If you were gifted $100,000...

[Heavenly]

...and you had no debt to pay off, other than maybe your house. But you don't want to do something stupid like that. What would you do with all of the cash IF you could only do one thing?

Buy some land?

Invest in a CD?

By the way, it's not me.

 

[ChemErik]

Pay for all of my daughter's college. Thanks to scholarships, I'd have enough left for a keezer.

 

[Heavenly]

Pay for all of my daughter's college. Thanks to scholarships, I'd have enough left for a keezer.

Holy crap. Where's she going to college? Good idea.

 

[Billy-Klubb]

I was never edgermakated. I turned out fine. I'm gonna home college our boys. I'd probably become NB's and Pipes & Cigars favorite customers.

 

[ChemErik]

Colorado State.

 

[Mirilis]

Invest in growth mutual funds.. Dave Ramsey style...

 

[Scturo]

Yeah, son's college would definitely be it for me. $100 grand would mean I would only owe $12 grand. Worth every Pennie!

 

[slym2none]

Go to the hospital.

 

[casualbrewer]

Land for sure!

 

[arnobg]

Why not pay off the mortgage and save hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest? OR refinance with a 15 year mortgage and still save on a ton of interest while using some of the $100,000 to add to the monthly payment while investing the rest in mutual funds to outgrow what you used....

 

[bfish]

Rental property, if I wanted to make money from it. Vacation property, if I wanted to gift it to myself.

 

[binabik]

I'd go stay in the Ice Hotel. I'd throw in some other traveling too, like hitting Denmark, Scotland, Ireland and Iceland.

With whatever is left I'd get some land in the mountains.

Rent a house big enough for my family to spend the holidays with.

 

[Bigdaddyale]

Invest in growth mutual funds.. Dave Ramsey style...

ETF's are cheaper. Preferred Stocks
https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/index.php
http://www.dividendyieldhunter.com/preferred-stocks-sorted-alphabetically/
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Lazy_portfolios

 

[Singletrack]

Launch my company providing homebrew products... no, get a Hatchimal.

 

[jbunton]

Add it to what I already have and get my own brewery off the ground and out of the idea/planning/aquisistion phase!

 

[BigMack]

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A939QRRSNV4[/ame]

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Invest it & grow it, so I could retire early.
Regards, GF.

 

[ChelisHubby]

All the answers can be right or can be wrong. If you are in that situation go to a lawyer or financial planner and talk about your goals. Me personally I would pay off my house and invest the rest. But I am 57 and with a small mortage.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

What is stupid about paying off a house?

 

[Vandulus]

I'm all for the investment route (assuming your annual rate of return is more than your mortgage rates), but I'd also set aside 10,000 for a Hawaiian vacation with SWMBO and building a dedicated brewing area in my house.

 

[PaulR]

Buy $100,000 worth of lottery tickets and win more, duh...

 

[JohnSand]

Travel around the world.
It's a gift, I have to have fun with it.

 

[Cyclman]

+1 pay off mortgage and college fund, then retire early and brew, smoke meat, make cheese!

 

[bob1852]

What is stupid about paying off a house?

Then YOU have to pay the property tax, instead of the mortgage company.

 

[day_trippr]

I'd give the whole $100K to my sons to invest in our grandchildrens education, and hope they can find the rest somewhere, because $100K doesn't go all that far now, never mind in ~11-12 years when the little ones head off to colleges...

Cheers!

 

[Black Island Brewer]

Since this just happened to me in the last year (an inheritance), and because we carry no debt other than our house (not even a car loan at the moment) I can tell you exactly what I did:
The majority of it went into our retirement accounts, including a guaranteed annuity. Some of it was used to top off our savings accounts, to get them to a "six months worth of payments" level. Some helped pay for my wife's breast cancer medical bills that were not expected. The rest is in an interest bearing account, where about half will be used to re-roof the house, some will pay for a few smaller home projects, and the rest will be saved (and added to) to make a trip to the UK in 2018.

We did blow $250 to buy a vintage 1953 Westinghouse Range, that I spent another $40 to rewire.

 

[DU99]

travel overseas and buy a better car.or invest in small micro brewery

 

[RevKev]

Have a Tyrone Biggums style 100,000$ free crack party.

But no I would buy my dream car maybe build my dream home brewery in the house I would put a down payment on. Finish my Ph.D and pay off my unsubsidized loan. And spoil the living flocc out of my girlfriend.

 

[timdillon36]

Buy a small plane to transport goods across Americas in a North -South fashion.

But I might start with a weed farm so I can get a free education from the feds as well as free room and board before moving to that level.

CYA, All above is a joke related to a movie.

 

[Jaybird]

Hookers, Cigars, and Booze. Baaahhhhaaaaa Just kidding. I have really no idea!

