To feel like this IS actually a decent safety net?

🙄🙄🙄
not a very nice thing to say.

you clearly don't have a prick of a brother who acts like this.

But there's no need for him to be a complete prick about it or about her financial situation

@Hetplane try to set your mind back to how you felt before you spoke to the twat. It's a very decent amount of money in most peoples mind and yes it's a very good safety net.

I would definitely pay off the debt (not your Mortgage) and personally I wouldn't go down to 4 days unless there was a very good reason to because I think if you can keep it in savings intact it is an amazing piece of mind if you go down to 4 days it seems like you are treating it the same as what he called it. 'Running costs' or whatever

What did the person who gifted it to you hope you would do with it?

He clearly doesn't need it then if its that insignificant, and should hand his half over to you!!

In answer to your question in the title of your thread: “this is actually a decent safety net?”

-I am not sure. Yes, it’s amazing that you would have paid off the majority of your mortgage and can clear your debt. That is hugely important and something to be very happy about. If someone gave me £120k I would be delighted and would put it towards my mortgage repayments.

However, if you have £10k debt that you have not cleared quickly then it implies to me that your income and/or expenditure is such that it may not be a good idea to cut down to 4 days. Do you have a pension? Savings?

Why is it relevant what your brother says about the money? Why do you let it affect your feelings about it and yourself?

Of course that's alot of money! That's half the amount my house cost!!! Ignore your brother! Pay off your debts and put the rest down on the mortgage. The mortgage will become cheaper and you'll save more money.

Agree with this.

If someone says something negative when you belive in the positive, you don't need to agree with them.
It's a choice.

Agree, he's wealthy and has a wealthy wife, so why not take it with a pinch of salt.

You know your financial standing more than he does, trust your judgement, not his.

You received a very generous gift, you can either appreciate it or allow others to change that.

It would be a life changing amount for me.

Your brother is rude, ignore him it is however all relative to the individual.

When my friends retired early 2 years ago they were relocating so put their house up for sale. I assumed they would need to sell before moving. But no they bought an 850k house outright and their house sale finished around 8 weeks after they left our area.

You don’t need to see a financial advisor for that sort of amount. Look on money saving expert.

Pay off your 10k debt and chuck 20k in an S&S ISA. You are plenty young enough to ride out the ups and downs of this sort of ISA. We did much riskier stuff when younger but you have to be prepared to lose out, DH lost 25k one day, was recouped fortunately.

I wouldn’t be going PT, maybe pay off some mortgage but look to your pension.

I wouldn’t go part time with 120k tbh. I’d take chunks off my mortgage, stay full time and try to invest more in a pension. It would have been different if you were mortgage free (maybe) but even full time you are only saving £300. Not sure going part time is genuinely affordable for you.

Did you grow up with not much? I can be weird about money because we grew up skint so I always feel skint even if I’m not. May be where his attitude has come from but yeah 120k is a pretty decent wodge imo.

Ah, so he has got a “safety net”.

I haven't voted.

Your brother is definitely a twat! That seems besides the point to me.

You have been gifted a very decent sum of money, enough that really could change your life. I do think that someone with money sense would use that money to their advantage and help them to get ahead. Put the lot straight into your mortgage, it will save you thousands and thousands in interest!

Stay full time and use the giant advantage you have been gifted to become debt free. Keep saving that 300 each month, pay your other debt and work to get rid of that home loan many, many years earlier than you would have otherwise.

To use the money to go part time takes the advantage you've been gifted and squanders it. Would we all like a break and to work less? Yes! But is it smart to do this? No!

Please don't waste the advantage you've been given here, that would be unreasonable. You could eventually own your home, be debt free and eventually starting to think about retirement earlier.

I wonder if he’s concerned that the OP has decided to go part time as a result of this inheritance, despite still having a mortgage and 10k debt

perhaps the op has a history of financial difficulty / recklessness, the DB has had to bail her out, and so with regard to the inheritance - he’s simply trying to convey to the op that this isn’t a life changing amount and she should temper her reaction to it. And his suggestion to pay off debt and some of mortgage seems rather sensible to me!

He's a completely entitled idiot who is living off his wife's money. If she had any sense she'd dump him.

It’s exactly 3 years of my net salary.
I could retire 3 years earlier thanks to that gift!
Not pocket money at all. Much more valuable than that.
Your brother sounds like a bit of a prick!

Maybe more so for someone who HADN’T already got started on a mortgage.

I wonder if he's making a comment because of your decision to go part time. He's saying what other posters are saying here, that it won't last very long if it's replacing a salary, especially as you're still young.

However, it would make huge difference if you dripped it into a pension or reduced your mortgage.

It's a good amount of money. I would pay off your £10k debt and use the rest to reduce your mortgage. That will significantly reduce your outgoings and possibly mean you can go down to working four days a week. Do anything that gives you some security and makes life less stressful!

You are doing this all by yourself... whilst he is living off a rich wife!!
I know who I respect more.

Disagree.

That sum of money would be life changing for the vast majority of people in the UK.

What a twat he sounds.

It's a tidy windfall, if not life-changing. Look into halving your mortgage, the lower payments will put money into your pocket EVERY month! Or pay off other debts. Whichever is costing you more in repayments and interest. PLEASE don't fritter it! :-)

YANBU, OP don’t worry! I’d love a savings pot of 1.2k 😂