do you worry about your mortgage/finances if you know you'll inherit?

[malkeot]

Of course anything could happen etc etc but if you’re largely sure you’ll have enough to pay off your mortgage and then some, are you more relaxed about finances? Would you be bothered about overpaying mortgage or just enjoy life, in the knowledge it will be paid eventually?

That's suddenly reminded me of a conversation with MiL about 15 years ago. FiL had just remarried and she couldn't stop going on about the new wife inheriting, and doing MiL's 'boys' out of what they were entitled to. These 'boys' were both adults with wives and homes of their own at this point.

It's quite unusual to spend 5 years in a care home, the average is more like 2.

My answer is yes and no. We are likely to inherit from both my parents and PIL so the odds that we end up inheriting from neither is quite low. We have plans for our retirement and helping our kids through education that don't rely on inheritance: we have good pension savings and plan to sell our family home in London and downsize to release capital to help our kids with house deposits in due course.

But if we inherited, we might delay downsizing or move into central London for retirement which would be a downsize in terms of space but not free up any capital.

So we don't count on it but we have some idea how we would use it if/when it happens.

We regularly encourage our parents to spend it and enjoy their money though, we're not vultures!

No, we’ve planned our own retirement, mortgage already paid off, savings and pensions sorted. Who knows how long parents will live? Would be foolish and quite morbid to plan your own retirement on how long someone else might live. I’ll inherit from my mum as an only child but she’s no private pension so likely her house will be used to live and perhaps care home fees. PIL’s are very well off and have made provisions of money for us, grandchildren etc as well as their care in future. Unfortunately their retirement plans have been scrapped due to caring responsibilities so while that means we’ll inherit more, I think that’s quite sad as I’d have much rather them be able to spend it all travelling and enjoying themselves. At the end of the day inheritance is only yours once the earner of that money has passed. It will be our responsibility as their children to ensure they’re looked after first and foremost regardless of cost or being concerned about a dwindling inheritance.

Not something I have every considered. We have always been careful with money, so now our mortgage has been paid and we can be a bit more relaxed.

Very foolish in my opinion to count on any potential inheritance, If nursing/residential care is needed it is expensive. People have to sell their homes to fund it.

I did inherit in my early 40's and we paid off our mortgage and banged the rest in savings to retire early. DH may inherit, his parents are well off but any financial planning excludes this possibility completely.

No we always overpaid the mortgage when we could. Very glad we did now ad it looks like both sides might go on Care Home fees.

Similar here.

My husband is an only child of quite an affluent family, but considering he is 50 and his 98 year old grandmother is still going strong, he's not counting on anything anytime soon!

And my parents aren't in a position to leave us anything, nor have I ever expected anything. We don't plan on anything we haven't provided for ourselves.

No, I don’t factor it in to planning. My parents have spoken a bit about what they hope to leave me and my sister but you never know what will happen- they might need expensive care homes or they might suddenly develop a taste for constant round the world luxury cruises, it’s their money! If we do end up inheriting I will probably give a good chunk of it to the DC.

Have been in this situation. Never dared count on it even when I could guarantee it was coming (waiting for a house sale to complete). Had seen the will etc. Have now got it - around £70k. Am very lucky. Have paid off half my mortgage rather than the whole lot as the other half is my security. Continued to live carefully and save and don't think that habit will leave me. I suppose if I'd inherited say £200k I would be a bit more carefree. Years of being very careful are now ingrained!

Is it? My mam has been in her care home for 5+ years and some of the people still there were in there when she went in.

Because of above, I haven’t got anything to inherit. DH mam has just gone in to a care home, so he won’t either.

This is one of many studies which suggests stays are generally short. Googling suggests anywhere between 1 and 3 years as average

www.bgs.org.uk/resources/end-of-life-care-in-frailty-care-homes

My grandad was in for 14 years with dementia. There were many there who had been there as long as he had, and longer.

I was in this position and yes, I didn't worry about mortgage, which sum I have now inherited. I didn't know the exact amount but knew it would cover mortgage and more.

