Pensioners are getting their priorities right and spending their kids inheritance instead of living their golden years in penury so that they can pass their money down to their offspring.
In the past many elderly people saw it as their responsibility to leave an inheritance of cash as well as property and heirlooms to their children. This cash could have been spent on care, heating in winter, food, and for the better off, vacations, housing, mobility, whatever. Notwithstanding the feuds which often seem to occur when a parent leaves a legacy to a number of their children, parents would feel duty bound to hand something down for posterity. Today however, with the population getting increasingly older, the children are already into their sixties or later when the parents finally pass away, they’ve got children and grand children of their own and are often so well established that they need no inheritance from their parents but keepsakes and the family jewellery.
See Ya Later Losers!
Recognising that the money that they’ve accrued over the years is their own and that they’ve worked hard for it while their children don’t need it, parents are now willing to ‘spend their children’s inheritance’ on themselves. Spending is going on depreciables like fast cars and big ticket items that cannot be recouped, things like spa holidays and cruises.
Some say that they’re the SKI (Spending the Kids Inheritance) generation, wasting their money while their children and grandchildren are in a financial bind. I tend to disagree, children and grandchildren shouldn’t think that they have a ‘right’ to their parents’ money upon their death and if it’s an inheritance then the children are going to have to wait for it anyway.
So, instead of gardening, essentially maintaining the homes that they’re planning to leave to their kids, the older generation are taking off on spa breaks in Europe and beyond when they can afford it, and why not? They have the all the aches and pains of advancing years and the time to enjoy the pampering! No longer prepared to provide free childcare and handouts, grandparents are eschewing the traditional roles that society has moulded for them, booking yoga spa holidays, giving two fingers to their ‘dependents’ and with a parting call of “Up yours ugly!” are boarding planes to sunnier climes. And do you really blame them?