How About a BIG Windfall?

[KingM]

We already had the thread about how we'd spend a more modest windfall of 30,000. How would you spend a big payday, say an inheritance of 300,000 after taxes?

 

Alas, this one truly is purely speculative for me, but I like to dream. :)

[JoyfulMama]

Honestly? We'd buy the property and surrounding fields. DH would quit his job (if he could do so on good terms, as he'd want to go back) to finish his degree full-time. And we'd go to Disney. :auto:

 

(This was SO much easier than $30,000!!!!)

[Jean in Newcastle]

remodel kitchen and put up a new deck (which is what I would have used the 30K for)

 

replace old stained carpet with wood floors in house (another 10K or so?)

 

pay off car (25K)

 

Medical insurance costs - (5K)

 

Pay off HELOC - (20K)

 

Pay off house (240K) which would put us over.

 

Then money that we would have put toward car payment, HELOC, medical and house would all go into college and retirement funds from then on. . .

[elegantlion]

My dh would retire and start another hobby type business.

 

We'd pay off our house and pay off debt.

 

I'd buy a Jeep Rubicon decked out the way *I* want it done.

 

Put money away for college for ds.

 

Take a vacation to Ireland.

 

Put money away to take a trip to Italy & Greece while ds is in high school.

 

I'd surprise my dh with the tall wooden tool cabinet we both love in the Sears catalog, darn it, I'd buy him two or three.

 

Then we'd buy a class A motorhome and travel the US while schooling, writing, and dh could fish.

 

Buy all the items I really want from my amazon wish list. :D

[MBM]

I would still invest all of it.

 

Bah humbug. :D

[Parrothead]

Pay off our debt then buy land and build a house or two. I'd consider opening my own business if there were enough.

[OnTheBrink]

Contribute a chunk to my church for a future expansion project they've been kicking around.

 

Pay off my house, remodel the bathroom and then rent it to my son while he's in school.

 

Buy a condo (NO MORE YARD WORK!). The condo complex I have my eye on has nice 3 bed room units, walking trails, 2 car garages, laundry room upstairs next to the MB (NOT in the basement!), pool, tennis courts, club house, and they run for about $114K.

 

I'd buy a Mustang in 2014 (50th Anniversary!).

 

We'd take vacations.

[dangermom]

Pay off the house and debts.

 

Give a chunk to our church's charities.

 

Go on a really great trip!

 

Pu the rest into savings/investment.

[Audrey]

We already had the thread about how we'd spend a more modest windfall of 30,000. How would you spend a big payday, say an inheritance of 300,000 after taxes?

 

Alas, this one truly is purely speculative for me, but I like to dream. :)

 

 

Well, if we came into that amount of money, I wouldn't get much say on how it's spent. It would all go to farm equipment. Dh would like to have equipment that is younger than he is for a change. I can truly see his point, so I probably wouldn't argue about it ... much.

[Wendi]

Wow! I think we would...

 

Give $30,000 to our church.

Pay off our house and dh's car (about $200,000).

Do some home repairs (about $2,000).

Buy new family room furniture ($2,000?).

Buy me a newer car or SUV ($20,000).

Possibly take a dream vacation ($5,000).

Put the rest in savings.

 

Wendi

[MyLittleWonders]

We would:

 

1. Finish the living room (built-in bookcases w/desk area) and garage (electrical, drywalling, "attic" space, flooring, storage, etc.); then we'd relandscape our backyard (it's not too big but it needs a bit of work to be more kid-friendly for running around).

 

2. Repair my van (A/C) and dh's Civic (various repairs including paint, interior work and new radio) - both cars are paid off, have very low annual tags, and don't cost us much a year to insure.

 

Based on quotes we have received, that'd be about $50,000 altogether, give or take.

 

3. Invest the rest ... it'd have to be somewhere relatively conservative; I'm not looking to lose it in the ups and downs of the stock market. The goal would be using it to supplement dh's eventual retirement and/or putting four kids through college (2 years community college first - save us a little money!).

[twoxcell]

Wow! ok I guess:

Either pay off our house and sell it or turn it into a rental. (our house loan is at $67,000)

Buy a bigger house

Go on a cross country trip and visit all the historical sites(I've always wanted to do that)

Anything left would be saved.

[Annabel Lee]

1. tithe 10% (ouch, that's alot!)

 

2. Get out of this house and into one that was built right, is on a LARGE acreage of good land, preferably in the hills, and that has enough room for us. We could pay for the new (new to us, I actually mean used) house in full and live mortgage-free, and then invest the better part of my husband's income into various college/retirement/etc. funds.

