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Original poster

Would you share £500k with family?

204 replies

SilverDoe · 21/02/2022 15:44

If you acquired £500k, would you share this sum with people outside of your immediate family (i.e. partner and children?)

Please note this is an entirely hypothetical bored Monday afternoon musing... I only play the Thunderball now if I ever play the lottery and kind of had the realisation that as a young parent who rents privately and doesn't own a car, I probably genuinely couldn't afford to give much of a windfall like that away. But that makes me feel awful! I always assumed I would give away some percentage of any crazy windfall away..

What would you do with it in your shoes if you won that kind of money?

OP posts:
AllAmericanGirl · 21/02/2022 18:51

I would help my brother buy a house but that's it, nobody else.

Fl0w3ry · 21/02/2022 18:54

No. I would tell nobody. I would move house to a better house and pay for it in full. I would keep a little bit as family money to give us more experiences together. Anything left over I would then split between the children. I would prioritise us living in a better house because the children would inherit it eventually anyway.
I wouldn’t give any to wider family because they are all relatively comfortable and certainly don’t share their wealth, they are very tight and smug with it!

RagzRebooted · 21/02/2022 18:58

I've spent hours agonising about this, OP. Every time I play the lottery.
500k, no I wouldn't as it would buy a house and not much else. Would probably put a bit away for neice and nephew to pay for driving lessons or something (my sister is terrible with money).

bananaboats · 21/02/2022 19:00

No, parents are financially secure retired, houses paid off etc so wouldn't really make a big difference to them in a meaningful way & no to siblings as tbh we aren't that close and I wouldn't feel comfortable taking any amount of money off them of them situation was reversed.

FinallyHere · 21/02/2022 19:00

Another one who loves to work out what to do with serious money.

My focus is mostly on how to do it without people knowing it was me. I would live to help out but would be devastated if someone did not value it, maybe frittered it away instead of using it as a deposit on a house or even worse, came back to ask for more.

Anonymity would also avoid that horrible situation where friends notice a disparity in income.

TheDuchessOfMN · 21/02/2022 19:06

I know someone who inherited about that amount.

They bought a second property (to rent) and live an absolutely miserable, frugal lifestyle.

I did wonder if they’d share any of it, and they didn’t. That part is understandable, but i think I would, in small amounts (eg perhaps £10k to each sibling)

00100001 · 21/02/2022 19:08

Yes

I'd pay off our mortgage.

And buy a small 1 bed flat/house each for my sister and mother

Christmas1988 · 21/02/2022 19:13

I would definitely share, not with everyone but my parents, brother and my husbands parents. I wouldn’t give to SIL or BIL because they don’t need the money.

IdentifyingAsAPrincess · 21/02/2022 19:14

I'm NC with my brothers and they are more financially secure than me. If I knew any of my friends were struggling then I would push some cash through their door, like £1,000 or something, but where I live that's an average house.

SheWolfOFFrancee · 21/02/2022 19:30

No. 500k is a tiny amount of money

I don’t think this poster means it’s actually a tiny amount of money just that in reality if you wanted a new house or pay off mortgage, holidays, new car (even 2nd hand) savings or any of those things you wouldn’t have that much left to help people.

Obviously depends where you live but a lot of places £500k will only buy you a fairly decent 4-5 bed house. In our nearest big city that much money wouldn’t go far

PowerhouseOfTheCell · 21/02/2022 19:30

Nope, would be faking my death and sailing off to the Cayman Islands before the ink was even dry on the massive cheque they give you

Lyricallie · 21/02/2022 19:32

If course I would. My mum and step dad and my sister. We were never well off and my wee sister still isn't (works two jobs etc). Why would I not want to help my family.

Tanfastic · 21/02/2022 19:33

No, I'd keep it quiet. It's not enough in my opinion to start sharing out.

Rapunzel91 · 21/02/2022 19:39

Yes! I fantasize about this all the time. I would give my sisters a deposit each for a flat and money for my parents to do what they want with. I'd love it

alwayswrighty · 21/02/2022 19:49

500k

50k on finishing the home improvements lots to do

30k between the girls

155k paying off the mortgage

135k buying btl (to leave as income for DSS who may not be able to work)

130k invested or put in pension

Millionairenow · 21/02/2022 19:53

500k is a tiny amount of money

I don’t think this poster means it’s actually a tiny amount of money just that in reality if you wanted a new house or pay off mortgage, holidays, new car (even 2nd hand) savings or any of those things you wouldn’t have that much left to help people.

