If you were gifted $100,000...

[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.

 

[PaulSh]

I'd redo my kitchen and my upstairs bathroom, and use the rest of it to take a vacation

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

I'd buy a cheap used SUV for cash (need something bigger to haul kids + girlfriend + dog when we get one), and invest the rest. I'd keep it liquid enough that if I needed it for a down payment on a house in a few years I'd have it available for that, since I had to sell the house in the divorce and currently rent.

But my big life goal right now is to pour as much income into savings/investments as I can stomach, to make up for the years of being married to a spendthrift who spent every dollar we had and more.

 

[Weezy]

I'd spend it on fast cars and loose women.

Wait, that's two things... OK, just the loose women.

 

[b-boy]

Easy...I'd get one of these

https://buybatparts.com/cms/?cars=se

 

[BeardedBrews]

I tell you what I'd do...

Well played sir!


100k doesn't go that far long term unless you're on pretty stable footings already. If money is a significant stress in life then making sure your savings are solid should be step one.

But, there are things other than cash investments that pay big dividends too!

Take your wife on her dream vacation and stay married and talking about it for the next 40 years.

Put a pool and a fridge full of juice boxes in the back yard and get all your kids' friends hanging out at your safe and responsible home in the summers instead of finding trouble somewhere else.

Add on a mother-in-law's wing to the house and bring your parents to your place instead of the retirement home when the time comes.

Set up a scholarship for a summer leadership camp and ask for essays about the one thing they would change in the world if they could.

 

[BadLiver]

Be boring and invest it in some index funds and forget about it.