{"id":357428,"date":"2026-01-07T17:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T17:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/357428\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T17:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T17:43:11","slug":"how-a-retired-accountant-spent-his-frugal-fathers-inheritance-meaningfully","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/357428\/","title":{"rendered":"How a retired accountant spent his frugal father\u2019s inheritance meaningfully"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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

The beneficiary: \u201cDaniel\u201d is a 68-year-old retired accountant in Edmonton who\u2019s been married for more than 40 years. He has a sister and two daughters, both grown and married with children of their own. Thanks largely to his father\u2019s financial teachings, Daniel\u2019s long paid off his mortgage and is living comfortably without worrying about money \u2013 a new sentiment that entirely eluded the generation that came before.<\/p>\n

The inheritance: A few years ago, Daniel\u2019s Depression-era father passed and left his children with all the many, many pennies he\u2019s discreetly saved over the years \u2013 on an always modest income, no less. \u201cMy father was terrified of another Depression and frugal to a fault,\u201d says Daniel, who alongside his sister always encouraged their father to spend and enjoy his hard-earned money.<\/p>\n

His father\u2019s mattress, for example, was 60 years old and, after Daniel slept there while his father was in hospital, he described it as \u201cthe lousiest mattress I\u2019d slept on in my whole life.\u201d That his father had denied himself a comfortable upgrade for six long decades made Daniel\u2019s eventual inheritance \u2013 almost seven figures worth of dollars meticulously saved one at a time \u2013 a bittersweet reminder about everything his father didn\u2019t have or do in this life. \u201cI really wish he\u2019d spent this money on himself,\u201d says Daniel. <\/p>\n

They inherited $900,000 from their dad. Here\u2019s how two siblings split it with a brother who\u2019s bad with money<\/a><\/p>\n

What he did with his inheritance: Before doing anything, Daniel thought a lot about the virtues of saving versus spending. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be as tight with the money he was, but I don\u2019t want to just waste it on stuff either,\u201d he says. After taking some time to mull it over, Daniel decided the only and best way to use his father\u2019s life savings was meaningfully.<\/p>\n

First, Daniel made some sizable donations to charities and organizations doing good work. Next, he paid off the mortgages on both his daughters\u2019 homes \u2013 but it\u2019s just a loan and they now pay him a monthly payment rather than the bank, sans interest. (Far from a gentleman\u2019s agreement, all this is very clear and official, thanks to the advice of a lawyer friend and drafted contract signed by all parties.) <\/p>\n

Lastly, Daniel then topped all his grandchildren\u2019s RESPs to the maximum. Everything left over sits in what Daniel calls the \u201crainy-day fund\u201d \u2013 more specifically, an investment management account \u2013 which is replenished monthly with both daughters\u2019 aforementioned mock-mortgage payments. The new question, therefore, is whether to wait for a rainy day. <\/p>\n

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

What he learned: While \u201cthese attitudes tend to dilute themselves over generations,\u201d says Daniel, he\u2019s the first to admit he\u2019s not at all immune to his father\u2019s penny-pinching influence. Compared to his father, Daniel\u2019s something of a big spender, but compared to his own children, he\u2019s not entirely unlike their miserly grandfather. Take cars, for example: \u201cAt a younger age, they drive newer, nicer cars than I ever would. They\u2019re a lot more comfortable again at spending money than I\u2019ll ever be,\u201d he says of his daughters. <\/p>\n

But unlike his father, Daniel doesn\u2019t tell his kids what they should \u2013 or more often in this particular case \u2013 shouldn\u2019t buy. But he didn\u2019t just pay off their debts to gift them a free financial ride either. \u201cI remember I had such great satisfaction when I finally paid off my mortgage,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t think a house that Daddy gives them comes with any kind of sense of accomplishment, and I want them to have that too.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rather than save or wait for a rainy day, however, Daniel and his wife have vowed to enjoy the sunshine and go travelling, which they already did when they could but now they can more often and better. Last year, for example, Daniel and his wife embarked on a month-long European vacation through Central Europe, including Berlin, Budapest and Prague. Along the way, thanks to his sister\u2019s keen investigative work on the family tree, he visited his family\u2019s homestead from a century ago.<\/p>\n

Daniel splurged just a bit for a better flight, nicer hotel and upgraded room. They ate at fancy restaurants that they might otherwise not have. Were his dad around to see all these little unnecessary splurges, says Daniel, he\u2019d inevitably disapprove and probably \u201cfreak out.\u201d Daniel\u2019s doing it all anyway, if only because his father never could. <\/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 The Globe and Mail. Source image: Getty Images. The beneficiary: \u201cDaniel\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357429,"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-357428","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\/357428","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=357428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}