Dear Quentin,
I am the sole beneficiary of an inheritance. I inherited my grandparents’ house, which is worth $650,000. I also have about the same amount in the bank. My husband says the house does not count towards my net worth (for what it is worth, the house in question has been paid off for 35 years).
I am considering buying a second home as an investment. My grandparents made their fortune in real estate and investments. They were stockbrokers and accountants. I have what is mine and my husband has the caravan that he inherited from his father and is sitting there doing nothing.
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He wants me to buy a refrigerator and pay to fix it. That’s not my job! I told him that all of that adds up to a net worth of over a million dollars, and he called me a liar. He always tells me how poor I am and that I’ll never have any money when I’m older.
He talks about it constantly. Is he right? Or am I a millionaire?
I don’t feel like a millionaire
Dear Millionaire,
First of all, congratulations. You are a millionaire, at least on paper. Unless you have $300,000 in debt to your name, you are over the million dollar mark. Your husband is wrong about your financial situation. What is more intriguing is why he cares.
Maybe your husband is abusive. Maybe he’s a jerk. Maybe he’s both. I don’t know, but I do know that you should never get used to normalizing unhealthy, toxic behaviors, especially the kind of comments that are meant to make you feel “inferior.”
Your net worth is calculated by subtracting your liabilities from your assets. You inherited a house and have $650,000 in a bank account. That’s $1.3 million. If you have any personal loans, that would reduce your personal wealth by the amount remaining on those loans.
If you own a mortgaged property and you have not separated that account from your husband’s, this could mean that these assets could be commingled. Similarly, if you have received an inheritance and you have deposited this money into a joint account instead of a separate bank account, this money could be commingled.
In a divorce in a community property state, all property acquired during the marriage is considered marital property. This includes contributions to and appreciation of an IRA or 401(k) during the marriage, which can often coincide with the couple’s peak earning years.
In a state with equitable division of property, your assets are divided equitably, but not necessarily equally. Generally, the assets you brought into the marriage are considered separate as long as you keep them that way, and the same will be true for your $650,000.
Whatever you do with your inheritance…
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