With great regret, The tractor must be sold.

[Rustyiron]

Only time I tend to get cheap is when we're out to dinner with others who order several bottles of expensive wine then want to split the check evenly. My wife and I don't drink wine.

Our "out to dinner" places don't sell wine, but they do have a "dollar menu". :laughing:

 

[coobie]

that SHOULD be totally dependent on what kind of relatives you have.. if they are not Vultures, then they deserve their inheritance.. giving to Charities should be the very last thought, because they would not benefit much as a deserving relative would, and you would have no idea of WHO the money, etc. would go to, they could be Vultures too!..

Really?? Relatives do not deserve anything.Funny post though.

 

[mapper]

Funny thing about inheritance, some families could care less and others will fight over every last little scrap. Some of my wife's siblings fell into the latter category. Her folks lived on their SS income for the last 10-15 years of their life, what they had saved and the proceeds of the sale of home and business were long gone, they had outlived it. But her sibs were sure that there had to be a pile of cash squirreld away. All that was left were a few possessions of mainly sentimental value, and they fought over those!
I told both my inlaws and my mother that if their last dollar was used to support them or bury them it was fine by me. I did well enough in life that I didn't need anything from them. My mom did leave a modest estate (a large chunk which was consumed by a small reverse mortgage - oh, the magic of compound intrest). My sisters and I split it four ways which was my mom's wishes and her possessions were given to those in the family who wanted or could use them. I was pleased to get the inheritance but if there hadn't been anything that would have been fine as well.

 

[Carl_NH]

There is some very sage advise provided in this thread, and my motto more or less is.

- Live within your means (and everyone's means will vary)
- Don't expect anything from others
- You are responsible for your own happiness

 

[ultrarunner]

There is some very sage advise provided in this thread, and my motto more or less is.

- Live within your means (and everyone's means will vary)
- Don't expect anything from others
- You are responsible for your own happiness

The third one seems to elusive at times...

 

[MossRoad]

My mom used to say "It's not your inheritance, it's our retirement."

That pretty much sums it up for us. We want our parents to live happy, comfortable lives in their retirement, and we don't want a fight with our siblings/relatives when their life finally comes to an end.

I was fortunate in that when my mom passed, she left everything to my dad, and when he passed, he left everything equally to his 5 children. My siblings were fantastically easy to deal with, and we all cooperated to get the estate settled, sold, and divided. No fights. Selling the houses and settling the cash was the easy part. Dividing up and dealing with all the STUFF was the hard part.

Here's our system that worked for us. Hopefully it can work for some of you when the time comes.

Buy several packs of color dot stickers similar to this:


-Each sibling gets a color.
-Walk around the house and put a sticker on the front of anything that you would LIKE to have.
-You have X days to put your stickers on.
-At the end of X days, put everything with one color sticker in a pile.
-Put everything with two (red and blue, for example) color stickers in the same pile.
-Repeat until everything with stickers is in piles.
-Anything without stickers goes to charity right now! Put it in the garage, call Goodwill, Salvation Army, St. Vincent DePaul, etc.... and schedule a pickup. IT'S GONE!!! :laughing:

Now for the fun part.....
- Oldest goes first. Sucks to be born last, but hey, that's life.
- Go to the first pile. Oldest kid picks something they'd like to have. 2nd oldest goes next, 3rd oldest, etc.... until the pile is empty.
- Go to next pile. Whoever's turn it was next goes first. Start picking.
- Repeat until all piles are gone.

Just that simple. You don't get everything you want, but you do get some things that you want, and that should be good enough.

Hope that helps. Worked for us.

 

[4570Man]

The sticker idea is good. Another idea I’ve heard of is to auction everything off with the only bidders involved being the siblings and then splitting the money between them at the end.

 

[ultrarunner]

Family dynamics at it's best... Mom has 9 brothers/sisters... they had no issues... but maybe close knit farm families are like that where everyone still comes to help at harvest time?

Dad has a brother and years ago when he moved... he had a pile of things he was getting rid of... old toys, train set, etc... he literally was putting them on the curb.

Dad said if you are really getting rid of it the boys might enjoy it and was told to take it all...

Would could be more simple?

Over the years it became an irritation... in 30 years he has it all back... the Hop Along Cassidy stuff... the pedal car, train set and canoe... even college pennants...

And it is often not the siblings but now there are spouses and kids with other ideas.

My philosophy is if you need it and will take care of it you are welcome to have it...

 

[two_bit_score]

The sticker idea is good. Another idea I’ve heard of is to auction everything off with the only bidders involved being the siblings and then splitting the money between them at the end.

That would be the best recommendation.

 

[MossRoad]

The sticker idea is good. Another idea I’ve heard of is to auction everything off with the only bidders involved being the siblings and then splitting the money between them at the end.

You're pitting sibling against sibling if you start bidding and make it a who wants it more battle and introduces competition against each other. Not good.