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...My first job was sweeping hair from the floor of a local hair salon at age 11.
Some people do "fritter" their money away. I see it all the time.
Wow, OP's family really came a long way, to everyone's benefit!
Stuff the money into a bank account for now. It's new money to you, and you don't need it for anything. You can learn about different options or hire someone. There is no need to do anything fast.
My sister did the same thing when she inherited $50k from her late husband. Frantic to figure out what to do with it, when hadn't existed the week before. However, she did fritter it away, in large fritter chunks, so I get what OP is saying.
We have "divorced" my greedy brothers who withdrew money from her account while she was dying in a hospital eight years ago. She lived, and realized that they were not good "boys."
After they sued me for being a trustee, I decided that I did not need a family like this. Australia sounds wonderful, but I would hate to leave my two adult children who live and work nearby.
Forget the AU, they are closed for anyone moving there. Have a friend there. She told me last year they 'wouldn't even take me.' Meaning I have no baggage, would be bringing a business, and money.
Agree passive income is the best, mail box money. Shows up monthly. What you did to create the stream was done decades/years ago.
If all your bills and retirement is taken care of, how about a nice trip!
I was almost in your boat, but the sale of my mom’s property fell through. Our plan was to add the money into ours, and I would have tried to keep it in cash types of investments, like TIPs. In our case, it would been around 75K. I would have also had a piece of jewelry made from a piece she had.
With my mom’s life insurance money, I honored her by buying a new sewing machine, as she shared her love of sewing with me. I bought a Bernina.
How nice that you bought something with her life insurance money that would remind you of her!
My mom's properties will probably sell, as we live in a good real estate market area.
I know someone who had an unexpected windfall, who was pretty well set for retirement funds, who took a "trip of a life time" (for them) to Hawaii. They took their adult children and grandchildren, none of whom had ever traveled very much, and spent a week visiting several Hawaiian islands, going on sight seeing tours, taking a helicopter ride over the islands, the works. It cost a bundle, but that was 15 years ago and the family is still talking about it and reminiscing about the fun that they had together.
Now, in some families this would not be a "special treat" but for them it certainly was. None of the family had been to Hawaii before, or since, that trip.
I know someone who had an unexpected windfall, who was pretty well set for retirement funds, who took a "trip of a life time" (for them) to Hawaii. They took their adult children and grandchildren, none of whom had ever traveled very much, and spent a week visiting several Hawaiian islands, going on sight seeing tours, taking a helicopter ride over the islands, the works. It cost a bundle, but that was 15 years ago and the family is still talking about it and reminiscing about the fun that they had together.
Now, in some families this would not be a "special treat" but for them it certainly was. None of the family had been to Hawaii before, or since, that trip.
Just an idea.
Your idea is a good one. My 33 year old daughter mentioned doing this! Thanks for your idea.
My parents were so frugal during our family years that we rarely had money for vacations. A campground here and there, nothing fancy. My dad was a homebody who rarely wanted to leave his precious orchids unattended for too long. He would only go on short local car trips, with an occasional drive to Las Vegas. If we really pushed him, he would agree to go visit his family in Hawaii once every 5 years or so.
When dad died, my mom took each adult child on trips to foreign places. No spouses allowed, as she did not have the money to pay for them too. Occasionally she took a grandchild if we were too busy working to go.
Each one of us treasures those times.
How nice that you bought something with her life insurance money that would remind you of her!
My mom's properties will probably sell, as we live in a good real estate market area.
With my mom’s property, there’s a whole thing going on. Luckily, I never counted on getting anything and saved on our own.
Find a good and respected financial advisor rather than asking for financial advice on the C-D retirement board. I'm surprised that this is the first place that comes to mind when looking for such advice.
This is terrible advice to go and pay fees to a financial advisor when the CD poster who mentioned SCHB and other low cost index funds provided the single best advice to the OP.
Come on you lot. $200k is peanuts in todays Mega dollar world. You all sound Jealous and not caring for SuziQ who asked a legit question. Why both even commenting if you are not in the league whereby you could offer a constructive answer to the question. Shhhhhhhh. No wonder the country is in the state it is in.
I do not have a good answer Suzie, but I am disgusted with SOME of the comments here and certainly with the 3 siblings who think they deserve everything of your old mum's estate. Sounds like she was a smart lady and that you are too.
If it were me I would pay off or down the mortgage.
Every year on the anniversary of your Mom's death or her birthday or another significant day in her life, put together a family reunion. Pay everyone's transportation and lodging costs out of the "Mom Fund."
You can pick a place of significance (where she was born, where she went on her honeymoon) or just a nice place with enough house rentals to allow all the families to be near each other.
Don't blow it one big Hawaiian vacation. Make it last for the next 20 years.
Every year on the anniversary of your Mom's death or her birthday or another significant day in her life, put together a family reunion. Pay everyone's transportation and lodging costs out of the "Mom Fund."
You can pick a place of significance (where she was born, where she went on her honeymoon) or just a nice place with enough house rentals to allow all the families to be near each other.
Don't blow it one big Hawaiian vacation. Make it last for the next 20 years.
Unless the OP has four children and twenty grandchildren and/or they stay at really expensive hotels and eat at really expensive restaurants every day, do you really think that they could spend $200,000 on one vacation to Hawaii? You must vacation a lot differently than I am used to vacationing.
But, if it really would be that expensive to take a family vacation to an exotic spot, I would also suggest doing one or multiple family reunions.
PS. Now that I think about it more, if you have four children that would be eight people with their spouses, and some of the grandchildren may be old enough to be married and have children of their own, So, depending on the family, it may end up being a very large amount of people.
Last edited by germaine2626; 03-17-2018 at 05:44 PM..
Reason: Added PS.
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