My husband has 2 grown up daughters (25 and 30) both have partners and are reasonably financially comfortable/own nice homes etc.
We have been married for 12 years and have no children together.
He has 6 rental properties which he was going to leave as inheritance to his daughters in the future. As he was young when he had them, if he lived to be 80, this would make the eldest 60 though, so I suggested maybe he sell one now and give them some inheritance early which he has decided to do.
He stands to make around 40k, so said he may give each daughter 10k and us 20k.
Due to recent unforseen circumstances, and a renovation project that ran way over, we are now in debt to the tune of 30k. I suggested this morning, perhaps he gift 5k to each daughter instead and use the rest to clear our debts (as they will still have 5 other properties in the future)
This has caused an upset between us. He says I don't understand because I don't have children. My train of thought is that they are both comfortable financially, will be over the moon at a surprise 5k given the current financial crisis, and we can clear our debts. He thinks we should give them 10k each.
I guess my train of thought is that we should clear our own debts first prior to gifting - but obviously as they are step children, I probably come across as a wicked selfish step mother!
What would you do?
Clear your own debts first and gifts whats left or stick to 10k each regardless?