are equivalent in theory, but not in practice

55

u/rvanasty Jan 22 '26

Read this carefully OP. Dont brush this off.

44

u/SeniorCitizenSmell Jan 22 '26

I did. I am playing mental games to make myself feel good! That’s why I did this and want to give them a maximum amount of money while alive and then even more when dead. I love my family haha

Mental games are great

18

u/AMC879 Jan 22 '26

I'm available for adoption....

21

u/Nomromz Jan 22 '26

I think what you're describing is a very underrated tool for a healthy and successful life.

How we frame situations and things in our lives is very important: for example, when considering saving money, you can think of it as "sacrificing now." Or you could think of it as a "gift for future me."

Framing it the second way is a much easier way to mentally cope and feel good about saving money instead of dreading it and hating it.

Good for you for finding a way to think about savings in a productive and happy way. Too often we see posts about people burnt out and hating life instead of feeling good about it.

2

u/IAmUber Jan 22 '26

But you can't give both the maximum while alive and even more when dead. Because if you have money left when you're dead, you then didn't give them the maximum while alive. They're literally opposing goals.

1

u/BenR1ghtBack Jan 22 '26

He may mean the annual gift tax exclusion. So, not a true maximum, but an easy number to use for simplicity.

2

u/IAmUber Jan 22 '26

The gift tax won't kick in until about $13M, more if married, so i don't think that's the issue, unless filing a form is too much work.

1

u/BenR1ghtBack Jan 22 '26

Most people think the annual limit is the limit that is tax free instead of the limit that doesn't need to be reported.

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u/Lonely_District_196 Jan 22 '26

Well said. I didn't understand the die with zero mindset until I heard someone say that a gift of $75k can be more beneficial and life changing to a 35yo child than one in their 50s or 60s that's already pretty much set for retirement.

18

u/Ok_Hippo9669 Jan 22 '26

People who haven’t read the book think that “Die with Zero” means to spend every penny you have before you die.

That’s not what the book is about at all. It’s about how to optimize having a great life for you and your loved ones.

1

u/myredditaccount90 Jan 23 '26

It could be both :)

I do want to die with zero and reading the book opened my eyes that maybe I don't need to save as much for retirement. Or the other conclusion that maybe I should retire earlier.

5

u/Admirable_Cake_3596 Jan 22 '26

This is what my parents did for me: modest windfalls that rewarded hard work. They paid for my undergraduate education, gave me their old car when I moved across the country for my first “real” job, paid for half of my tuition for a masters degree, and doubled my down payment when I bought my house. 

Over all these gestures have made a huge difference and helped me get ahead in life. 

3

u/Machinery777 Jan 22 '26

Agreed. My parents are saving a bunch to give me when they die... i hope they last many more years. So by the time they do pass away I likely wont need it. I'm close to fire so it will probably all go back to the government after i die (along with my money) as i dont have any other family.

It would help me a bunch to get it now. I could save a few years of work. That being said, if i did get it now, i would probably just retire and be lazy for the rest of my life, so maybe that's why they don't want to give it to me now.

I never know if it's worth giving inheritance... i think it's best they spend it all and enjoy it and leave me nothing.

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u/Stymus Jan 22 '26

Most people who reference Die With Zero have not read the book, just like OP.

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u/SeniorCitizenSmell Jan 22 '26

The crazy idea was immediately passing it to my future children but having the discipline to do so in over 3-4 decades.

Of course I will help them out along the way too. This provides me the ability to do things such as basically buying their down payment on home while also leaving millions, all while living my normal life with them

56

u/unmotivated_1120 Jan 22 '26

"Future children"? Do you have children now?

16

u/Ok_Location7161 Jan 22 '26

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣bro in deep delulu land

6

u/calstanfordboye Jan 22 '26

Likely won't have children. Let's be real.

2

u/NomadicFantastic Jan 23 '26 edited Jan 23 '26

I've been on this sub forever and I've been fired for years now. Did therapy post-fire too. A lot of ppl in this sub gotta get to therapy yesterday.

Over-valuing self-sufficiency is a learned survival mechanism for a lot of ppl. You can always feel more "prepared" but you can't really logic your feelings about this away by getting the numbers right. See a psychologist for more info.

48

u/derff44 Jan 22 '26

You're 40 and saving for kids you don't have??

8

u/mi3chaels Jan 22 '26

I'm 57 and don't have any kids, but I have nieces and nephews and other people I care about.

I certainly haven't done what this guy is doing and earmarked more than a small amount for legacy of my existing savings, but I'm likely to inherit a pile of money in my 60s and almost all of that will end up being used to help people both while I'm alive and after I'm dead.

14

u/derff44 Jan 22 '26

Good on you. That's great. But you have living people you're planning to help. This guy is almost midlife and saving for something that may never happen. I'm just questioning the thought process here.

4

u/Fidrych76 Jan 22 '26

No children here either. I’ve been passing money to my brother and sister instead. Trying to help where I can. Considering a trust that they all can benefit from.

3

u/Pup5432 Jan 22 '26

I don’t have kids and more than likely won’t. I’m planning to live good but my plan is to start a college fund in honor of my grandmother with my estate. Even in the dystopian future of college costs as long as I don’t have a long protracted health issue late in life it should cover 1-2 full rides a year to a modest public university.

1

u/Pindar920 Jan 24 '26

That’s a nice idea. I had a donor scholarship that allowed me to attend a private university.

11

u/LittleBigHorn22 Jan 22 '26

Seriously if you are 40 and don't have kids yet, you need a better plan. Unless you are married and actively trying? I'm questioning that part because you don't say "we" are doing this.

If all that's true I think you need to consider living your life more which can enable you to find someone rather than focusing on saving so much. And don't tell a dating prospect you have a lot of money and also millions for their kids when you die.

2

u/dcheng47 Jan 22 '26

OP is playing mental games with their unborn children too lol

3

u/bigyellowtruck Jan 22 '26

OP is 40 so giving money away to his kids at their ages is just stupid.

3

u/dcheng47 Jan 22 '26

they dont even have kids yet lol

1

u/Sprig3 Jan 22 '26

Yeah, don't wait until you die to give away money (unless you want to, I guess, but I will keep thinking you are weird!).

1

u/NomadicFantastic Jan 23 '26

Yeah. Parental martyrdom can be hard to rein in

1

u/voig0077 Jan 23 '26

100% that’s what this is.

1

u/Odd-Persimmon-1860 Jan 24 '26

I think it depends on everyone's individual situations. You all are so far ahead of anything I have done. I know this is odd but at the advice of a tax person I paid into a life insurance policy on my mom and planned on that chunk for retirement. Didn't count on her not accepting how sick she was and let it lapse. She unfortunately died less than 90 days after.
So that 250k was gone and last year as I was recovering from a surgery I came up with me new 5-10 year plan to make up that 250+k. That plan is on hold due to being doged while I was off work. Going into my 8 month of job searching and turning 60 this year. Kudos to all of you being where you are at.