What would you do if given a moderate chunk of money (one time)?

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Do we had a mod on this board?


Something regarding what to do with a lump sum should be stickied. This gets asked on this board 3 or 4 times a week.

With a 250k windfall, I’d rent my home out and disappear into the hinterlands where no English is spoken. In fact, I had this discussion with my father earlier this morning. Thats why my wild heart needs to keep growing, novelty and adventure and challenge.

Keep it invested is most important. What you invest it in is secondary.

Personally, I started investing in real estate once I had a sizeable amount in the stock market. I happen to live in a growth area which made real estate a good choice. I started with a few rentals, then started doing new construction spec houses. Commercial leases are another good option. I did all my rentals with 15 year notes. I focused on lowering total cost of ownership as I didn’t want to show income from rentals while I was working my primary job. I started selling rentals once I retired and made my profit then.

I worked a 20-year plan to "retire" at age 55. Part of my plan was to build both retirement and non-retirement money. I started using my non-retirement money to prevent penalties related to drawing out too soon.

Would only consider paying down mortgage if you have a fairly high interest rate, which is unlikely considering how long they have been low. Caveat to this would be if you don't trust yourself to keep the discretionary amount invested.

Would also suggest to build some Roth money in addition to typical 401/IRA. This provides you tax diversification options down the road.

200k -

100k VOO
40k VGT
40k VONG
10k H00k3r$
10k B10w

Pay off any debt that is 5% or higher interest.

Then depending on your cash position invest the rest in a combo of HYSA and market ETFs.

That’s what I’m doing anyway as I’m have two kids that need to get out through college and want to have dry powder should a too good to be true situation arise.

I’m already maxed in tax deferred, HSA, etc.

Right now.....CD/Money Market until after the election.

A large part of our salaries come from quarterly bonuses. These are in the range you are talking about.

We usually take like $5k each for fun money.

The rest is split between mortgage and brokerage (80/20 roughly)

It used to be basically all brokerage with our old mortgage at 2.8%. Now at 7.25% we had to change. I sure do miss that old rate...

I'm buying 30-50 acres of property for relaxing and hunting.