What would you do with 500k cash gift?

[Anonymous]

Put it in Black and end up with a million

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:hookers and blow

Damn it I came here to say this.

Only right answer

[Anonymous]

1. Buy a new car because mine is 11 years old and shows it - $50K
2. Finish our basement - $75K
3. Set aside some money for college - $100K
4. Recast our mortgage - $100K
5. Fun money - $25K
6. Rainy day/long-term savings - $150K

[Anonymous]

Give it to me

[Anonymous]

I don't care if the whole world disagrees with me - as long as you have an adequate emergency fund and all the basics, I believe the correct answer is always pay off or pay down/recast your mortgage. You have no idea how freeing it is to not have a mortgage. Who cares if you end up with more money at age 65 the other way? I get to love life now at 41.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would pay off my house if the $300k was enough to do so. I would not squander the money on expensive renovations and travel as other posters have suggested. If your house is paid off you can have more flexibility and/or more cash flow to do those things.

Agree. Don't waste money on any expensive renovations, pay debt first- student loans, mortgage. Then invest the rest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't care if the whole world disagrees with me - as long as you have an adequate emergency fund and all the basics, I believe the correct answer is always pay off or pay down/recast your mortgage. You have no idea how freeing it is to not have a mortgage. Who cares if you end up with more money at age 65 the other way? I get to love life now at 41.

Totally agree. I'm 47 and my spouse is 58. He paid off our house 2 years ago. We have no other debt. I invest most of my earned income in stocks/index funds, max 401K, dividend income. I can quit my job anytime and not have to work for months before I would start drawing from savings. It is a good feeling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't care if the whole world disagrees with me - as long as you have an adequate emergency fund and all the basics, I believe the correct answer is always pay off or pay down/recast your mortgage. You have no idea how freeing it is to not have a mortgage. Who cares if you end up with more money at age 65 the other way? I get to love life now at 41.

This is such a stupid way of thinking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't care if the whole world disagrees with me - as long as you have an adequate emergency fund and all the basics, I believe the correct answer is always pay off or pay down/recast your mortgage. You have no idea how freeing it is to not have a mortgage. Who cares if you end up with more money at age 65 the other way? I get to love life now at 41.

Totally agree. I'm 47 and my spouse is 58. He paid off our house 2 years ago. We have no other debt. I invest most of my earned income in stocks/index funds, max 401K, dividend income. I can quit my job anytime and not have to work for months before I would start drawing from savings. It is a good feeling.

See, here’s the thing. Some of us can pay off our mortgage tomorrow and choose not to. That’s equally freeing.

[Anonymous]

$100k in baby’s college fund and another $50k in other child’s.

I’d use the other $350k as a down payment on a house so we could move and then sell our home. Then use the proceeds from this house to fix up and refi the other house. Would allow us to move now vs waiting til we’ve saved more.

[Anonymous]

In the current market, I would put the money in the bank and/or the highest interest CDs I could find. Yes, I know stocks are on sale, blah blah blah, but I have enough going into that route and would prefer to have the safety net of cash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't care if the whole world disagrees with me - as long as you have an adequate emergency fund and all the basics, I believe the correct answer is always pay off or pay down/recast your mortgage. You have no idea how freeing it is to not have a mortgage. Who cares if you end up with more money at age 65 the other way? I get to love life now at 41.

Totally agree. I'm 47 and my spouse is 58. He paid off our house 2 years ago. We have no other debt. I invest most of my earned income in stocks/index funds, max 401K, dividend income. I can quit my job anytime and not have to work for months before I would start drawing from savings. It is a good feeling.

See, here’s the thing. Some of us can pay off our mortgage tomorrow and choose not to. That’s equally freeing.

This. Once you know you can, you don’t actually need to do it. We could buy our house three times over. We still have a mortgage - it’s not stressful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would pay off my house if the $300k was enough to do so. I would not squander the money on expensive renovations and travel as other posters have suggested. If your house is paid off you can have more flexibility and/or more cash flow to do those things.

I wouldn’t pay off my house because 300K wouldn’t come close to paying off the mortgage nor would it significantly reduce payments. Our house is worth quite a bit and it’s nice but the kitchen is old and literally falling apart, so it would increase the sale price of the house at least a little. And then, you know, we would have a nice kitchen.

The worth of travel increases in value as time goes on, so that is a big boost in your quality of life. Im not extravagant when I travel, but I wouldn’t put that off until I was in the perfect financial situation. You never know, you could get MS or something and not be able to travel later on. Memories are important.

This is all to say that the “best” thing to spend the money on is going to be different for everyone!

If your HHI is 240k and 300k won't significantly lower your payments if you did a recast, your mortgage must be enormous.

[Anonymous]

My student loans were just forgiven through PSLF so I wouldn’t do that. I’d buy a house since we rent and with 500k, we’d be able to put a nice down payment down, without also wiping out our emergency fund. So I’d do that, find the kid’s college fund and put the rest into our retirement funds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't care if the whole world disagrees with me - as long as you have an adequate emergency fund and all the basics, I believe the correct answer is always pay off or pay down/recast your mortgage. You have no idea how freeing it is to not have a mortgage. Who cares if you end up with more money at age 65 the other way? I get to love life now at 41.

This is such a stupid way of thinking.

+1

I say that as someone who believes in paying down/off mortgages. First you should save for retirement/college for kids. Once you are doing that adequately, then yes paying off a mortgage is freeing and guaranteed return.