What Would You Do With a Windfall?

[KidsHappen]

Winpe out all of the debt except the student loans and put the rest in emergency acct. oh, and maybe buy some shoes.

[Carol in Cal.]

I would donate 10-20% to charities, including my home congregation.

 

I would save the rest. DD has tuition coming up for next year's Catholic high school--so a good chunk would go to that. The rest would probably end up being used for roof repairs. Our tar and gravel roof is leaking, and we have plastic over the leaky area. This is working fine, but we need to get someone up there to fix it, as soon as the rain stops for a foreseeable amount of time.

 

I know this all sounds really boring, but it's the reality of our life. We drive old cars so we don't have any car loans to pay off, and we pay off our credit cards each month or we don't charge things, so there really is only mortgage debt to put the money on, and I think that these other needs are pressing enough that I wouldn't put the money on the mortgage.

[HayesW]

Go out to eat with a bunch of friends, hire several sitters for all the kids to hang out, maybe somplace fun, like a jumpy place.

 

Give the rest away.

[Alyce]

the first thing we did was pay of our credit cards. I would definitley keep at least $10,000 set aside for future emergency use. We put some of ours in a money market account. That kind of account can be accessed at anytime with no penalties and still has a decent interest rate. We had looked at IRA's and CD's but will the future so uncertain this is what we ended up doing. The next thing we did was spend it on a vacation that we would normally not have taken. For us that meant that we went on a cruise. We go to the beach and mountains all the time and my mom had tried to send me on a cruise years ago so we decided it would be a good way to honor her since she died before my father. I also did some redecoration. I finally got the dining room set I had always wanted. We had always just used a fold out table with a table cloth on it. In today's economy I think getting out from under as many debts as you can will help a great deal and it is crucial to have some saving built up if someone loses a job. After that I'd have fun with the money.

[bettyandbob]

1. fund college

2. fund retirement

 

both we've started, both woefully inadequate.

[Ravin]

Let's see:

 

1. Sock away the amount we must have to make up my lost income while out on maternity leave, and probably plan for a longer maternity leave.

2. Get the transmission on the van fixed

3. Put away the amount we'll need to move when our lease is up.

4. Get law school application squared away.

5. Pay for winter and maybe summer session for DH's schooling (not covered by his financial aid)

6. See a dentist.

[FairProspects]

It would go towards student loans for us too. I don't think those things will ever be paid off!!

[twoxcell]

Pay off our credit card

Start working on making the laundry room into a bedroom

Disney Land

and of course a trip to the thrift stores for books :lol:

[golfcartmama]

pay off debt, emergency fund, then car repairs...nothing fun, but it would elimiate all my big daily worries!

[MamaAkins]

Hmm, $30,000. First, I would pay off our credit card debt: $9,000. Then I'd pay off our car & van ($6000). I'd put $5000 in our savings account. I'd use $5000 for some much-needed family away time--a family vacation and a weekend away for dh and I. I'd use the remaining $5000 to pay down some of student loans.

[KingM]

pay off debt, emergency fund, then car repairs...nothing fun, but it would elimiate all my big daily worries!

 

That sounds reasonable to me. There's no possession that is worth the stress of money worries.

[specialmama]

...just for fun.

 

You open the mail today to find out you are getting a nice, but not huge windfall. An uncle died and left you some money or maybe your company was bought out and you had some stock options, or maybe you won a drawing from those Cheerios box tops you sent in. The amount is $30,000.

 

What would you do with it?

 

This actually happened to me 2 years ago and the amount was around that. Most went toward debts, but then the fun began. I bought a beautiful china hutch that I used to house my homeschool books. Then I bought an awesome LANE hall bench with cubbies, a hefty solid wood end table (down with beaver-puke!) and a brand new sofa set with matching ottoman. Then I bought some clothes and a personal blender. I also spent about $500 just on amazing toys (rewards) for my kids because we were driving across the country for 6 days: me and them without another adult driver. I needed them to cooperate or we wouldn't have survived. The money went by too quickly, but I'm glad I have things to show for it and I don't regret any purchases.

[Momma2Many66]

30 Thousand Dollars ?

 

In this economy ?

 

I'd handle it really carefully and conservatively.

 

I'd pad our 6 to 8 month emergency fund really well and push it up to a 1 year to 18 month fund.

 

Then I'd finish topping off all of our sinking funds.

 

I wouldn't spend any of it, just put it all into our sensible living plan.

 

Now if we are talking about that 3 million from another thread.......then I would spend some of it and have a lot of fun !:lol:

[*Inna*]

 

• Get a new(er) minivan as the one we have now is about to die.
  
• Give some to our missionary family members.
  
• The rest will go into an emergency fund.
  

 

[IsabelC]

10% to charity

50% for an extra mortgage repayment

The rest clothes and educational stuff for the children, probably some household maintenance, and maybe a few little luxuries for dh and myself too

[JenneinCA]

Put it in our Baby House Fund.

 

We are trying to save enough money for a down payment on a house.