Tough questions to answer…
In 30+ years I have not been asked such tough questions…all these questions are less than 5 years old…As usual I am not sharing the answers that I gave. I am sure many IFA would have got such questions. I would love it if some of you can share such tough questions which they have been asked…
- Subra I earn much more than my husband, but he controls all the cash. I know that I pay for all the expenses. Now I do not have any clue about what my husband’s money, investments, etc.
- I am 60 years of age and have got recently married a 61 year old friend. His children hate me, but my husband plans to leave all the money to his children. I never owned a house and makes me insecure. His 2 daughters have a house of their own, and I do not have children. It scares me to think that if my husband dies I will be left penniless as he wants to leave all his assets to his children. What should I do?
- Subra should I leave my house and property to my spouse or my kids?
- Subra should I get my son to sign a pre-nup? Our family assets are about Rs. 240 crores and my son is marrying a very middle class kinda girl…
- Subra…”my parents are living flamboyantly…well I have no problem but I am funding it” – they live in their own house, but I pay for all the expenses including eating out twice a month, ola, Uber, etc. This is about 40K a month. My husband is a sweetheart and will not crib, but I am scared. My parents are just 73 and 68. I am 49 and my husband is 50 years of age. I am afraid that this will eat into my Retirement corpus (my kids education did not cost much)….what should I do?
- My Husband is cheating on me. However I know he will inherit at least Rs. 20 crores from his parents. Should I file for divorce (I am 45, and do not have any intentions of marrying again) now or wait for the inheritance to come through? If i were to get 50% of his assets now, I would still get Rs. 4 crores – will this be enough for my retirement? I have assets worth Rs. 2 crores in my provident fund, mutual funds, etc. I am nor sure, that is why I am asking….
Happy to take your answers for these questions….
Nivash
My views on the above questions:
1. Better to at least insist on being informed of all financial decision. Slowly, managing money together will help. A delicate matter to be handled patiently if the relationship is important
2. There are 2 choices and both require open discussion with the partner. First one is to generate a corpus or a fixed income plan (like annuity or others) to be set up in her name. Second is to have a will in such a way that the property eventually goes to his children but only after the death of the lady and the lady retains right of occupancy in the house till she is alive.
3. Follow your heart. But responsibility towards spouse is also to be taken care of. Better divide between them.
4. Better to sign a pre-nup. But it is to be very delicately handled as it may offend people in India. Logic is if it is genuine, there should be no apprehension in signing pre-nup.
5. Well, if it gets emotional, it is difficult to deal with it. But to be fair enough, it is better to talk to them openly and have a middle way. If possible, cash flow generation through some means may be looked at.
6. Better to wait if can put up to live. If it is emotionally too taxing, better to leave. The cost of inheritance vs cost of peace. Choose depending on the persons ability to handle emotions and money.
RAJESH PATEL
Pre nups work in India?
Can you please do an article on it
Gyan
1. Not sure what the question is. Does she want to handle the finances or just the awareness? Taking about it will help. Not sure how anyone earning more is relevant. Whoever is better in handling finances should be in charge. It didn’t feel like she is, otherwise this situation wouldn’t have arrived. Would have asked them to go for a fee based advisor but my trust is shaken in them. Most if not all are very ill equipped to deal with even a crore corpus.
2. Serious situation. Lady doesnt have any Corpus on her own and assuming she didn’t marry for the money only, have a talk with husband. Daughters having their own houses shouldn’t be a factor at all in my opinion. Penalizing someone for having their life sorted out is not good. Appeal to your future instead of focussing on daughters richness, that would appeal to husband more.
3. Very generic question to be answered. Personally I think it is better to help kids in a stage of life when they are younger is better than giving them money when they are 60 and probably don’t need it anymore, but if you don’t trust your kids then leave significant portion to your spouse.
4. Question is more what the son wants.. I think family money is not considered in divorce but I may be wrong. I don’t think there is anything wrong about prenuptial.
5. Calculate how much you need for retirement and then have a great heart to heart with your parents. It is better to appear bad once and early instead of spending for years and finally unable to cope and then become bad by cutting them off. Say I can spare x amount per month only and transfer that amount at the beginning of month to their account and then let them spend however they want. They probably don’t realize how much they are spending and this is a good way of making sure they know and make their own budget.
6. More money never hurt anyone. Wait and get as much as you can. There is no hurry to divorce if you don’t want to marry again. Make no mistake, this would be a dick move, so please ensure that your conscience allows for this.