To give my kids some inheritance to splurge and enjoy?

[tricerotopsrule]

I have inherited some money after a parent died last year. I have earmarked a chunk for my kids for their future (age 16, 15 and 12) but we are about to go for a city break to London and I’m in a dilemma about whether to give them a decent sum of money to enjoy in London and if so how much?!

I want them to enjoy the freedom of being able to buy some things there to enjoy and in memory of grandpa but also don’t want them to get too much and piss it up the wall on nonsense! My dad was a saver and I hear his 'sensible' voice and him shaking his head at me but life is for living and enjoying.

Any advice? I’ve no idea what might be a reasonable sum to give them each for a short holiday. Thanks

Save your inheritance for a rainy day, Op… it won’t go far… that money will be gone in a flash.

£250 tops I reckon. And to me that would be a huge amount of spending money. I’m a notorious spend thrift too!

I think inherited money should basically be retained in some form if at all possible- so fine to spend on something like a mortgage which secures the investment of a house, or to invest etc but the majority is not to be spent. Yes, a couple of lovely holidays is fine, but the goal, I think is to be passing down at least as much to the next generation.

What makes me really sad is cases where a certain generation are inheriting from their careful parents, whilst also benefiting from good pensions and a rise in house prices, but passing nothing on to their children in turn. Whilst people on here say “it’s their money, you’ve got no right to it”.

NB I’m not talking about myself in any of these situations! My parents didn’t really inherit and I’m not banking on inheritance from them. But if I do get any, I’ll try to keep it in some form to benefit my kids. Big if!

We have a London trip with tweens soon, and obvs we are paying for all travel/accom/food/entry to activities.

If I was able to give them some splurge money, it would be relavent to what we are doing - eg I'd love to say "here's £100 each" in the Harry Potter Studio shop, as its not stuff we can buy on our local high street.

I'd also be happy being able to say "you have £100 each if you see anything to buy at any of our activities" (eg museum gift shops etc)

But we aren't "shoppers" so saying here's £200 to spend as you like would result in them dragging us into all the shops we have in our local city and us missing out on the stuff you can only do in London.

I'm in the £250 camp, let them buy something they'd really like. I'd splash out a bit on experiences etc. in London, some nice meals out, a show they would all like etc.

I live in a small place but within less than 30 minutes drive I can find every shop on Oxford St apart from the money laundering sweet shops and tourist tat kiosks or is there a part of Oxford St I've never found?

The amount is crucial. £200 is reasonable.

My DM did the same with me after GD passed away but only me (1 of 25 grandchildren) becuase I was the inly 1 who actually helped GD with care and purchasing many things for his care out of my own money. She felt she was paying me back. But I never expected anything.
It was only £1k but much more then I had spent. Still was very appreciated as I just got married and was pregnant with DC1.

£150k is a very generous inheritance but with three children it’s not life changing. What would your father want you to do with it ? Personally I couldn’t waste hundreds of pounds of an inheritance on ‘stuff’. I’d pay for the trip, hotel, food and activities and give them £100 each to buy something. I’d invest the rest asap. With compound interest or investment interest they should have enough for a house deposit.

I definitely wouldn't. Probably £50; each would do it for me. It's hard earned money and they wouldn't appreciate it. Easy come, easy go.

what a bleak perspective of people you have. Must be depressing to be… you!

so you have set aside £20k in total for “fun money”

from that £20K you plan to buy a “couple of big holidays” for 5 adult paying prices

so the “fun money” available when you deduct a couple of big holidays will likely be about £5k (maximum really)

a very modest amount really and you’ll be able to easily work out how much you could set aside for this weekends spending. Given i imagine that £5k “fun money” is also for you, your partner and the family to enjoy a few fun things too!

You sound so level headed, and you are doing a good thing, putting money aside for your dc's future.

I would give the kids maybe £1000 + each in bank accounts with the understanding that it's on them to spend and budget it for the upcoming holidays, but apart from that, they can spend on what they want.

