Husbands inheritance

[lisaloves]

DH has inherited 15k from an Aunt who sadly passed.

We are very happily married with 2 DCs. Comfortable financially but certainly not loaded. Huge mortgage and things we need to do to the house etc.

DH wants to put the entire amount in to Bitcoin. He's reluctantly agreed to just put half in to Bitcoin and the other half in to our joint ISA.

AIBU to think this is selfish?

For reference I am the bread winner by a country mile and we share all of our income. I never question this so it now feels unfair that his money is 'his' money - when for a long time I've earned much more and it's all been shared money.

I don't know much about Bitcoin but from what I've read it's very risky business.

That money was earned by someone else's labour, and lump sums don't appear very often. Its shameful to waste all of it on something so risky. At least put some into premium bonds.

But thats not true in the law though is it? (Not necessarily disagreeing with you although its not personally how we deal with it in our house)

Surely if the OP divorced her DH, and I am not suggesting she does, she would be entitled to half the inheritance, or half of whatever is left after he finishes faffing with bitcoin?

I think an inheritance should benefit the whole family, not just the beneficiary. Why do people think otherwise?

No such thing as a joint ISA.

Auntie probably struggled for years to leave an inheritance, nephew wants to flush it down the pan by investing in bitcoin

Would he consider premium bonds? A chance to win big but the capital is safe?

I'm not sure it matters who is the breadwinner, unless he's sitting on his backside doing nothing.

www.nsandi.com/products/premium-bonds

I don’t think so. Depends where you are. In England if inheritance is never put in a joint account or joint asset, it doesn’t count as a marital asset. It keeps its status in law as a non matrimonial asset.

www.co-oplegalservices.co.uk/media-centre/articles-may-aug-2017/matrimonial-and-non-matrimonial-assets/

I would say split it down the middle and each invest £7.5k and see who makes the best return in 5 years time. We had a similar situation me and DH and decided on this. All the money becomes family money but you can have a pot each to invest how you like. If you’re the significant bread winner it’s nice for the other partner to feel they’re contributing through an investment opportunity. Bit coin is still stupid but maybe let him make that mistake himself.

Just start withdrawing your own earnings into your own savings account ASAP.
And try not to smirk too much or say "I told you so" when the inevitable happens.

Yes exactly, it may be the reason he wants some control over a pot of money if he feels he’s constantly being provided for.

It needs to go in the shared pot. He’s taking the piss.

Another link showing case history and clarifying this applies to money inherited during the marriage, not just before
www.divorce-online.co.uk/finances/assets/inherited-assets-in-divorce/
“As a rule, most assets that are acquired during a marriage or a civil partnership are added to the ‘matrimonial pot’ and are then divided upon divorce or dissolution.

But any assets which have been inherited by either spouse are often treated differently by courts in the context of divorce. The precedence for this was set out in the case of White v White on 26 October 2000 which stated:

This distinction is a recognition of the view that property owned by one spouse before the marriage, and inherited property whenever acquired, stand on a different footing from what may be loosely called matrimonial property.

In this article we will look in more detail at what happens to inherited assets in divorce and how to protect a future inheritance in a divorce settlement.”

Either all money is family money or if his isn't neither is yours.

You can't have a joint ISA though.

Ah that's really interesting thank you for clarifying that, I always operated under the assumption that it was treated the same as the rest of the joint assets.

Bitcoin has fallen 50% in the last year. A lot of other crypto currencies have done a lot worse.

is your DH prepared to lose that much money? Because it is a great big ponzi scheme and has no long term prospects.

An ETF that tracks the stock market is a much better option - look at Vanguard.

Let him have a few hundred to spend on bitcoin as a ‘pilot study’ before you discuss committing further funds. Hopefully that’ll be enough to help him learn his mad lesson.

I agree with @Discovereads. I'm also the breadwinner by a country mile but would never begrudge my OH if they used 100% of their inheritance for themselves.

If I didn't want to share all of my money I wouldn't and I didn't do it to feel hard done by, in the event of a situation like this.

Bitcoin though, no thanks.

No way! He knows nothing about it and he could lose the lot. It's not fair for him to do that when he doesn't bring much money in. In this climate he won't make a killing on bitcoin. He's years too late!!!

I'd protect your own money here, op.

I’m sorry but that comes across as financially controlling? OP has no authority to “let” him spend what is his inheritance. It’s not her money, it’s not joint money.

It’s a very different thread where it’s the woman doing the inheriting…

Bitcoin is volatile and not protected by the usual financial safety nets. I tend to think of it as "you invest money, and you get a bit of a coin back". The bargepole long enough has yet to be manufactured... then there's NFTs. I think he would be daft to put that amount in Bitcoin. He could try the stock market (again, volatile, but there are tools and techniques for making sensible investments) so that dividends would provide an income, or buy and sell to generate a profit. Nothing wrong with government back savings: premium bonds, savings certificates etc; at least they are secure.

Its dropped from a 1yr high of $65k to $21k….
He won’t though? As he’s buying at a low. So he literally can’t lose $40k per share? Yes, he could lose all his £15k, but at least he’s buying on a low so the risk is lower than buying at record highs?

It may be a gamble as BTC is volatile, but if you look at the historical chart, it’s still double what it was 2yrs ago. It’s risky, but I don’t think it’s recklessly stupid.