Stories where an unexpected windfall totally changed your life

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I won my first award at work (I'm gov -- so we don't get bonuses, we get awards) I spent it on a really good mattress, which I'd never had before. I have a lot more money now, but at the time it was a big purchase (hell, mattresses still are a big purchase, actually) and it was literally life changing because I slept so well on it. Some of the best money I've ever spent.

I’m a new fed. How much are these awards generally?

PP here. The award I was referring to was an outstanding attorney award of about 2K. But that was a good 15 years ago. I would hope they are higher now. I’ll ask my DH who is still at DOJ and report back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I won my first award at work (I'm gov -- so we don't get bonuses, we get awards) I spent it on a really good mattress, which I'd never had before. I have a lot more money now, but at the time it was a big purchase (hell, mattresses still are a big purchase, actually) and it was literally life changing because I slept so well on it. Some of the best money I've ever spent.

I’m a new fed. How much are these awards generally?

PP here. The award I was referring to was an outstanding attorney award of about 2K. But that was a good 15 years ago. I would hope they are higher now. I’ll ask my DH who is still at DOJ and report back.

Pp. I checked. At least in the litigating division I’m familiar with, awards cap at $6k these days. But most are lower, and 2k is common. But not that many are given out and I know of attorneys who never got one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After paying two mortgages way over a decade, I sold them both back to back. I got my equity back, but not much more.
Youtubers were shouting from rooftops to buy stocks and crypto and ofcourse I did. Mostly because the first two decades had not worked out. I could not continue to do the same things, one of them being real estate. That was March 2020.
I learned so much from buying and selling stocks. I don't really have to work anymore. If I had to give away all the money tomorrow, I could do it starting with $0 this time.
I don't know whether to cry that something so simple took me so long to figure out, or be happy that I did when I did.

Congratulations to you! As someone with bonus money coming in soon and zero time to learn about investing, would you be willing to recommend 1-3 companies or funds/indexes to me?

We are not allowed to name names. If you go on youtube you cannot miss them. It's all they are talking about and for a reason.Investing does not take time. I have the time now and I love watching the prices. That doesn't mean it's necessary. You can put price alerts and buy/sell alert nowadays. I have no patience fore etf fees, or mutual funds that sell at the end of the day. I want cash after sell to buy right away.

Who do you follow on YouTube? Best places for guidance?

[Anonymous]

My Millionaire Next Door-type, ultra-frugal grandparents gave me $10k in 1997. I was a newlywed and we bought our first (old) house in a gentrifying neighborhood. Lightly renovated during our 4 years there, then sold to a builder -$100k profit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After paying two mortgages way over a decade, I sold them both back to back. I got my equity back, but not much more.
Youtubers were shouting from rooftops to buy stocks and crypto and ofcourse I did. Mostly because the first two decades had not worked out. I could not continue to do the same things, one of them being real estate. That was March 2020.
I learned so much from buying and selling stocks. I don't really have to work anymore. If I had to give away all the money tomorrow, I could do it starting with $0 this time.
I don't know whether to cry that something so simple took me so long to figure out, or be happy that I did when I did.

Congratulations to you! As someone with bonus money coming in soon and zero time to learn about investing, would you be willing to recommend 1-3 companies or funds/indexes to me?

We are not allowed to name names. If you go on youtube you cannot miss them. It's all they are talking about and for a reason.Investing does not take time. I have the time now and I love watching the prices. That doesn't mean it's necessary. You can put price alerts and buy/sell alert nowadays. I have no patience fore etf fees, or mutual funds that sell at the end of the day. I want cash after sell to buy right away.

Who do you follow on YouTube? Best places for guidance?

James form IA. Everything he does is backed up by data and graphs. He will tell you it's edutainment, not investment advice.This man should have millions of followers.
Once you watch enough, you will figure out which ones are good. Andrei Jikh is lovely too for overall edutainment/economy/finance.

[Anonymous]

My moms great-aunt who never had any kids left each of her nieces and nephews around $25,000 (I think). We were all surprised she had that much in her estate. Anyway my parents didn't need the money for anything in particular (they are well off) so my mom used the money to take my sister and I on a trip after college. We spent 10 days in Hawaii. It was amazing!

[Anonymous]

My ex left me for one of the women he cheated with. I was in debt at the time of the divorce and struggling to get out.

