Should We Leave Money To Our Kids?

The subject of kids and money is an emotional one for many people. Most of us would do anything for our kids, and often times that means doing things like sacrificing our own financial well-being to secure an education for our children. Others continue to help their adult children, financially, for many years into adulthood rather than contributing to their own retirement.

Helping children while we’re still here is one thing, but what about after we are gone? If we have managed to build wealth throughout our lifetimes, should we pass that wealth along to our children, or is to do so to discourage them from becoming self-starters? There is no right or wrong answer here, as much of it has to do with personal situations such as how you were raised, and how you came into wealth.

I do like Warren Buffet’s quote from a couple years ago, repeated in the USA Today article, Should kids be left fortunes, or be left out? Buffet said about leaving money to kids, “wealthy parents should leave their children with enough money to do anything they want but not so much that they are doomed to do nothing at all. ”Read the entire article.