What to do with an Inheritance
Today’s edition of taboo money topics, but make it sexy edition: INHERITANCES.
As someone who has gone months or years without seeing biological family (family estrangement disproportionately affects queer folks), I had no idea I’d get an inheritance when one day I woke up with 5 figures in my checking account. I felt so freaking GUILTY because I hadn’t “earned” that money. But guess what? I had to focus on what that family member would have wanted me to do with it instead of worrying about “deserving” it.
When we die, either we will leave our money to a person or organization. If we don’t, our loved ones will spend thousands on court fees to get it. Or the state will take all of it.
Once I moved past all of those feels, I used that money to invest for my retirement. I thought about buying a car I didn’t REALLY need but that would lose value. Keeping it all in cash would also lose value.
One of my Latina clients was the first to make six figures in her family and had inherited money from a family member. There’s a certain shame around inheriting money that isn’t talked about enough, because in this capitalistic society, we tie so much self worth to “earning” money.
At the same time, she didn’t feel comfortable sharing that she was getting a raise with her family, because she didn’t feel like that win would be celebrated in the way she felt it should be.
I helped her go from feeling stuck to giving her money direction. She paid of thousands of dollars in student loans back with that inheritance. AND she opened retirement accounts for herself and loved ones. That money will grow itself for decades.
I helped her go from feeling like she had to pick one retirement account to having it ALL. You can max out your employer sponsored 401(k) and open up an individual retirement account. As a bonus, you can open up an investment account to sell stock from and pay your bills before retirement. That’s how I pay a lot of my bills.
Another one of my clients, who is nonbinary , too (yay!) inherited about $150,000. She was too nervous to touch it for months before we started working together. Since then she decided to leave her job, become an independent business owner, invest in real estate, and she has invested tens of thousands of dollars in the stock market. You can listen to my podcast interview with here her here.
Inheritances can be sexy once we move past the shame and guilt. When we become millionaires, we will leave baller inheritances for our communities, too.
Book a sales call here to start giving your money direction with my 1:1 coaching!