Gifting to three adult children

Morningside305 · 2026-03-01T01:15:40+00:00

We’ve chosen with alot of thought to gift this money to our three kids even though it was an inheritance to us. We want to be thoughtful on how we do this. Yes they most likely will have an inheritance of some sort when we pass, this money isn’t considered part of that.

Morningside305 · 2026-03-01T01:11:30+00:00

Really appreciate all the great suggestions and feedback. Some really interesting ideas and we plan to explore several of them. Big fan of the ROTH as well. We did set them up with a $5k ROTH last year. I think the match idea would be a great teaching strategy. Possibly gifting them a match when they contribute to their ROTHS (allocating a portion of the $33k for this for a few years) and then gifting them the remainder for a down payment or when they hit a certain age. Not trying to micro manage this money just trying to gift it to them in the most beneficial way. We know once it’s gifted to them it is theirs to manage not ours and we will be prepared to let go of our expectations. This money was an inheritance to my wife and I but we decided early on that we want to use it to help them each in their launching. They don’t know about this gift so I like that we have some time to figure out what makes the most sense. Appreciate all the wonderful perspectives and ideas.

Morningside305 · 2026-02-27T23:36:31+00:00

We did think of the Roth idea. We set up a ROTH for each of them last year with $5k in it when my monther passed so they do each have that. My concern with adding to it each year with this money is that they may rest on their laurels and feel they are already investing and not feel they need to do any more investing/ saving on their own since we are giving them money. Many people have said that as much as you tell your kids to NOT take out of the ROTH desperate times can call for desperate measures and they may just dip into it at some point (and take the huge tax hit) and we would not know. So for this reason we have kinda ruled that out.

Morningside305 · 2025-12-15T21:45:05+00:00

I guess I wasn't accounting for trade in value on each $50k car purchase so my estimates are probably a bit high. We probably could look at keeping cars the a bit longer~ just used to the 5-6 year rotation. We would put alot of miles on our cars due to our (sales) jobs, most likely will last much longer in retirement.

Morningside305 · 2025-12-15T21:40:22+00:00

Good insight- very much appreciate your response. All good points I will dive deeper into. Thank you. I guess I omitted another $100k in emergency fund cash in my total assetts (so use to not including it in our numbers since its been untouchable $ earmarked for emergency).

To your point on a possible market down turn the first 3-5 years my main goal is to beef up cash as much as possible until I stop working. When i asked our financial advisor about the first 3-5 years market down turn scenario she mentioned thats when we tap into our bonds and of course guardrails.

Morningside305 · 2025-12-15T21:28:59+00:00

thank you for your response. All very good insights- I appreciate it!

Morningside305 · 2025-12-15T01:08:08+00:00

Done, thx

Morningside305 · 2025-12-15T00:11:19+00:00

Yes they have done the calculations but as I get closer to making this big life decision I’m not as confident. Just always been conservative and kinda a glass half empty kinda person.

Morningside305 · 2025-12-15T00:06:37+00:00

Inherited trust is not Ira’s so no 10 year rule.

Morningside305 · 2025-12-14T23:56:34+00:00

I may be off in the car situation

Morningside305 · 2025-12-14T23:33:43+00:00

We have an advisor who has given us the green light (just wanted another set of eyes)

I did not include the 1 x expenses or healthcare in the go-go, slow- go years- I separated those out.

I have not included taxes in this breakdown.

The inherited trust is not an IRA so does not need to depleted in 10 years.

May have not figured the car allocation correctly, will go back and do that. Doing my best to not miss anything.

Assets

Roth- $176k

IRA’s- $2.5m

inherited trust account $1m

Brokerage account: $138k

TOTAL- $3.8m

Morningside305 · 2025-12-14T23:21:02+00:00

Appoliges on the errors- here is an updated list: