Early Retirement Extreme Forums

I think it all boils down to the kid in question and what they would benefit from the most.
In general, I doubt many kids would be able to handle the responsibility of a home. I know I wasn't ready at that age, (I'm assuming college freshman).
In either case, rather than making the choice myself, I'd like to see them show initiative and then provide support if it's necessary.

DropoutRetire, there's no need to quote an entire post in your replies. Just saying.

I dont understand what you mean about quoting ? Sounds like useless nit picking to me. But please explain. Also my 2 kids were more than ready to own a house at 16 even. I raised my kids not the school system. I told my kids listen to the forced curriculum if its your choice but I will never get mad if you get straight F's on your report card. I explain to my kids that the Government forces you to go to school everyday or my wife and I will get in trouble if they dont show up to class by the Gestapo. Right now as we speak I have a 2.5 year old grand daughter and every time she comes over I am teaching her useful things and I am brainwashing her in the correct direction. This is the 1st Youtube college video that I showed her to keep her un sheeped from the American consumerism society. Its by Jeff Yeager and its called DEBTORS AMNESIA !!!!! Its a great video check it out !!!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E_L6caihqA

@dropout Here's a tip since you're new here:
(Some regulars with college and even postgraduate degrees should also pay attention, cough )

When you want to write something, first click the "post reply" button at the very bottom of the page and NOT the quote button (") next to the post you're responding to.

Failing to do this means everyone has to scroll through huge yellow boxes of text to read what you have written. It's somewhat annoying and makes the forum harder to read, especially on a small screen device. Well now you know

We have a small set of important rules to keep things running smoothly on this forum. There's actually a guideline for quoting posts, see below. Since you're going to be part of our community, please also review the Forum Rules of Conduct.

Forum Rules of Conduct wrote: 2) [...] IF you're responding to the entire post (which is the case in most cases), just start your post with @username. Then respond. Only use the quote function when/if responding to specific paragraphs or sentences.

Oh thanks for the info. Does this look correct for a reply ?

My favorite class was free on Stanford's youtube channel.

That said, I'd take the house. Even better would be a trust in my name where I can collect dividends but not touch underlying assets.

I like your thinking !

@Felipe

That's what I was thinking. A trust where they get dividends or some % payout of my choice. Then full control at age 32 or so. I'm still unsure as to when is an age that the average kid isn't going to do something stupid with his money that he'll regret.

ellipsis_has_expired wrote:Then full control at age 32 or so.

Yeah, 32-33 seems like a good age to me as well, but there's probably other more accurate factors to measure, particularly financial maturity. Perhaps just measure if they've accumulated $100K in total net worth (discounting real estate) relative to their starting point, fudge the number based on their job/business. Or just never give full control. Just set it up was a 4% SWR so that it deliberately runs out of money at some random point in 30+ years

Random note - at 18 I was handed a sizable lump sum by my grandparents for university education. A few years later it was gone, and I had no degree. What a waste. It definitely should've been limited to investments only.

I like your story even though that 100k was a waste and I truly think that the the odds are better towards buying a house debt free. The house ties up the money also so its harder to waste.

Couldn't you set it up so they learn about it at 18, get access to half of dividends at 24, and then full dividends at 32?

That way they see the power of compounding interest while still enjoying the cash flow. You could add in a clause that they have to be able to save X by Z date to prove they can handle the wealth. Groom them as you raise them so they become their own financial wiz.

Side note that may be relevant: I've worked at my family's business for nearly a decade and have a nice salary that I religiously save at 24yo. So it's more than possible for someone to appreciate and build on good luck. In some sense, every single person on this forum has built on their good luck rather than squander it.

You know what cracks me up is that if people have a debt free chunk of money for college to give their kids to throw away at 18 years old they do it all at once as if their 18 year old is wise enough to know what to do with it, but on this site it sounds like people are afraid to give their 18 year old debt free house instead as if they want to give them some of the house money at spread out ages but not spread out the money for college. I would trust my kids with the 100% paid off house and expect the house to remain successful vs. the college education. If I gave my kids a house I would just have them sign an agreement that they could never ever take out a mortgage against it. No home equity loans period.