Ok you might not have much change out of that after buying everything on your list but to say it's a 'tiny' amount is just unbelievably tone deaf when so many are struggling. And of course you could afford a new car with that amount Hmm

Sceptre86 · 21/02/2022 19:54

No because 500k in my preferred area with good schooling doesn't get me much more sq ft than the home I have currently. If it was 5million the answer would be different.

MrsDThomas · 21/02/2022 20:03

Absolutely not. My brother contacts at Christmas and thats it, lives 200 miles away. Im closer to my best friend than him. She’s the sister i never had.

But I wouldn’t give her anything neither. She’s comfortable, successful holiday let, both have ok salaries and a sister who is a millionaire and she has no kids no friend is a beneficiary.

Id take them our for a day out eating and drinking though. That wouldn’t be obvious,

autienotnaughty · 21/02/2022 20:06

Yes I'd give 20k each to children (in savings til 21) 20k to siblings and parents and take closest friends on holiday leaving me with 380k I'd buy a house for around 300, new cars, decorate house, holiday then save rest,

Bromse · 21/02/2022 20:08

I would find some worthy cause to which I could donate something. The rest would be for me and my son. I don't have much in the way of family now, my cousins certainly don't need money; if they did I would help them of course.

StarbucksSmarterSister · 21/02/2022 20:18

£500k isn't really life changing

It absolutely is for some people.

I only have £20K left on my mortgage and a decent pension coming up but half a million would absolutely still change my life. And yes, I'd give some money to my brother, nieces and my dearest friend, all of whom would find even £20K life changing.

willweevergetthere · 21/02/2022 20:41

Nope
I'd not even tell anyone.
I might even consider hiding it from my husband

InTheNightWeWillWish · 21/02/2022 20:46

No. My dad and in-laws are well-off enough that £10K wouldn’t do much for them. My mum is comfortable and £10k would be nice for her but she’d rather we put it to our mortgage or to DD. My siblings have higher paying jobs and live in a much lower cost area.

I’d probably try to work out a way that we could get a better house but keep our mortgage about the same but also buy a property near here for my mum to move into eventually. I could probably buy her a property here for £250K but it would need some work. I could use the remaining £250K towards a mortgage for our next house (4 bed house so nothing ridiculous) and our mortgage would just about stay the same after we sold this house and used the equity. We wouldn’t have any savings though. I think in that scenario, my mum would prefer we have no mortgage, put some money in savings for DD and reduce our working hours to enable us to visit her more often.

ThatsGoingToHurt · 21/02/2022 20:53

No I would I wouldn’t give any to my family as they have had thousands off me for ‘emergencies’ over the years. Yet, when I was about to be made redundant, my car had broken down, the house I was renting was about sold so you think they have two hoots! No! They were still trying to sponge money off me whilst calling me a bad mum because I didn’t decide to be come a SAHM!

I would pay off my mortgage and then drop to part time and replace my 13 year old car with something newer.

MargaretThursday · 21/02/2022 20:58

@PurpleDaisies

Posted by accident!

I would have to sacrifice something that I would consider really beneficial in order to give a total of £40 - £50k away to family.

I wouldn’t think of it like that at all. Would I have been thrilled to get a £450k windfall? Absolutely yes. Will my family be thrilled to get £10-15k windfalls? They’d be absolutely over the moon and it really would make a difference to them, much more than just going on a nice holiday. It would be worth it for me to keep a small mortgage when I would have expected to be paying so much more.

It’s totally up to you though. Everyone’s family is different.

I'm not sure people would necessarily be thrilled to get a £10-15k windfall when you keep £450k. I'll bet there would be a fair number of families, even those that are reasonable most of the time, where there would be mutterings of "They only gave us 3% and they're rolling in it" and expectations of you paying for everything/treating them to a holiday etc.

I'd pay off our mortgage and divide the rest between our dc for them to get a house when they're old enough. I don't think I'd tell people (except dm/df who would just be delighted for us) because I think it could easily change our relationships.

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