A nice memory from grandad for them. Xx

nah @VisionsOfSplendour you really can’t 😂

Blowing money for the sake of blowing it is never as satisfying as you think it's going to be.

Saving up for something you really want is much more rewarding.

I wouldn't spend it in London.

Goodness, my kids would think we were being very generous with £50 (and the youngest is 16yo so we're not talking about little ones).

I also know exactly how they would spends it.
Dd1 would buy herself a souvenir, probably costing less than £5 and save the rest.
Dd2 would either spend the first £55 of it (borrowing £5 from her sister) in the first hour, or spend £40 on plastic tat and a large soft toy. She'd then spend the other £10 on plastic tat for her siblings/friends. (I remember when she had £10 spare and bought her class at secondary school a kazoo each. I bet her teachers haven't forgotten it either). Either way there would be none left for the next day.
Ds would look very carefully over the 4 days and spend it on one thing he wanted, and then the rest on McDonalds.

They would all be happy with what they'd got. Dd1 would put the souvenir on her desk. Dd2 would probably give half the plastic tat away and ds would reminisce on the time he got to eat as much McDonalds as he liked and remind me whenever he wanted to go again.

This would be exactly the same if they had £250, except dd2 would spend more.

I think giving them some money to buy something to remember Grandpa is a lovely idea. You don't need to go crazy, but maybe something they couldn't otherwise afford. In that scenario with the amount you've inherited if they're teenagers I'd give them £500 each to spend on anything they want but maybe encourage them to spend wisely. Under 12 I'd probably give them £100 or £200.

I agree with most pps that 200-250 would seem OK to do what they want with, not necessarily in London.
My DD would have spent it in about 10 min DS prefers saving and prob would buy a tesco meal deal and take the rest home! 🤣

If I'd been given £250 as a teenager and 4 days/3 nights in London, I'd have bought 6 upper circle theatre tickets for around £40 each and completely abandoned my family for the entire trip without a second thought. 🤩🙈 So giving them totally free rein could ruin rather than make your holiday, depending on how social and considerate your kids are

well said 👏couldn’t agree more

I’d agree as a group one special experience that you wouldn’t normally spend the money on that would make a lasting memory - maybe a fancy dinner / afternoon tea, limo ride round the sites, west end show, Harry Potter studios etc. doesn’t have to be in London but might be a good opportunity.

Then on the way (to give them some thinking time) I’d tell them you are also giving them £200 each spending money, but they need to buy at least one thing - however small - that will last, and they don’t have to spend any or all of it in London if they want to.

Personally don't think 150k is a lot in this day and age. They say you need around a million to retire.

So it would all depend on how much you've saved for retirement, either in a private/ work pension or an ISA. But if you're good for this go ahead and give the kids a few hundred to have a great time. Splurge on a few holidays, etc.

It really doesn't

I would let them have some to spend on what they want OP

I had a week in Tenerife with my dd (15) after my dm died, and although I didn't give her any spends (she had saved up her own pocket money), I pretty much bought her what she wanted and we ate where we wanted etc off the back of an inheritance. It probably cost me about £200 in 'stuff' and the rest went in lovely restaurants, ice cream and stupid stuff like buying a blanket on the beach, a blow up ring for the pool and hiring a sunbed. Stuff I wouldn't normally have got.

This is pure nonsense.

I'd put it away and spend what you would normally spend in London. Maybe a 5 star hotel instead of 4 star. But nothing hugely different or expensive.

That's just me though.

We recently done this and they both LOVED it, Ds14 has a sporting event so we made it into a 5 day stay and Ds17 came along.

We has a Yes weekend and if they asked for something we gave them it.

Ds1 had some Christmas money and he wanted some Represent clothing, we brought anything he rated above a 7 ( we made a game of it) unbeknown to him, we also done the same in other stores.

Ds2 was more difficult as he wants for nothing but we did manage to get him a new personalised design sport boots and some training tops… he was more excited about Camden market street food which he absolutely loved.

All in all we spent 3.6k however ds2 has had his share put into his trust fund.