Sometimes, parents do messed-up things, and you’ve likely heard a story or two or had some experiences of your own that confirm this. Well, here’s another one for you — this boomer couple recently appeared on Australian show SBS Insight and revealed that their children won’t be seeing any of the inheritance money that was originally saved in the kids’ names. Why, you may be asking?
The parents are using the money to travel around the world. Leanne and Leon Ryland are being labeled as “selfish and privileged” because of it.
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What led the parents to using their sons’ inheritance money was a meeting with a financial planner some years ago, where they discussed retirement. “We’ve done all the right things by investing in property, boosting up our [retirement fund], making sure that was healthy, going without a lot of things,” the mother explained. “And he said, ‘You’re crazy if you don’t retire when you can, because you’ll spend most of your wealth on travel or whatever in the first 10 years, and then after that it slows down.'”
So far, Leanne and Leon have spent the equivalent of $115,000 on seeing the “wonders of the world” since retiring. They’ve been to Machu Picchu in Peru, India, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives so far.
“It’s changing our mindset. You get into a phase now where you actually spend instead of save,” the mom added. And now they’re changing the minds of other parents as well. They started a Facebook group called SKIclub (Spending Kids Inheritance) where other retirees can share travel tips.
Leanne is trying to convince her husband to travel more “because if we don’t spend it, you know he gets it,” she said, pointing at their son. “We’re not going to be able to spend all this money so let’s do it now because in another 10 years we won’t be climbing the Great Wall of China. We won’t be going up Machu Picchu. We won’t be doing those things. So we’ve gotta do it now because what else is there?”
Of course, there was a lot of backlash on the couple’s mindset.
“Boomer privilege at its best and still not conscious of it,” one person commented. “So entitled.”
“Boomers are evil … bragging about overseas holidays and spending all their money so their kids have no inheritance,” another person said.
But one of the sons doesn’t have a problem with his parents’ decision. “It’s their money,” he said. “They’ve worked hard their entire life and invested well in order to get that money, so I think they should be able to do whatever they like with it.”
