Ky Inheritance Tax Forms: Fill & Download for Free

First, there is a very big difference between the bottom of the one percent and those near the top of it! There are millions or billions of dollars between the bottom and top. My family has generally been at the bottom of the top 1%.I can tell you what that feels like but it is just one story. Everyone in the top 1% would have a different outlook than I do because we are not necessarily that much alike. Some of us inherited money and some earned it. Some of us want to grow up as much like others as possible and others want to protect themselves from the masses. I fall in the former category. In fact, if you see our kids you wouldn't guess they are in the 1%. I drive a 2011 Acura, I wear an Apple Watch, an outlet mall designer purse, and clothes from anywhere from Nordstrom to Lands End to Loft. Generally I buy stuff on sale.More to come…Edit: But if you know us better, you'd know we own two large homes, and a small 1960’s airplane. My husband spent thousands on his pilots license because he always wanted to fly. We have flown all over the country on the plane. When we fly commercial, we fly coach. We have never bought anything we can't pay for, in full, at the end of the month, other than a house.We have two teen daughters. They have attended school since they were two or three, so that was an early advantage. We sent them to a private Montessori school until they got to age 5 or 6. Since then they have in public schools because we live in a great neighborhood where high taxes cover the cost for an excellent education. Because of our nice income, we have been putting $200 or $500 or $1000/month away for them for college since they were each born. We fully funded their college 529 plans 5+ years before they needed them. So neither one of our kids will have a loan, but because we don't want to raise entitled, spoiled kids, each knows that she will need to cover 10% of their tuition plus books plus spending money in college. This is “so they have some skin in the game.” Our oldest earned a merit scholarship that was over 10% of her tuition so she gets to keep her portion that would otherwise cost her 10% since she earned her share by working hard for good grades. She still has to work to pay for books and to have spending money. The daughter in college does not have a car, but last year we bought a used BMW for the two of them to share for driving to work.Other advantages for our teens: excellent, uninterrupted health insurance and health care options when they are sick or injured; private tutors when they are having trouble with a subject in school; classes for ACT prep; travel: ski vacations in Colorado, Washington, DC, 2 to Disney, 2 to Mexico, one to Jamaica, one D went to Japan for a month for college credit, 4 service/mission trips each to KY, WV, Texas, orphanages in Honduras (both of them said this last one was their favorite trip, ever!) I’ve also bought them: lots and lots of books, braces, makeup, lots of clothes, shoes, and a few Apple computers. They each have 2 year old iPhone 5s, one with a mostly cracked screen. They never have to worry about having money for any of the things just mentioned.Now for kids’ work: both daughters have to work in summer. One is the take out person at a nice chain restaurant and the other is a lifeguard. Now that they are 17 and 20, work (and volunteering) take over their schedules which means they can't spend much time at our lake house on the beach. Still, the life lessons they get from working cannot be beat.Due to having discretionary spending, we can contribute to many worthwhile charities. My kids wanted to sponsor two children with Compassion international so at ages 10 and 7, they each gave up half of their allowances for a year to do that. I took over payments after that and have since sponsored many more. We also took in two foreign exchange students for one year each so our teens learned about new cultures from them. Our daughters know we donate to our church, to several mental health organizations, to after school programs for at-risk kids, Young Life and Charity: water. I see these as an Important way to contribute to our world. They see me volunteer countless hours yearly in various organizations and I do Pro Bono work when I can. All these things bring me deep satisfaction and our kids get the benefit of learning how to give back.Here's what our teens don't have in our family in the bottom of the top one percent: Money to burn; Time to vacation for a month in summer; worries about paying for rent, utilities, phones, tuition, clothes, computers or health care. They don't own any nice jewelry, designer clothing or their own cars. So far, they are good kids who work hard and seem grateful for much of what they have.In the end, we live below our means compared to some and we want to pass that lesson along. We’ll see who they become…as a parent you never know if your “life lesson experiments” on your kids are working as you hope or not….