 

3. If said new house doesn't already have them, a specific color of granite countertops, real hardwood floors (or stone tile), and a woodstove sufficient to heat the whole house. On second thought, maybe only the woodstove to save money and for power outages... unless the carpet really needs replaced.

 

4. Help my parents out somehow, but after discussing what their goals are for the money we decide to give them - I'd prefer to give it to them for a SPECIFIC thing or set of things. Otherwise... well, I just won't go there.

 

5. I'd also like all of our computer/media/tech stuff to function properly. I'd love to chuck everything we've got out the window and start over; I can never choose to use anything dependent on internet or on the computer working smoothly for school, including Netflix, because both our computer and our connection are so UNdependable. Something to record TV shows would be nice; used to be able to pop in a blank VHS but now with these digital channels my video tape player doesn't read the channels. Ok, enough ranting.

 

Totally boring and practical.

[Gwenhwyfar]

i'm sure the proper answers are stuff about paying off debt and investing blah blah blah --- and we'd prolly do some of that. later.

 

first up? the trip to russia that i've wanted to take since i was a kid. :D

[bettyandbob]

Again,

1 College

2 Retirement

 

add

3 large charity donation (30-50K)

4 repair home

5 vacation (right now I want to go to Iceland, not the vacation most people think, but I think hiking and all that geology would be so cool)

[MamaAkins]

First I would use $10,000 to either support certain ministries at our church or to donate to charities that we would like to support. Then, I would pay off the house we currently share with my dad (owe about $110,000), pay off student loans (~$18,000), pay off debt ($9,000), pay off car & van (~$5,000), put $5,000 in savings account, put $50,000 in some type of long-term savings/safe investment, put $15,000 aside for each child to put toward college expenses/starting out expenses, etc ($60,000 total for our 4 kids), take a few vacations (1 family vacation to Disney-$4000 + a much overdue honeymoon for dh and I-$4000), and then would use the remaining $25,000 to purchase land on which we could build our forever home.

[DarlaS]

Set aside a lump sum for each kid to help with their education/down payment on house/weddings, whatever.

 

Pay off any small debts, car payments and the house.

 

Then be happy to put most of dh's paychecks into savings to do all the other fun things we'd like to do.

[Halcyon]

We wouldd buy a home. AbsoLUTEly. :) Free and clear!

[Mrs Mungo]

1. 10% donation (not necessarily all to our current church, maybe spread to various churches we have attended).

2. Pay off vehicles.

3. Buy a hybrid Highlander for me.

Eta 4. Take my sisters on a cool vacation.

5. Invest the rest and bide our time until retirement (includes in putting more in the kids' 529 plans).

[KingM]

Here's mine:

 

I'd probably invest about 2/3 of it in something conservative. You always see those shows where people come into money and then a couple of years later they're poorer than they were before they got it.

 

I'd take a couple of months off with the whole family, shut down my business, and take a big, expensive and fabulous trip around the world.

 

With the rest, I've been thinking lately about how it would be great if our little community had a scholarship fund for local kids. 50,000 or so would be great seed money and then I could hit up the well-off people of the valley to kick in some more.

[kalanamak]

I would still invest all of it.

 

Bah humbug. :D

 

:iagree:Except I'd buy a couple of nice pieces of art for the house.

 

With it, I would try to retire before 65.

[MBM]

I'd probably invest about 2/3 of it in something conservative. You always see those shows where people come into money and then a couple of years later they're poorer than they were before they got it.

 

 

That's because they never bothered to learn about finances -- which is probably why they're buying lottery tickets! :D

[KingM]

That's because they never bothered to learn about finances -- which is probably why they're buying lottery tickets! :D

 

:) That's what I always tell my wife. The type of person who wins the lottery is the type of person who buys lots of lottery tickets. And if they buy lots of lottery tickets, they've already shown that they are poor stewards of their money.

[MBM]

Compounding interest. It's all about that compounding interest.

[6packofun]

Almost exactly the same for us.

[IsabelC]

Ours would be pretty much the same kinda stuff as before, except we might be able to help out some friends and family members as well, and since we'd have more than enough to pay out our house we'd invest some.

[JenneinCA]

We would use it for the down payment on a house and buy a house for us. Houses in the SF Bay area are super expensive.

 

Then we would use the money we wouldn't be spending on rent for increasing the kids' college fund.

 

And donate to our favorite charities.