Generation X is about to inherit trillions of pounds as wealth passes down from the baby boomer generation – the biggest transfer of its kind in history. Stephen Armstrong’s recent piece explored why many Gen-Xers are approaching this windfall with as much anxiety as hope, having spent decades saving too little and trusting financial institutions too rarely.Our readers took to the comments to share what shaped their attitudes to money: recessions and stock market crashes lived through in real time, a generation before them who built wealth on luck rather than financial savvy, and the disorientating experience of suddenly inheriting a parent’s life savings with no instruction manual for what to do next.Here’s what you had to say:There was no handbook for how to prepare for lifePart of the problem is that the scale and availability of money has exploded. Back in 1979, Trevor Francis was the first million-pound footballer in the world; now Ronaldo takes home around £200 million a year.We Gen-Xers weren’t fed the message that we should go out and grab a handful of that loot. We were coming off the back of a severe recession, grandparents who’d lived through rationing, social unrest and the trauma of disco, flares and tank tops. We had the start of the internet and punk, but no handbook on how to best prepare for life.We were told: work hard, do your time, and you’ll be alright in the end. Then, while the world commoditised everything, we were neck-deep in working hard and just trying to keep up.As usual, we had to find out for ourselves – and that involved making a lot of mistakes. We’re Gen X. We can use physical keyboards, write in cursive and do mental arithmetic. We will survive. The struggle is part of what we’ve become used to.essuuBefore my mother passed from cancer, she made a point of getting life insurance once she knew it was terminal. After she passed and I got the policy, I quickly found a small local investment company – because I’d never had that much money at once, and it freaked me out. I didn’t want it sitting around where I might end up blowing it on stupid stuff. I can see many more of us Gen X having the same response to whatever they inherit.Get a free fractional share worth up to £100.Capital at risk.Terms and conditions apply.Go to websiteADVERTISEMENTGet a free fractional share worth up to £100.Capital at risk.Terms and conditions apply.Go to websiteADVERTISEMENTIf you grow up hardly scraping by and suddenly come into money, it can cause your mind to do a back flip. You see your new balance and feel like there has to be an error – despite being legally entitled to it, it feels wrong to have it. So you rush to put it in savings or find a small investment company to handle it, because then it’s out of sight, out of mind, and you’re not questioning why you have it or whether you even should. It’s weird, but seeing your account balance go back to normal really is a relief.SandwichWe’ll spend what we’re lucky enough to inheritMost of us Gen X will probably spend anything we’re lucky enough to inherit on clearing debts and maybe buying secure accommodation if we can afford it.PadraigMahoneHopefully Gen X are cool enough to manage a windfall maturelyI still can't see the 'opportunity' that Gen X might be blowing? If you inherit some money later in life, stick it in savings of whichever flavour is most desirable. Gen X are far too old to do stupid crap with it, if they're only just getting rich in their 50s. Could buy an expensive car but so what, now you're just a cliched old guy in an expensive car! Could tear across the world on permanent holiday mode, spewing carbon into the atmosphere. Selfish and wasteful. Hopefully Gen X are cool enough to manage a windfall maturely – at retirement age they likely still have a couple of decades left on Earth and that's the time you make use of savings.BonfireNightWe were lucky, not cleverWe boomers didn’t have to do anything as the value of our property multiplied a millionfold. We weren’t any cleverer than Generation Xers – we were just lucky to have free university places, grants, a good National Health system and booming employment.AptesienneWhy I don’t want all my eggs in one basket“Laura Aldrin, 46, has five pensions from different companies and has resolutely refused to combine them all into something like PensionBee. Why? Because she’s a typical Gen-Xer and has no faith in the system”… is this really such a bad decision? As she rightly states, she doesn’t want all her eggs in one basket – and aren’t we always being told to diversify? Combining pensions can also mean losing certain benefits, as one of my better financial advisers told me.JookHanding money over well before you dieThe whole thing’s much better all round if you hand over the money to your children well in advance of your death. A combination of the seven-year rule and the surplus income rule works wonders in avoiding the loss of 40 per cent of those hard-earned savings. There’s no need for anyone who trusts their children to pay IHT!DavidRead Die With Zero insteadEveryone should read Die With Zero. It’s not all about spending all your money with nothing left for your kids – although all power to you if you do (you’ll have paid out many, many thousands bringing them up) – but helping your kids out while you’re all still alive, when they might need the money more.BeneSome of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.Want to share your views? Simply click ‘log in’ or ‘register’ in the top right corner to sign in or sign up. 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