Who will inherit your debt when you die?
 

Most of us would love to be able to leave a nice inheritance to our spouse, kids, grandkids or other loved ones.

Read the rest of the story.

I have a life insurance policy. No probate, no taxes.

Who will inherit my debt? Probably Visa.

My debt?
Hopefully the funeral home, when my check bounces. :pray:

Well, I hope they won't "bounce" you. ::jester::

I have zero debt. I paid cash for my house, cash for my car and pay off my credit card in full every month.

We carry no debt either. Far too many live beyond their means.

Having debt does not necessarily mean you are living beyond your means - not being able to pay that debt is living beyond your means.

We have established a living trust and will pass our inheritance to our children.
We live modestly out of choice and utilize money with the thought to its utility and its value. We both do not care for jewelery and other forms of ostentation spending nor do we believe in impulse buying. Yes we do respect ourselves and yes we do think we are of value. We just don't think we are special and ought to be pampered.

Because of this approach even retired we are able to save considerable amounts adding to our investments

I worked for mine, and my children have worked hard for what they have, so I will spend every penny before i go…. :crap2:

No debt... No problems... if you can't pay for it then don't buy it!

No debt. Pay off credit cards each month. Revocable living trust, half each to the boys right down the middle, no probate.

So agree. Money was cheap, so we financed our home and put proceeds of our paid-off condo with our broker. Much better deal.

I'm like some of the others who don't believe in debt. As a matter of fact, I have never had a credit card, car payment or mortgage payment.

Sorry, no debt inheritance. ;)

There were a number of the news media that reported the US Treasury (Mr Lew) was attempting to extract debt from family members even though their parents, spouse had died and even if the offspring were not alive when the debt was incurred. following this revelation and the outrage little has been published since then but it is obvious the government is hard pressed to maximize taxes

Have no debt pay cash for everything. No children, all goes to charity.

No debt ,no problems don't live above you means always have always will

So I am just curious for those of you who have no credit cards and pay cash for everything - when you apply for insurance they pull your credit score to determine your risk factor - if you don't have credit, you don't have a credit score - so what do they use?

This post brings up a couple of other interesting questions: if someone does not have any credit cards and pays cash for everything, what would this person's FICO credit score be: 300 or 850?

If for some reason a you would need to rent a car, how would you pay for it without using a credit card; would you use your debit card instead? And if you go on vacation or have to travel for any reason, do you pay for your travel expenses with your debit card or carry a large amount of cash with you? Not trying to be sarcastic, just wondering how this works.

Schaumburger (who got her first credit card from Marshall Fields in the early 1980's because Marshall Fields was giving away a box of Frango mints when customers applied for their credit card)

That's a good question. I've been with the same insurance companies for a long time so I don't remember anything unusual happening when I first signed up. I think it was the telephone or electric company that required a letter of reference from the previous company. But there wasn't anything difficult about it. I think in one case I gave a deposit and it was returned after a year or two.

No number, no score.

I seem to remember, a long time ago, I called Key Scales Ford and they said I would be able to rent a car from them without a credit card. But, so far, I have never needed to rent a car so I have never actually done it.

For traveling, I suppose a debit card would work or possibly Travelers Checks. With Travelers Checks I would go to a bank once or twice a week to get cash and then spend the cash. However, having said that, I haven't done any traveling out of the country since I was about 20. At that time I used Travelers Checks in Mexico for a one month vacation.

Hardly anyone takes travelers checks anymore. You must not travel much, or else the places you travel allow you to make rez with your debit card. We travel a lot, and I would not ever want to secure a rez or rent a car using a debit card. Someone could clean out your bank account. With a cc you have all kinds of fraud protection; not so with your bank account/debit card. Don't see why you would eschew a cc. And why give a utility company the use of deposit $ for a year or two when you could be investing that $? That doesn't sound like you, VPL.

That's a bit of an over simplication of the no-debt theory. Sometimes it is more financially beneficial, when money is cheap, to take out debt and leave your principal invested because your return will be greater than the interest charged on the debt. Just sayin'.

CFrance - I'm in your camp on this one, but some people can't sleep at night if they have a bill to pay. I guess it all comes down to one's own comfort zone. But personally I can't imagine going through life without the excellent credit I have and the credit cards that got me there!

ditto....

carrying a mortgage you can easily afford is not an issue, over extending is a problem.

If you can handle a payment that would allow you to have a little more luxury than a cash buy, I say go for it...It could possibly be your last home so why settle...

How many people walk around with enough cash to buy a home in the villages that is exactly what they would of bought if they would have financed a little.

And it also, seems to me, that how many of the no-debt people paid off the bond? I read so much about not paying, financing it for the 30 years...Frankly I think is a bad idea... That gets you no return in the end, if you buy the home you really love.....:024:

We use American Express gift cards where ever we travel, and only use America express credit card. What ever your problem they will fix it. We carry a mortgage and buy our cars when 0% is offered. But then again I have 5 more years to work and husband has 2. Our children can fend for themselves what we have will pay for whatever debt we have and then some

Good article--- should probably be read carefully by many on this forum:wave:

We have no debt. No mortgage, no car loans, no student loans. We use credit cards but pay them off each month. It was our goal to retire debt free, and fortunately we got there.

Thanks for bringing it to our attention, good read. I am one of those people who is constantly amazed at the young age of so many retirees.

if having a mortgage allows one to increase their invested funds and have a net overall greater return year after year I call that good tax/investment planning.

Being able to wave the debt free flag or not are personal choices to each individual. Living within one's means is a given for responsible/thinking persons.

There is one thing people don't think about when they decide to have a mortgage in retirement. If you are taking money out of retirement accounts to pay the mortgage, the money that comes out is taxed at ordinary income rates. You may be increasing your tax bill and putting yourself into a higher tax bracket. That should be factored into your decision.

i am trying to figure out what is your meaning....the money coming from retirement account i don't think has to have a specific designation..or am I wrong.....I realize its ordinary income, but my income is a lot less then when I was working.....so is my tax bracket.....so what did I miss....

I always love to hear ways to protect my money that I may have missed...

a mortgage gives you a little tax deduction because of the interest you pay on the loan, my kids can more than likely sell the house for more than I paid...so no problem there.... and I believe a mortgage frees up funds for fun....my opinion anyway....

Agree with everything you and BTK have said.

I don't know what you mean by retirement accounts, pbkmaine.

Who will inherit your debt when you die?
 

I mean your IRA or your 401(k). Jonathan Clements, when he wrote for the Wall Street Journal, wrote an excellent article about this. I will try to find it and post.

Okay so you are only referring to those two things. If living off investments, a different story.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB109701483711237122
Here's the article.

You must not go to Europe very much. AE not accepted very many places there. We were huge AE fans till their mileage program kinda went south and we started traveling to Europe. I still like them and use them in the US. But we have found Capital One Visa to be just as accommodating when there is a problem, and they don't charge the 3% transaction fee overseas that AE charges.