In my case it was from my grandfather, the inheritance was a definite and we're a no-drama family so there was no chance of being disinherited or anything like that. But people shouldn't stake anything on a distant relative, who may or may not come through. Nb, he wanted us to know this and no one was waiting for him to die, we were very close to him.

There is another distant and not really known to us relative who there was some expectation we'd get a fairly large sum from on her death but it sounds as though someone else may be receiving most of it. My parents are very annoyed but tbh if this guy bothered to form a relationship with her that we didn't, so be it!

So I think you can can relax if you know it's a sure thing, but never assume.

I don't know why whenever you post something based on evidence, people have to come in and say that they are or know an exception to the rule. Of course some people stay in care homes for decades but the average stay isn't that long.

Doesn't make it sensible to count on inheritance but facts are facts

I don't give any inheritance a second thought.

I will inherit a large amount from my parents (hopefully not for a very long time) but have based my finances on the basis that I won't.

Work pension that I've had for 15 years and a private pension I've been paying in since I was 20 (now 42) and a good amount of savings. House with no mortgage and husband in a similarly good financial position. We live in a cheaper part of the country but have worked hard to earn higher than average wages for the area.

We are very lucky but the luck has been of our own making. Hopefully it means we can retire earlier than normal and in the meantime we're enjoying life (no children by choice).

I’ve assumed Dh’s parents will have to spend what they have on care fees and I’m NC with my parents so probably nothing (fine with this). So no, but we are financially much better of than either sets of parents so it would be unlikely that any inheritance would make much of a difference for us in terms of financial security. Even if there was likely to some actual money I would never bank on it. Tbh I don’t really think about it.

It’s a chat forum, I was just chatting 😁

I think for you to actually have any guarantee at inheritance, the estate needs to be in the millions. If someone is sitting on that much money, they have likely done things for their children before inheritance, house deposits, set up savings accounts. They have also likely encouraged financial literacy at an early age and so that inheritance is less needed and becomes generational wealth.

I think the people who count on an inheritance are the ones least likely to get it because it gets swallowed by care fees as the child inheriting is likely still to be working to pay off the mortgage and can’t provide care. Or it’s most likely that there just isn’t a lot to inherit, low value houses often in need of extensive renovation and most of the sale profit goes on fees.

Nothing coming to me from my side but DHs parents very kindly (and sensibly) paid off our mortgage a good few years ago with a chunk of their savings. DH still stands to inherit their house and (total guess but I'd estimate) £30-50k ish but obviously this could get eaten up on care home fees or whatever. The fact they already made our lives much easier by paying off our mortgage means it won't sting quite so badly if one of them runs off with a 25 year old and spends all the cash on charlie in Ibiza 🙈

I stand to inherit a lot, but it doesn’t feature at all in my plans. As others have said, so many things can change. A stock market crash, property market issues etc. Not to mention being removed from a will or issues with siblings etc.

My grandfather had a lovely large nest egg at retirement, way more than he needed, which he planned to leave to my dad. He passed at age 94, and his end of life care ate up the rest of his money. In the end, my father only inherited the family home, which is still a lot.

So no, it doesn’t feature at all in my planning for mortgages, pensions etc. I prétend the money isn’t there.

My MIL has spent her whole life waiting for inheritance, she has got it and blown it in a year. She's now been saying when her dad dies she'll get more so its okay.. I will never wait around for some, if it happens then I'll invest it in my boys then, but if I expect zero then nothing changes if I don't get any.

I think it's fairly gross to sit there waiting for other people to die and counting their money as your own.

I always find this kind of comment weird tbh. Everyone dies. My parents have always been quite open about their wills and do not regard it as remotely taboo to talk about what will happen when they die. I'm close to my family and am not 'waiting for them to die'. But I actually don't think it's very healthy to avoid thinking about practical issues and arrangements because you are in denial about mortality.

DH and I could inherit a low 6 figure sum from between 5 and 7 relatives and I’m not factoring anything into our finances. My DPs were 17/18 when I was born and my aunt was 15 so I’m hoping any inheritance coming to me is when I’m in my 70s or 80s. Much more likely that my DCs will be comfortable.

My grandma died last year at the age of 102. My dad was 80 and retired for 20 years, he would have wasted his life if he was to wait for his inheritance.