<p>Stock? Housing? Fund? CD? Money Market? But don’t tell me to spend it !</p>
<p>How old are you? What debts do you have? Are you financially secure or just starting out? Do you need to plan for near-term expenses or retirement in twenty or forty or more years? All that makes a difference.</p>
<p>Subsidize my son’s education?? ;)</p>
<p>You want to know what <em>I</em> would do, (not what I would advise you to do).</p>
<p>Given my personal situation <em>I</em> would put it all into exchange traded index funds from Vanguard.</p>
<p>Specifically <em>I</em> would probably put about 50% in VTI and 30% in VEU and 20% in VSS.</p>
<p>This mix would instantly give me investment in the entire equity market of most of the world. </p>
<p>Or I would put it all into VT, which does something similar.</p>
<p>I would probably leave it there for 5 years and then decide if I wanted to do something else with it.</p>
<p>My rationale:</p>
<p>CD, Money Market are not a good investment. After taxes, they do not even keep up with inflation.</p>
<p>Housing is probably not a good place to put money in right now because the market has probably not found its bottom and even if it has, it is going to go nowhere for many more years.</p>
<p>Individual stocks are not for most individuals who have a day job (they take too much time to research), and definitely not for someone who asks for investment ideas on a forum.</p>
<p>Food for the hungry.</p>
<p>Firstly I would pay off debts other than mortgage, esply cc balances, if any. I have most of my assets at Vanguard, originally in their unmanaged index funds, and as they began introducing ETFs, into those (VP and I may have been thinking along the same lines in this regard - low expenses leading to better than avg performance was my primary reason).</p>
<p>I would put some of it into savings, pay off school loans, use some for my kids’ education, and some for some amenities to the house. I so want to add a small front porch so the grandmoms can sit out there. My former house had a nice front porch and I had a table with chairs there, and enjoyed having coffee and tea on nice days. Everytime I think I can afford to do this, other expenses crop u. My gutters took such a beating this winter that they need to be replaced along with the wood trim that is damaged. I’d also like to add some landscaping around the house. I’d also like to add french doors to my dining room as my MIL’s brother has to sleep in there when he visits due to his oxygen hook up. It would also make the room more private for doing work downstairs, homework and SAT prep for the one I have left at home. Maybe a new car a little sooner than projected as ours has 200K on it right now and is pretty beat up though still reliable. </p>
<p>I’d like to go on a nice family vacation next year too.</p>
<p>Going with the 300k figure, I would get married, buy a car, pay for graduate school, and pay off my parents’ mortgage, not necessarily in that order. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, I will probably never have that amount of money, and the Wheel of Fortune people haven’t gotten back to me yet. :(</p>
<p>I’d give it away</p>
<p>Pay for college, put toward home.</p>
<p>start a scholarship</p>
<p>I would put in a CD. Crazy I know but I don’t need a lot of money and I don’t want to loose a lot of money. I’m ok earning 2%. :D</p>
<p>I will put 150K on CD and 100K on stock market, rest 50K for a trip to Vagas, gamble gamble and gamble…</p>
<p>DMD77 - may I ask why Vanguard?</p>
<p>I’d put it with my other retirement money, which is with Schwab, and let the boys at Schwab advise me what to do with it – based on my age, my plans, etc.</p>
<p>arling, I wasn’t the one who recommended Vanguard. I like Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) myself. But many years ago–in the 60s–my mother met John Bogle (founder of Vanguard) and gave him her money to invest. She did pretty well.</p>
<p>0) Keep $25k or so for play … trips, kitchen work, new care, etc </p>
<p>… then …</p>
<p>0B) Donate $30k or so to favorite charities …
- Pay off credit cards (and any other high interest debt)
- Pay off mortgage
- Fully fund kid’s college accounts
- Fully fund retirement accounts
- Help out relatives or friends in need (this may jump up some spots if extreme need)</p>
<p>If anything is actually left invest in investments I do not have to watch on a day-to-day basis</p>
<p>vanguard has the most index options with the lowest fees. </p>
<p>OP said “but don’t ask me to spend it”, which i interpreted as “how do i invest it for the future”.</p>
<p>I agree with Dr. Google. When I had extra money, I always put it in a CD. Not a big return, but at least it’s insured and doesn’t disappear when the market crashes.</p>
<p>Given that I have a mom in an assisted living facility that costs about 5K/month, I would probably put it in a CD and draw from it so she could stay there as long as she lives. She’s running out of funds and we’ll be looking to qualify her for Medicaid soon. Even though she’d be able to stay at her same facility as long as she’s physically able, she’d have to move into a double room. I’d use the funds to pay the difference for her to stay in a private room.</p>
<p>I would put aside money as well for my son to go to grad school wherever he wants, not dependent on who gives him the most money.</p>
<p>I would also use the money to rent a house for about a year so my husband and I could move out of our present home and have it totally renovated.</p>
<p>I would do some much needed work on our house - replace our broken bath tub, put in a new kitchen, replace the roof. Pay for the dental work I have coming up. Pay my kids student loans for them. Pay off my car loan and my mortgage. The remaining money (probably around $180k) would go into savings. We are already living off retirement money so I would keep some in cash to live off for the rest of the year and put the rest in something pretty safe.</p>
<p>Or I might use some of the money to move - maybe closer to where my son lives.</p>
<p>If I interpret the question as “what would <em>I</em> do with $300K?”… well, I’ve been working on a business plan for a new business for about a year now. $300K would provide me with the ability to start the business and still save enough so I wouldn’t starve if it failed.</p>