{"id":284369,"date":"2025-11-26T12:50:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T12:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/284369\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T12:50:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T12:50:07","slug":"an-inheritance-led-to-her-dream-home-and-is-now-helping-this-68-year-old-plan-her-own-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/284369\/","title":{"rendered":"An inheritance led to her dream home \u2013 and is now helping this 68-year-old plan her own will"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Illustration by Photo illustration by The Globe and Mail. Source images: Getty Images<\/p>\n

The beneficiary: \u201cGabby\u201d is a 68-year-old grandma living in a mid-sized Ontario city. A never-married single mother, Gabby has worked in many fields and \u201cworn many, many hats\u201d over the years before finally retiring. \u201cThe same day I pulled the plug at work, my daughter went into labour with my first grandkid,\u201d she said. Her daughter, son-in-law and their child all live nearby.<\/p>\n

The inheritance: In 1998, Gabby and her teenage daughter were living with Gabby\u2019s partner of the time. \u201cIt was a very unhappy and toxic relationship,\u201d Gabby recalled, though like many before her, she didn\u2019t have the financial footing to pack up and leave. But when her father, who had Alzheimer\u2019s and was living in a home, passed away, his house was sold and divided equally between four siblings. Gabby got about $25,000 \u2013 equivalent to about $50,000 today \u2013 her obvious ticket out of a bad situation and just in time. <\/p>\n

What she did with it: Had Gabby inherited that money at 20 rather than 40, she probably wouldn\u2019t have used it so wisely. \u201cI didn\u2019t even think for a minute about spending it on a vacation or a fancy new car,\u201d she said. \u201cAfter a few not-good living situations, I wasn\u2019t about to waste this opportunity. I swore I\u2019d have my own home where nobody could put me out or treat me badly.\u201d <\/p>\n

Topped up just a bit up with Gabby\u2019s small savings account, the $25,000 became the 10-per-cent down payment on her dream home, a charming, war-era 1\u00bd-storey house found by a friend who worked in real estate. \u201cAs soon as we turned down the street, before I even saw the house, I knew this would be our home,\u201d Gabby recalled. They moved in just as her daughter began high school and Gabby turned 40 \u2013 the same age her daughter is now. <\/p>\n

What this retired teacher did with $500,000 and cabins inherited from her mother <\/a><\/p>\n

What she learned: Almost 28 years later, Gabby is now writing her own will, and a single, financially responsible child is making the process delightfully easy. \u201cI have full trust in her and I think I instilled some good scruples,\u201d said Gabby, who\u2019ll be passing along her money without stipulations. \u201cI don\u2019t feel that I know any better than her, and the world\u2019s changing so fast that we all have to juggle and make changes.\u201d One of those changes, since Gabby\u2019s got some health issues, are her (pretty expensive) plans to move into a retirement home. <\/p>\n

Gabby and her daughter communicate well and are very open about money \u2013 now. \u201cIt\u2019s certainly not her favourite thing to talk about, but when I got sick and had to have surgery, I told her we had to have the talk.\u201d They went through all the basics like you\u2019re supposed to \u2013 location of the will, contacts for lawyers and financial advisers, intentions and end-of-life planning \u2013 and compared worries and concerns. \u201cShe doesn\u2019t want me to worry about living life less so that she can have more,\u201d Gabby explained. \u201cPlus, it takes the strain off her. She doesn\u2019t have to worry about looking after me.\u201d <\/p>\n

That works both ways. Gabby\u2019s daughter and her husband make a good living and will be fine financially even if Gabby were to spend every cent. \u201cThey have a wonderful, healthy relationship as I see it. But I know anything can happen and things can change.\u201d While she wasn\u2019t able to have this particularly awkward conversation with her daughter, Gabby wants to make sure that any money she bequeaths her daughter is all hers. If her daughter ever finds herself in a situation like Gabby\u2019s in 1998, she wants the inheritance to protect her daughter the same way her inheritance once did. <\/p>\n

Luckily, Canadian family law is already operating in Gabby\u2019s favour. While (prenupless) separating spouses are each entitled to half the net family property accumulated after the marriage, inheritances are kept separate \u2013 most of the time. Should Gabby\u2019s daughter use the money to buy a house, the property is a shared marital asset. And if she puts it into a joint bank account or uses it to pay off joint debts, consider that money gone. If Gabby would really want the money to go to her daughter alone, best to establish a trust and name her daughter the sole beneficiary. And except for her lawyer, no need to tell anyone at all. <\/p>\n

Some details may be changed to protect the privacy of the person profiled. Have you recently received an inheritance and would like to participate in Inherited? Send us an e-mail<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Illustration by Photo illustration by The Globe and Mail. Source images: Getty Images…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,4176,4174,4175,11749,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-284369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-personal-finance","11":"tag-personalfinance","12":"tag-r-fp","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}