If you inherited a million dollars, WWYD?

[Anonymous]

I'd probably spend 100k on the house, invest the rest and use the interest 50/50 for charity and vacations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would consult an expert on the smartest mortgage balance to carry, with regard to tax benefits, and refinance to get the best rate on that sum. (PP, I was always told it was smart to have a mortgage for the tax deduction, and I would expect that's especially true with these rock-bottom rates. But then, it was sort of a conventional-wisdom thing, so that's why I'd want to talk to an advisor.) I expect it would cost me around $150k to get where I want to be, mortgage-wise.

Spend maybe $10-15k on a few little upgrades around the house. Replace the 12 year old car. Take a proper vacation, instead of yet another road trip to stay on the couch of a family member.

And I'm done! The rest can go to college and retirement savings. The emergency fund is already in good shape.

First, it's only "better" to carry a mortgage if your return on investment, after taxes, exceeds your mortgage payments, after tax benefits. It's not an automatic thing. Second, the tax benefit of a mortgage is directly tied to the interest rate - the more interest you pay, the bigger the deduction. So low interest rates may suggest against keeping a mortgage for the tax benefit, although cheap money may suggest that it's silly to pay off the mortgage for other reasons.

[Anonymous]

Hide it from my husband.

[Anonymous]

Pay down or off current mortgage and/or buy a new home and pay the same or less per month, put some away for college for the kids, make a vacation fund.

As you can tell, I don't have a million dollar mortgage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not seeing as many people who say they would pay off their mortgage as I would expect. Is there a reason? Not a smart idea?

I would pay off mortgage (500k), and then split the rest between college and retirement. Fun ways to spend the money would come monthly, since I would have reduced our expenses/amt going to savings by thousands each month.

Technically not the best use of the funds if your mortgage rate is low. In theory you are better off investing the funds and generating a 6% or 7% average annual return than paying off a mortgage at 3%.

Yeah, but piece of mind that monthly expenses are close to nothing would be amazing!

+1. Just because it's not the best thing on paper doesn't mean it's not the best thing for you.

[Anonymous]

I'd have to decide if it was worth sinking the money into my current house, or if I should just sell it, buy one that was "done" and keep a smaller mortgage. that would probably account for $300K. I'd put a couple hundred thou away for my daughter's college. I'd set aside $30K or so for my next car whenever my current one dies. I would take a nice 2-week vacation to Europe and earmark some for another one next year. I'd save and invest the rest.

[Anonymous]

We expect to. No debt and mortgage long ago paid off mortgage, college and retirement accounts maxed out. It will be coming from DH's family and he will immediatly invest it all. <shrug>

[Anonymous]

Pay off mortgage, split the rest between high-yield stocks (REITs and LLPs), savings, and a few nice vacations.

[Anonymous]

love the <shrug> to a million dollars, and love the "he" will invest it and not "we". sounds like a fun life you have there, PP.

[Anonymous]

Pay off all debt. Put some away for college. Have another baby. Buy some fancy cabinets for my house. Give some to my parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We expect to. No debt and mortgage long ago paid off mortgage, college and retirement accounts maxed out. It will be coming from DH's family and he will immediatly invest it all. <shrug>

[Anonymous]

Pay off debt, buy a new car in cash, do the fixes to our house that we have been putting off, then take a couple fabulous trips (mostly foreign travel since I have been practically nowhere and some domestic trips).

We'd stay where we are and use our public schools, but throw most of the remainder at retirement, maybe pay down the mortgage a little and lower our monthly payment and whatever is left would go into college funds/savings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hide it from my husband.

I hide all our investment statements from my husband. He'd go hog wild if he knew how much I had squirreled away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hide it from my husband.

I hide all our investment statements from my husband. He'd go hog wild if he knew how much I had squirreled away.

My first thought exactly. I handle all our finances for good reason. Awhile back we had major appliances break... I got on the phone, transferred some $$, and we bought new ones with cash without delay. DH was absolutely stunned that we had the resources to do that. Since then, he doesn't question my methods

1. pay off existing crap-ass house
2. buy new house with cash
3. hide 6 mos full living expenses (sigh. Right now we have 3 mos bare-bones)
4. have another baby and take a full 6 mos mat leave, 2/3 of which would be unpaid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hide it from my husband.

I hide all our investment statements from my husband. He'd go hog wild if he knew how much I had squirreled away.

My first thought exactly. I handle all our finances for good reason. Awhile back we had major appliances break... I got on the phone, transferred some $$, and we bought new ones with cash without delay. DH was absolutely stunned that we had the resources to do that. Since then, he doesn't question my methods

Same here. My husband nagged me for years to dip in to my emergency savings for various non-emergencies (even though we have combined finances, it is MY savings, because he's a spender and if it were left up to him there would be no savings). And then we had an emergency-- needed a new roof. I made a new roof happen, with no agonizing over credit card bills or pinching of pennies. Funny, he hasn't asked me to dip in to my (sorely depleted but recovering) savings in a while now...