What would you do with £50k?

[Thewholeplaceglitters]

Just that really. How would you spend it?

Pay off debts - £15k
£10k savings for me and DH
£5k savings each for both kids
£5k on a nice holiday
£5k to upgrade car
£5k for some much needed shopping for the 4 of us plus house stuff

Not that I've given it much thought

Clear all credit cards
Holiday (we generally only pay £1.2k AI for our holidays)
The rest over pay the mortgage

My adult kids are at a life stage where they need it more than me, so I’d gift it to them.

Pay off DH car loan, 5* holiday to Carribean with premium seats for the flight and hold back £20K to max out my ISA next year.

Edit - and, get a pedigree Blue British Short-hair kitten 😸

Make sure your credit is in good order and then try to purchase/put a down payment on some real estate. If there’s a certification that will make you a more ideal/competitive employee, or you lack a degree, use the money to get one that will get you a better job. Basically, I would invest it in things that would improve my life.

Over pay mortgage
One big holiday for my family
The rest of home improvements/decorating

I would pay off my credit card and put the rest into long term savings.

What makes more of a difference is your current stage in life and financial circumstances.

For some the best would be to pay off debts, build an emergency fund, spend a small amount, eg £1-5k on something non essential like a holiday and use it as an opportunity to gain some financial stability.

For others it would be a house deposit, boost to pension, home improvements, a running away fund or even to blow it all on a luxury cruise or one of those really niche ones like the Antarctic.

I'd top my sipp up by about 20 grand as not much in there.
10 towards a new car and 10 split between various things top up rolling savings , 10 should go to various house repairs, new baths etc but I think I'd also take the children long haul perhaps safari or Japan would be amazing but most of it would go into a boring savings.

Go part time to 4 days a week for the 4 years until I retire. That’s 20k.
Then give 10 each to my 3 adult DC to help with their savings to move out.

At the moment I'd increase my thoughts about replacing my car - which is creeping onto my agenda and definitely have a main bathroom refit - which is on the list for when the current ensuite refit is finished (doing ourselves & taking forever).

In reality both of those things are going to happen anyway, and it wouldn't shorten the timeline as I'm not at all impulsive.

I’d spend it on house renovations. Starting with a proper repair of the roof then seeing how much is left.

Put it towards a house.

£40k House deposit, £7k savings £3k holiday

£12k in a savings account for a new car
£5k for home improvements
£1k towards our holiday next year. Already paid most of it but it would just mean a few upgrades here and there
£3k towards a couple of mini breaks
£1k towards cc debt
£2k towards a big holiday in 2026
£10k for dc. We already save for them but it would be nice to put more away
Maybe a little shopping spree for the 4 of us, so £1k towards that and then the rest in savings.

I'm a single parent with a disabled child, I work very part time and get UC. Our home is rented.

£50k would actually be a really annoying sum of money to gain - I'd have my UC claim ended and then just have to live off the £50k until it was gone and then claim UC again. It wouldn't be enough to buy us a house outright, and I'd never get a mortgage so it wouldn't be any use as a deposit either.

Due to rules about intentional deprivation of capital, I'd literally just have to live frugally off it until it was gone. I could probably get away with buying a newer car, and perhaps one not-too-extravagant holiday?

Pay off some debt and go on a nice family holiday.

Clear debts, go on holiday, get a new (to me) car, save the rest.

Would 10k get us to Japan?
We’d both love to go there.
Absolutely! Japan is very cheap at the moment for UK tourists. The most expensive part is the flight but out of high season times, eg cherry blossom 🌸 time,you can get some reasonable cost flights.

Pay off the last of the mortgage, hurray!

£8k on one side for DC’s final year at uni

Get the kitchen redone - we hoped to do that 5 years ago but DH was made redundant during the pandemic so that kind of killed that off.

Take the family on holiday to Italy for 10 days.

Save it.

Facelift

Replace the roof, pay off the remaining mortgage.
Do a little dance.

Pay off the mortgage, I wouldn't have much left after 50k.
Or 30k off mortgage, 10k in savings, and 10k on a lovely holiday for me, my parents and DD.

I'd get a new kitchen and bathroom and the house rewired.