Cheers
Jay

 

[Dfitz]

Several years ago I came into a little over 300k. I paid off everything. The House + did some remodeling. We had a gang of kids so I bought the wife a new Suburban with all the goodies, a new mini van for myself. We put the rest away for when we got old.

Now We're old and still have no debt, wife could use another suburban but we only have one kid left at home so I spose a pickup would make more sense.

Our youngest, the daughter has horses. She competes in eventing jumping cross country, dressage, as well as western speed events.

In short, it doesn't seems like we need it so, it'd probably go into savings/ nest egg.

I traveled most of my career so traveling and hotels don't seem like anything that'd interest me.

 

[Jaybird]

Several years ago I came into a little over 300k.

$300K would do it! I'll take 2...LOL

Cheers
Jay

 

[Kent88]

I'd do some stuff with paying off the mortgage or maybe ask if I could invest in the land my grandparents farmed, maybe put some solar panels on the roof of the garage, trade in the vehicles for something reasonable (I don't need a hot rod, just something to replace the 12 year old Bonneville), fix up the house a little, and make some decent donations to my home church, my wife's home church, and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. We've got a kid on the way, so I'd also make an initial deposit into his savings account.

I know that the typical smart move is to put it in a retirement or savings account, but I figure that if I can save money on my mortgage interest and make sure we have reliable vehicles, that wouldn't be the worst way to spend it. Kind of boring.

 

[slym2none]

Go to the hospital.

Well, ended up at the hospital anyway. Maybe serious. Will get back home maybe Tuesday. Will properly PKU when I make it home.

Anyone want to give me that $100K? UNC would love cash, &I am sure my final bill will be close to that...

 

[JohnSand]

I hope you feel better Slym.

 

[littletommy]

We got a little over 100Gs a few years ago, paid off the house, and I achieved my life long dream of sitting on the front row center at a Rush concert! Got an Alex Lifeson guitar pick. Also bought most of my homebrew equipment about that same time.

Because of that money, and paying off our house a couple years back, I was able to quit the job I LOATHED for years last September.

 

[hoppyhoppyhippo]

OK if I had to spend and not on house or anything like that

Kickass guitar and amps I wouldn't normally buy (LP, SG, Elite Strat and Tele with a marshall stack) 10K
Upgrade to Subaru Forrester - About 15K (used of course)

Drop 25K in 5 year CD for protection. Drop 25K in pretty aggressive stock purchases. Drop remaining money in standard savings account to have ready to pay bills and for Rainy Days.

 

[opus345]

I'm all for the investment route (assuming your annual rate of return is more than your mortgage rates), but I'd also set aside 10,000 for a Hawaiian vacation with SWMBO and building a dedicated brewing area in my house.

I would use it as a starter donation to the Bill n Opus 2020 presidential campaign!

A link for the uneducated.

 

[Scturo]

Well, ended up at the hospital anyway. Maybe serious. Will get back home maybe Tuesday. Will properly PKU when I make it home.



Anyone want to give me that $100K? UNC would love cash, &I am sure my final bill will be close to that...

Dude, hope you are doing okay. Sorry to hear you've been sick.

 

[SanPancho]

...and you had no debt to pay off, other than maybe your house. But you don't want to do something stupid like that. What would you do with all of the cash IF you could only do one thing?

Buy some land?

Invest in a CD?

By the way, it's not me.

do NOT go for stocks, theyre valuations are extremely high right now.

bonds are going to get decimated if interest rates keep rising.

most real estate is also high right now, especially here in bay area.

paying off mortgage only works if your rate is really high and you dont make enough money to deduct mortgage interest.

so no simple answers. especially without info on who the recipient is and their situation. what i would say is that 100k is not really an amount that will change your life. definitely make it better, even give you a few thrills depending on how you spend it, but not a life-altering amount.

its best off being invested so it could turn into a life altering amount down the road, assuming this person is still fairly young. best for now to tell them to be patient and do not rush to spend/invest. even in long term investments like stocks/bonds/real estate your entry timing can have huge ramifications on your final returns.

baron rothschild was right when he said the time to buy is when blood is in the streets. if you want stocks, wait for a market crash/recession. bonds? wait until rates get sky-high again. (maybe not in our lifetimes) for real estate? wait for a crash or decent correction and buy income property, it has huge tax preferences in the US. (you could flip your property endlessly and never pay a cent in taxes using exchanges)

if your friend has an higher risk tolerance, look into something a bit higher in rewards. a tiny foreclosed house that requires cash purchase? good way to instantly lock in profits if done right. maybe a small and easy business like a laundromat near sonoma state? college kids always have laundry to do. hell, they could invest it in the brewery we're opening here in the City if they had the cojones to do it.

in any case, just dont let them invest blindly. tell them to be patient, wait for the opportunity to present itself. it always does.