A growing cohort of British pensioners is deliberately spending down the wealth they might once have left to their children, prioritising holidays and lifestyle experiences over preserving an inheritance. As recently reported, this so-called "SKI" phenomenon — Spending the Kids' Inheritance — sees retirees choosing to enjoy life to the full rather than accumulate assets for the next generation, with one interviewee stating they would "rather pay thousands on a holiday" than bank the money for heirs. On the surface this looks like a personal finance story about changing attitudes to retirement. In reality, it strikes at one of the load-bearing walls of the UK housing market: the assumption that family wealth, much of it locked up in property, will keep flowing down the generations to fund deposits.