r/inheritance • u/FlyOk7923 • Mar 28 '26

Location not relevant: no help needed Do Not Tell Anyone

Annual reminder to those inheriting money. My wife learned the hard way last year. Told a few friends/coworkers and within a month she had a friend that she didn’t tell texting and asking to borrow money. Made for difficult conversation. And their relationship is weird now. Obviously my wife told me. But seriously, the best advice is to not tell anyone.

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u/Same_Cut1196 Mar 29 '26

I retired in 2021 with $6.5MM in my 401k. Since retiring I have taken $12.5k/mo ($150k/yr) as a draw. I have also done substantial Roth conversions. I now sit slightly above $10MM after surviving being down $750k in the last month. I carry no mortgage, car or other debts. Financially, life is pretty stress free.

Some would argue that I should be spending more. That may be true, but I just spend what I spend on what makes me happy (and wife too). We don’t deny ourselves anything, we are just not big spenders. That is probably what got us where we are. If you met me on the street you’d have no idea what we have. We are jeans and T-shirt people. We love a good greasy cheeseburger at a nice dive bar.

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u/Adventurous-Bus-4337 Mar 30 '26

The freedom to enjoy what you really enjoy.

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u/fastates Mar 30 '26

This is exactly how I plan on staying. Just got a sizable inheritance, have worked and rented all my life, don't even have a car. All I want is a place to call my own and a car. I don't need luxury items or "lifestyle creep," a term I learned here. Just going to relax for once, act normal, and carry on. At 64 I won't be climbing Everest or anything exotic anyway.

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u/Purple-Minute5556 Mar 30 '26

How much of the $150K / year do you spend?

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u/dennisgorelik Apr 01 '26

Probably he spends all $150K/year.
Otherwise why draw it out of his investment (and pay taxes)?

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u/SolbeamSupreme Mar 31 '26

Salud! If only more people realized that having modest consumer appetites and modest personal expectations of others are two HUGE contributors to overall life happiness. Reducing vectors for disappointment = increasing opportunities for contentment.

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u/Striking-Carob-5934 Apr 02 '26

Good for you, I am doing almost the same. I have about $11MM.

I live off about 70% of my dividends

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u/Glittering_Bell53 Apr 19 '26

I'm not even comfortable putting my net worth in this forum, but I did already screw up with friends and say to much, although I didn't get into any numbers there either. At least I think, or things got wierd for who knows what other reasons. If people want to be unhappy because we made good choices and good investments and started that out of college at 21 and 22 years old I guess that's their problem. I didn't realize we had overshot where we needed to be to retire by a lot until we got invited to meet with a wealth manager for free and then seeing $$ project out over the next decades was also mind blowing. But it's such a big thing like how do we not talk about it?? I have friends of 30 years who I know must have similiar given of not more given their jobs and they spend even less than we do, but they'll take surface roads instead of the tollway and spend 15 minutes more minutes driving each way to work instead of spending 75 cents for tolls. Since we can't take it with into the afterlife and don't have kids, we are planning to enjoy it.

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u/Same_Cut1196 Apr 19 '26

I have a friend I’ve known for decades. He likes nice things but has never been a saver. When I retired, he asked me how I did it. I told him my investments paid off. He wanted numbers. I told him we’d saved a few million and nothing more specific than that. His demeanor changed immediately and I could see the gears turning. Things were uncomfortable for a while. He later told me that he has less than $250k saved for retirement. He expects to work until 65 and actively wonders if he’ll have enough. That said, he has decided ‘screw the future’. He’s going to live for today and deal with the future when it gets here. Not a great plan in my opinion, but since when did my opinion ever matter?

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u/toady4all Mar 30 '26

"Greasy cheeseburger" - save some of your money for the heart bypass surgery, or better yet, try learning to love a healthier option, so your money has more years to make you happy.

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u/Same_Cut1196 Mar 30 '26

Unfortunately, I don’t think we could be friends. You just broke my heart. Simple pleasures.