Rich Aussies boomers are branded ‘selfish and entitled’ after boasting about spending all their kids’ inheritance on luxury overseas travel on SBS Insight
A wealthy baby boomer couple who boasted of spending their adult children’s entire inheritance on lavish holidays abroad have been branded “selfish and spoiled” despite their son supporting their philosophy.
Leanne and Leon Ryland, a married couple from Victoria with two adult sons, consulted a financial planner four years ago before retiring after a lifetime of saving and frugality.
“We did everything right by investing in property, improving our pension provision and making sure everything was healthy, and by leaving a lot of other things alone,” Ms Ryland told SBS Insight on Tuesday night.
And he said, ‘You’re crazy if you don’t retire when you can, because you spend most of your wealth the first 10 years on travel or whatever, and then it starts to decline.’
‘It changes your mindset. You now enter a phase where you actually spend instead of saving.’
Since then, the couple have spent $170,000 on luxury vacations and cruises to see the “wonders of the world,” including Machu Picchu in Peru and trips to India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
They are scheduled to travel to the US again next month.
“I’m trying to convince him (her husband) that we have to spend it now because if we don’t spend it, he gets it,” Mrs Ryland said, pointing to her son who also appeared on the programme.
Baby boomers Leanne and Leon Ryland (pictured with their son Alex) consulted a financial planner, who told them to spend their money and travel while they still could.
The couple’s son, Alex (pictured), supports his parents’ plans to spend their savings and said he never considered their money as his own.
‘We can’t spend all that money, so let’s do it, because in 10 years we won’t be climbing the Great Wall of China. We won’t be going up Machu Picchu.
“We’re not going to do those things. So we have to do it now, because what else is there?”
The couple runs a private Facebook group called ‘SKIclub’, which stands for ‘spending kids’ inheritance’, where they share travel tips with other wealthy retirees.
The couple joked that they had collected piles of cheap tourist trinkets from their far-flung destinations, which they described as a “shelf full of shit.”
They claimed that this would be all their two sons would inherit.
Their son Alex, who appeared alongside them on the programme about the ‘booming economy’, might well be bitter that his parents’ wanderlust would likely leave him empty-handed.
But he supported their plans and said he never considered their money as his own.
“It’s their money,” he said.
“They’ve worked hard all their lives and invested a lot to get that money, so I think they should be able to do with it whatever they want.”
But not all viewers were so charmed by their philosophy.
The couple run a closed Facebook group called ‘SKIclub’, which stands for ‘spending kids’ inheritance’, where they share travel tips with other jet-setting and wealthy retirees.
One viewer accused baby boomers of being “bad.”
“They brag about their holidays abroad, without regard for the environment, and spend all their money so that their children will not inherit anything,” the authors of X say.
‘Hiding healthcare because of their perceived right to health and their refusal to die. Selfish and privileged.’
Another commented: ‘SBS Insight tonight is hilarious – boomer privilege at its finest and still not aware of it. So privileged.’
Sonja Van Vliet, another boomer who appeared on the show, said she lived in a Sydney suburb where house prices averaged $3 million.
“We own our own home. We have a healthy pension plan and a bit of investment,” Ms. Vliet said.
‘You know, by Australian standards we would certainly… “We call ourselves comfortable.”
But Mrs Vliet said she had been able to build up that wealth and security through ‘age’.
“When I started, I went straight from high school to college. I couldn’t find a full-time job at the time,” she recalls.
My parents came from a working class background. WWe lived in the western suburbs and you were definitely expected to be able to stand on your own two feet pretty quickly.
‘And I did. In my early 20s, I was able to buy an apartment in the western suburbs for $42,000. I was making $21,000 at the time, so that was a bargain.’
Mrs Vliet said that she could then buy further in the city.
Fellow boomer Lorna Shuker also shares how she and her husband bought their first home for $62,000, without any help from her parents.
“My family was very poor, they never had their own house or even a car,” she told the program.
‘I became a nurse because you got paid for it and got a degree at the same time, and I saved a lot.’
Since then, Ms. Shuker has been able to buy and sell properties worth several million dollars, and she describes her current life as “comfortable.”
She said she thinks the baby boomer generation is a “wonderful generation.”
“It was a wonderful time growing up,” she said.
‘Life wasn’t as hectic as it is now.’
As for the younger generations, she said they are not “brilliant at budgeting.”
“I think they’re the generation that sees something and immediately wants it,” Ms. Shuker said.
‘And that’s why they use services like Afterpay and live beyond their means.
Another baby boomer, Craig Doyle, told how he had been able to buy five properties worth a total of $3 million using his pension fund, but he complained that he had been disadvantaged by high interest rates.