If you inherited a million dollars, WWYD?

[Anonymous]

We did, but I find that I am strangely frozen and can't decide. It does not seem like so much around here...

[Anonymous]

It's not.

I wouldn't do much at first either. If sleep better at night knowing college was covered.

I don't think I'd even move or anything.

I would probably find the best way to sock away most of it. I'd love to use 50-100k or so to start my own business.

[Anonymous]

"I'd" sleep better, not if.

[Anonymous]

Did and put it away for college/retirement.

[Anonymous]

10% to charity of my choice or charities.

Just off the top of my head:

Pay off mortgage
Shore up children's college funds
Shore up retirement
Get a new master bath with a fancy toilet
redo the back patio
solar on roof
install geothermal heating and cooling
Create a vacation fund for more international travel
Have dinner at the Inn of Little Washington every year

[Anonymous]

I'd build back my nest egg that was depleted during the recession.

[Anonymous]

I would consult a financial planner for help determining the best investment and use of the money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did, but I find that I am strangely frozen and can't decide. It does not seem like so much around here...

Short run: If you want to spend it now - I agree, no, it's not a lot.

Long run: if your'e patient it can provide some immediate returns, and also some to your children and grandchildren.

If you invest it, even if it's conservatively you're looking at 3-4% annual return - or $30-40K per year. That could be "private school tuition" for your child(ten) or in a better year (this year S&P returned 6+ percent) you could do some home improvement or pay off debt. It could also allow you to leave wealth to your kids too - if you used some of the annual return for to fund a life insurance policy for you/husband. In the long run though - you preserve the $1 million corpus so you can pay for your own elder care and/or retirement. If you do the life insurance, then you can also leave your children money for their retirement and grandchildren.

Nice choices - congratulations.

[Anonymous]

I would mostly invest it for retirement but I would use the annual return to buy a nicer summer house, which will ultimately be our retirement house anyway.

[Anonymous]

Pay off mortgage, pay off student loans, put in central a/c, and buy a new bigger car. We truly need these last two and haven't been able to afford them.

That would be about 500k and I'd consult a financial planner about the rest. We'd probably put away about 250k in long-term investments for retirement, 150k in shorter term for an emergency fund, and consider what to do with the rest. With the mortgage paid off, we would have no problem maximizing retirement contributions and 529 investment, so we'd need to assess where in our lives the money could make the most difference.

There are some other repairs/upgrades on our house that we'd probably undertake, although not a comprehensive remodel. I'd be inclined to put the money into a shorter-term savings vehicle that we could access each year in order to travel more. I'd love to be able to take DC on trips to parts of the world that we haven't visited while we (DH and I) are still young and fit enough to be active in hiking up volcanoes or biking near vineyards or whatever. Not that any of that is necessary, of course, but I always dreamed of traveling more when I was young and finances have never allowed it.

This is all assuming, of course, that I inherited this with no tax obligation.

[Anonymous]

I'd consider talking to a financial planner and invest the money for college and/or retirement. If you have credit card debt, use part of the $ to pay it off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did, but I find that I am strangely frozen and can't decide. It does not seem like so much around here...

Short run: If you want to spend it now - I agree, no, it's not a lot.

Long run: if your'e patient it can provide some immediate returns, and also some to your children and grandchildren.

If you invest it, even if it's conservatively you're looking at 3-4% annual return - or $30-40K per year. That could be "private school tuition" for your child(ten) or in a better year (this year S&P returned 6+ percent) you could do some home improvement or pay off debt. It could also allow you to leave wealth to your kids too - if you used some of the annual return for to fund a life insurance policy for you/husband. In the long run though - you preserve the $1 million corpus so you can pay for your own elder care and/or retirement. If you do the life insurance, then you can also leave your children money for their retirement and grandchildren.

Nice choices - congratulations.

This is good advice, and a financial planner could help you determine whether you are likely to see returns on investment that are better than what you're paying in interest on a mortgage. In our case, I think we're right about equal and I would lean toward paying off the mortgage and having more freedom to invest and save with our income in the next 10-15 years rather than having the investments and slogging away at the mortgage. Although, of course, if you can pay off the mortgage over time and retain the 1 million principle, that's the best option.

[Anonymous]

I'd spend a little on something fun--nice vacation or wardrobe makeover, do a fee home inprovement projects, then sock the rest away for college/retirement.

[Anonymous]

I'd take $50,000 and fix a bunch of small stuff that drives me nuts in our house. I'd take the balance of $950K and put it in stocks/bonds etc. Our financial planner suggests we assume a 6% return on average based on historical performance, which would mean that throws off nearly $60K a year. At that rate it doubles every 12 years.

[Anonymous]

Spend a little, invest the rest. Definitely seek out a fee only financial planner if you haven't already.