Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Congratulations! OP, I'd find a financial advisor and talk to them before I made any decisions.

We had a lot of problems with the financial advisers b/c they all wanted us to put money in the stock market.

Of course that's what they want you to do, that's where they can gain a share.

One important thing to consider: on a pure mathematical approach putting everything on the stock market can make sense. The average return on 10 years is higher than the cost of your debts if you have low interest mortgage or student loans. BUT this doesn't take into account how YOU feel. Are you a risk taker? Will you enjoy watching your dollars go up and down? Is your goal to become as rich as possible or to enjoy your current lifestyle more?

In your situation I would choose peace of mind, I would pay all my debts, yes even my mortgage although that's not the smartest thing to do financially, because that would force me to keep my current lifestyle and just enjoy it better. And invest al the rest Iin retirement and college saving . But that's because material goods don't make me happy, the happiness of knowing I can safely keep enjoying my life is priceless

Remember to account for taxes, which can be a major chunk of it.

Congrats! And don't tell anyone. Advice to wait 1 month to sink it in is great. 500k is not that much in the end (although it would seem much for me to ), my rule would be not to splurge on anything that is not an investment (ie a new car is not an investment).

If i wanted this money to be a real game changer in my life I would use it to reduce my fixed costs and gain freedom of mind (get rid of expensive debts, or even all the debts I could such as mortgage) and put away all the leftover in retirement and college funds account. I wouldn't change anything in my lifestyle and would not splurge on big consumer items. Just enjoy the added day to day freedom and knowledge I can go guilt free to a slightly better restaurant or vacation

Anonymous wrote:Congratulations! OP, I'd find a financial advisor and talk to them before I made any decisions.

We had a lot of problems with the financial advisers b/c they all wanted us to put money in the stock market.

Congratulations! OP, I'd find a financial advisor and talk to them before I made any decisions.

Congrats!

^^ we put the majority of ours into retirement.

This happened to me also. Check out that bogle heads -- good advice there. pay your taxes -- it is very painful, but get it done. Don't share info with the family. They do not take into consideration that 1/2 of the money goes into tax and that you are paying things off. Congrats!

Yey!
So without knowing your specific situation, I'd 1. wait and do nothing for a month or longer. Maybe just buy a bottle of wine to celebrate. Let it sink in. 2. while you are savoring your fortune, read up on finance, starting here https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Managing_a_windfall; 3. pay off student loans and consumer debts; 4. fund retirement and college funds

Oh, and by retirement I don't mean just putting in the max 401k and IRA, I mean saving a big chunk and labeling it as retirement, even if it's only in a regular taxable investment account.

I'm not much into splurging, as that's money down the drain. Make this money work for you instead.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mortgage or student loans? What would you do?
Family still doesn't know l.

1) student loans
2) small splurge
3) emergency fund (6 months)
4) nice chunk into kids college fund
5) small splurge
6) lower mortgage

This. Excellent advice.

Congrats!!

Anonymous wrote:Hope the OP doesn't live in VA, otherwise, the name/pic will be out there on the VA Lottery site.

In MD, you can remain anonymous and do what others do and place the big check in front of your face.

This. As a Va resident I learned this during the recent Powerball frenzy. Not only can Virginia make you do a press conference, publish your name, hometown, and picture, but they WILL. It's awful. Apparently MD is one of the few remaining states that allows anonymous or representative collection (your accountant, attorney or LLC, etc.).

Congrats by the way! What a great way to start 2016.

I hope you don't have more than $500k in student loan debt. But yes, I'd pay those off first. Since you are already paying your loans and used to the monthly payment in your budget, take the amount you are putting towards those now, and start putting it towards your mortgage in extra payments to help you pay it off faster.

Don't tell anyone besides your DH/DW and live your life normally.

Hope the OP doesn't live in VA, otherwise, the name/pic will be out there on the VA Lottery site.

In MD, you can remain anonymous and do what others do and place the big check in front of your face.