TikTok is full of advice on how to retire early. The truth is you just need rich parents | Torsten Bell

Future finances will be shaped by inheritance, but millennials shouldn't hold their breath, they'll have to wait until they're 61

Here's how to retire early," promise TikTok's financial influencers. But the life hacks offered never cover the most important advice: pick the right parents. Because looking ahead, inheritances will decide who does, and doesn't, get a decent gap between the carriage clock and grim reaper.

Household wealth has surged in Britain in recent decades, to total over 15tn, while wealth inequality is twice as high as income inequality (that's before we recognise that official figures underestimate the assets of the very top by 800bn). Wealth gaps have also stretched between young and old: home ownership rates for young adults have plummeted, while a staggering one in six baby boomers own a second property.

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