Are You Leaving Your Children An Inheritance?

We recently wrote about how retirement is different if you don’t have children. But we also asked readers to tell us if they are leaving an inheritance for their children and how their decisions have affected their finances and family. Their stories have been condensed and edited for clarity.

“There is no reason I should leave anything to my children.”

Michael Stoll, 63, of Germantown, Tenn., retired from his career as a certified public accountant four years ago. His wife, Nancy, 66, left her job in 1982 when they had their first child. They have two children, 33 and 35, and three grandchildren, 4, 7 and 14 months.

It’s really one of my beliefs that there is no reason I should leave anything to my children. I’m not looking to leave them a legacy, I’m not looking to enrich them, they’re fine on their own. I will either burn everything up with my wife or we’ll give it away to charity. My wife and I have been so blessed with our health, our children, our livelihoods, whether through our church or any organization that helps the poor. The only thing that we will do is make absolutely certain that our grandchildren will have enough money in their 529 plans to go to college.

My whole philosophy was when the children went to school, they were on the “Stoll scholarship,” which required them to have at least a 3.0 average and it required them to graduate in four years and it didn’t allow them to come back home. Neither one of them came home; there was no boomerang. We have well-rounded children and they’re doing terrific on their own. I always joke they are off my payroll and it’s the best feeling ever. As a matter of fact, they usually pay for us.

I’ve never realized how much I would enjoy being retired. Before, I worked hard to make money, now I work hard to save money, whether it’s grocery shopping or household utilities, it makes it so easy here in the mid-South to economize. I may have enough to live past 100!

Read more at The New York Times.