250k inheritance to spend but on what??

[TheMuminator2]

Came out of the blue from a relative we hadn't seen since we were young. Am tempted not to spend a penny and just invest

Ooh yes, and really good private healthcare for my family

@TheMuminator2 I was kidding, Tiger is that shop full of highly addictive colourful plastic tat for £1-2 a pop. With £250k you would need a warehouse to store it all. Does a nice bag of liquorice, though.

I’d buy a housekeeper to make my house look tidy and cook me dinner. I’d also have lots of holidays and make sure I’d been to every continent. Definitely Antarctica! Apparently it’s amazing. But so is the cost!
Then I’d pay the mortgage off and keep some in savings like a proper adult.

If you want the money to grow for the future, buy property. Boring but a reliable investment in the long term, and it can earn its keep in the meantime.

If you want to just enjoy it (and what better use for an unexpected windfall?) I’d say travel.

If you’re in a giving frame of mind, I agree with donating to small charities rather than big ones. Large charity CEOs are well paid for their services. Small charities have to rely on the goodwill of unpaid trustees and volunteers.

I would be mostly boring but spend about 10% on fun stuff

Pay off mortgage and other debts
Stick some in pensions or isa (with uni education for children in mind, or house deposit)
Maybe 15k upgrading car
10k on a fab holiday

Well if you have

Paid off mortgage
Saved for kids uni and house deposits
Have good pensions
Got money put by for your next car(s)

Then you could do some home improvements, go on some nice holidays, put some aside to retire early. Enjoy your good fortune.

I would pay off our mortgage and save the rest for school / uni fees.
This would influence my quality of life as we’d have £2000 extra disposable income per month (this is school fees + mortgage + mortgage overpayment.)
Not enough to retire but work less= 2 days probably University job not practice for me and a 4 day week for DH.

Water Aid and Air Ambulance are top of my list.

I support all three Air Ambulances around my county, so God forbid I ever need it my conscience is covered.

Move to a nicer house/area and/or pay off the mortgage?

“Showing off at its worst,not a nice character trait to have.”

There are some strange people on here.

I don’t see one bit of showing off in any of OPs posts.

You need a financial advisor

I'd pay off half my mortgage. Depressing! Def do a fantastic holiday and have a think about it.

Oooohhh I’d go part time, buy my flat and take daughter abroad on a holiday where she can swim in a crystal clear sea.
My dreams.

What a strange thread

I'd be mortgage free and save the rest after reserving 10k for an amazing holiday if it stretched that far after paying off the mortgage.

NC for this - we got a similar amount from inheritance, endowment and share windfalls within a few months, a few years ago. DC now 18.5 and 21.

We were already mortgage free, having bought young (mid fifties now) so most has been invested but we have had a couple of great US holidays, I got a new car, we have some work planned for house and we are contributing to kids ISAs. We also gave them a contribution towards a basic car when they could drive.

We haven’t paid the eldest’s uni fees as youngest is not planning to go at moment but if she does, we will consider clearing their fees at some point.

The main thing it has given us is security. We already had it to some extent being mortgage free, but it has meant we could manage without one of us working if need be, plus we will hopefully retire around 60 and maybe buy a camper.

I also agree that you might want to keep quiet about the extent of the windfall. Friends knew my mum had died so would have expected me to have an inheritance but I have never mentioned the other windfalls which came at same time.

Similarly, our kids inherited just under 100k the year before we got ours, from a distant relative. The only people who know are other relatives who also inherited the same amount (or their parents) and one local friend whose kids have a significant inheritance in trust. Our kids largely ignore it and it is being invested for eventual house purchase but we have instilled in them not to discuss it with anyone.

It's not brain surgery. Financial advisors cost money and I'm sure OP is sensible about how to spend her money BritInUS1 She's has loads of good suggestions here.

I'd buy a house. Boring answer I know but it would be fantastic.

A little piece of advice, look closely at your mortgage terms, if you are on a fixed % product for x number of years, there will be penalty fees to pay off the mortgage early. That could be £10,000+, you may also have to pay an early redemption fee of hundreds or thousands of pounds in addition.

My advice or what I would do is get all the information from the paperwork for debts, credit cards, mortgages, loans, HP. Sit down and go through them with a fine toothcomb. You may be better to over pay your mortgage for the next few months or years to the maximum amount without incurring additional fees, especially if you are on a say 2% interest only or repayment rate. Wait until you are clear of the fees, and then pay the mortgage off. Meanwhile look at sticking the money in as high as possible interest rate account. Look at the AER %, plus the term (years) of investment required.

So you may be better to put £150,000 (or whatever your outstanding balance of your mortgage is) into a 5% interest rate account for 1 year (or however long your fixed rate % on your mortgage product is) and earn £7500 in interest, rather than lose the penalty fees.

Pay off mortgage
£150,000
Early redemption fees for fixed rate product
£7,500

Total spend £157,500

Wait a year
Pay off Mortgage
£150,000
Early redemption fees
£0
Interest from high % account (5%)
£7,500
Total spend
£142,500

I hope that makes sense....

Education, horses.and holidays.

I don't think betting it on the horses is a great idea.

Pay off Mortgage
£150,000
Early redemption fees
£0
Interest from high % account (5%)
£7,500
Total spend
£142,500)

Can I have the name of the account paying 5% on £150K invested for a year please?

Check how much tax you need to pay on it before you spend it

Then I'd put it towards house, and splash out a bit on fripperies, trips, nice hotel

lifecraft if you shop around away from the high street you will find accounts.

I do know that Santander were offering 5% on £20000+ last year.

250k while it sounds like a fortune, really isn't going to keep a person for years and certainly isn't an amount you'd give up work with. Once mortgage is paid off, some put away for retirement, some put away for kids education and maybe help them with a car/house deposit, you really won't see it slipping away. All this talk about giving to charity is admirable (no way would I give 50k out of 250k to charity) but don't go overboard thinking your are loaded - unless you and Dh are in your 90's!