{"id":890594,"date":"2026-10-22T09:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T09:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/890594\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T09:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T09:22:09","slug":"gen-z-expects-124-trillion-but-retired-boomers-are-spending-their-kids-inheritance-on-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/890594\/","title":{"rendered":"Gen Z expects $124 trillion\u2014but retired boomers are \u2018spending their kids\u2019 inheritance\u2019 on holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"

Millennial and Gen Z heirs are eagerly anticipating a $124 trillion \u201cGreat Wealth Transfer<\/a>\u201d as they inherit their parents\u2019 wealth\u2014however, many are set to be disappointed. That\u2019s because new data says boomers are splashing their cash on vacations instead of setting it aside for future generations.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s become so common that the trend\u2019s even been given a name: Ski-ing. Meaning, \u201cspending the kids\u2019 inheritance.\u201d<\/p>\n

New data from Abta, Britain\u2019s largest travel trade association, shows that 82% of over-65s<\/a> took a holiday in the past 12 months, up five percentage points from two years ago\u2014and the company\u2019s CEO says the spike in older people traveling is specifically down to them spending money that would have been part of their kids\u2019 inheritance.<\/p>\n

A separate report from retirement provider Standard Life<\/a> found that one in seven British parents plan to prioritize enjoying their money in their retirement over leaving an inheritance.<\/p>\n

Why boomers are \u2018ski-ing\u2019: cash rich, mortgage-free and spending it<\/p>\n

Boomers are living longer than previous generations, and they\u2019re also richer<\/a> than their parents and grandparents ever were. So instead of pottering around or watching daytime TV, they\u2019re enjoying booked beach vacations and city breaks.<\/p>\n

As Abta\u2019s CEO Mark Tanzer told The Times<\/a>, \u201cthat generation is probably fitter than it used to be; your mortgage is paid off, you are starting your pension, you are actually quite cash rich.\u201d And with that abundance of time and money, they\u2019re not even letting the cost of living get in the way of enjoying it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When asked whether cost-of-living concerns would affect their holiday plans in the next 12 months, almost half of over-65s said it had \u201cno impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike younger people, many boomers don\u2019t have to worry about rising rents or food bills. In fact, according to The Institute for Fiscal Studies<\/a>, their disposable income keeps going up. Having spent a lifetime working for it, many have decided it\u2019s their turn to enjoy every penny\u2014after all, you can\u2019t take it with you.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they have got more disposable income and they want to have experiences,\u201d Tanzer added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere may be a bit of them thinking, \u2018I just don\u2019t want to leave this to my kids\u2019, but they certainly don\u2019t want to leave it to the taxman. There\u2019s that sense of \u2018well, if I don\u2019t spend it, it will just go to inheritance tax\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

American boomers are skipping inheritances too\u2014it\u2019s going to be a shock for their Gen Z and millennial kids\u00a0<\/p>\n

The trend isn\u2019t exclusive to Britain. In 2024, a Northwestern Mutual<\/a> survey of 4,500 U.S. adults found that just 22% of baby boomers<\/a> expect to leave an inheritance, and over half are explicitly planning not to. Only 11% said leaving something for the kids is their top financial goal.<\/p>\n

Some boomers are treating it as a philosophy: dying with zero<\/a>. They\u2019re going out of their way to enjoy all their wealth while they are still alive and die with $0 in their bank account.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a shame to see people dying with so much money in a job they\u2019ve worked in that they don\u2019t enjoy, or with people they don\u2019t like,\u201d personal finance coach James Beckett previously told Fortune<\/a>. \u201cThey go on autopilot, accumulating wealth and not thinking about what it\u2019s for.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s going to be a huge shock for the heirs when they open their parents\u2019 wills to find nothing left. More than half of Gen Zers and nearly 60% of millennials<\/a> said they\u2019re depending on an inheritance to retire comfortably.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Millennial and Gen Z heirs are eagerly anticipating a $124 trillion \u201cGreat Wealth Transfer\u201d as they inherit their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":890595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[19603,28,152,153,2065,149,22845,6069,2066,147,19414,530,1666,93310,13713,1432],"class_list":["post-890594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-baby-boomers","tag-business","tag-finances","tag-gen-z","tag-inheritance","tag-lifestyle","tag-millennial","tag-millennials","tag-money","tag-personal-finance","tag-personal-finance-evergreen","tag-personalfinance","tag-retirement","tag-road-to-wealth","tag-vacation","tag-wealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}