He passed suddenly/unexpectedly four years after our divorce and forgot to remove me from a 50k policy. Since Maryland has no statute revoking a former spouse's beneficiary designation (VA does), I received the entire check and used it to get out of debt and build up my savings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My ex left me for one of the women he cheated with. I was in debt at the time of the divorce and struggling to get out.

He passed suddenly/unexpectedly four years after our divorce and forgot to remove me from a 50k policy. Since Maryland has no statute revoking a former spouse's beneficiary designation (VA does), I received the entire check and used it to get out of debt and build up my savings.

I really like this story!! Thanks for sharing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking to hear some happy stories! How much did you receive, and how did it better your life? How did you receive the money? Unexpected inheritance, lottery, lawsuit, etc.? Just looking for some happy inspiration!

Not a happy story. Nonetheless, three years ago my father had a falling out with me, DH, and our kids. Our children are the only grandkids. My sister is married and has no kids, nor will she plan to in the future. Basically, we showed an apparent lack of respect. We didn’t offer to pay for the Christmas that my parents insisted on hosting. We didn’t offer to treat my father to first class airfare and hotel upgrades on his recent cruise vacation with my mom. We bought a new BMW and didn’t offer to buy my dad something comparable.

In any case, as a result of the above disrespect, we became estranged from my parents. We’ve essentially been written off. No more phone calls, holidays, email, or communication of any kind. Not even between my parents and our kids. We’ve tried repeatedly, but there’s been nothing. I keep a close relationship with my sister, however, and over the same three years she and her husband have been gifted nearly $200K from my parents for home renovations, a new truck for my brother in law, vacations, and new appliances and furniture.

I’m happy for my sister, but this is starting to create a strain on our relationship. We’re stretching to put two kids through college and meanwhile my sister is raking in the early inheritance. I’m sure we’ll be fine financially, but this whole move has been so vindictive and hurtful that it’s hard to ignore.

That’s crazy, but also feel there’s more to this story, why is your dad butt hurt you’re not gifting him stuff when they clearly have money themselves?

Asian?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I received about $150,000 as a surprise and honestly I try to forget that I have it. Stuck it in a CD and renew every 9 months.

It is comforting to know that it's there, if I need it, but I really don't want to use it. I'm in my 40s, have two kids... So many possibilities for my future self.

That's great. And amazing. But honestly, for me, that's nothing. We aren't rich and we would like to buy a house in DC at some point and 150k would do almost nothing to get us there. It would help (not fund, just help) with college costs.

Actually it will help.

[Anonymous]

My sister went to a small, private college with a woman who grew up on a rural farm in an area where many people didn’t attend college. It turned out her parents had won a large but not massive (like $1 m) lottery and it paid for her and her siblings to go to college and I think for them to pay off their farm’s mortgage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not exactly what you're asking (sorry), but I created my own wealth by hand-picking stocks. 20 years later, I have a happy number of millions. I will probably not inherit much from my parents, and indeed may have to support them, so between them and my child with a chronic illness, the money will come in handy. I have not touched the capital yet. It buys me peace of mind for the future, which is priceless.

Yay for you! What did you pick? Why/Process?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Best friend's husband had a difficult relationship with his dad. His mom was emotionally abusive growing up and dad was pretty idle about it. When he went off to college, dad filed for divorce and friend's husband was always a bit resentful that he didn't do it earlier. Turns out his dad had a lot more money than anyone realized and left him 500K after he died. Also left him a home that they sold for 2mil. Their HHI was probably 100K and unfortunately due to my friend's health issues they had medical bills and if they wanted kids, it was going to be adoption or out of pocket fertility treatments, neither of which they thought they could afford. Getting that money was so life changing for them. Their son is 4 months old!

Wow that’s awesome. Leaving his son money literally ensured the continuation of his genes/family line on the world.

[Anonymous]

My uncle very unexpected received $2M and a classic car collection worth about $500k from a man he saved in Vietnam. They hadn't spoken since the war and he was absolutely shocked. At that point, my uncle had been driving a cross country moving truck for 30 years, on the road 320+ days per year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My uncle very unexpected received $2M and a classic car collection worth about $500k from a man he saved in Vietnam. They hadn't spoken since the war and he was absolutely shocked. At that point, my uncle had been driving a cross country moving truck for 30 years, on the road 320+ days per year.

This warms my heart.