If you won this amount of money, what would you do with it?

[Neomldn]

A close friend of mine recently won £50k as part of a competition she’d entered. Naturally I was hugely for her and asked if she’s thought about what she might do with it. I could only dream of having so much spare cash and can immediately think of a million and one things I’d want to do with it, yet my friend tells me she has absolutely no idea what to spend it on and will likely keep it for some time before deciding.

So my question is, if you had a spare 50k, what would you spend it on? Sensible or otherwise, I’m genuinely intrigued!

My post should have said *hugely excited for her. Whoops!

I think imaginary spending is much easier than real spending. You might find yourself as "stuck" as your friend if it happened to you IRL.

Put it in premium bonds and hope I won the million to buy a lovely house! £50k isn't much in the grand scheme of things, nice to have but you couldn't quit your job!

A once in a lifetime type holiday for the family then pay off some of the mortgage.

Pay off the mortgage and buy a pet owl. Just a little owl, not one of those huge ones.

2 weeks in the Maldives then house improvements

Driving lessons
A car
Years worth of car insurance and whatnot
The rest in savings for my daughter.

Probably a new car for DC and a bonus holiday then pop the remainder in the bank as a cushion.

I'd book a couple of holidays for next year and probably buy a car, then put the rest in savings. I wouldn't spend the lot in one go.

In real terms it’s not a huge sum. I’d probably replace my car and go on a nice holiday. That would eat up most of it!

In a dream world then yes I could spend that easily! However having recently inherited a similar amount, I can understand not knowing what to do! When you have a mortgage, kids, home improvements etc you find that suddenly it doesn't go very far! After much deliberation we have decided to save some for a fab holiday in a few years and the rest will go on the mortgage (boring!)

Probably pay £20k off my mortgage, get new windows and decorate, go on a fabulous family holiday and the rest in savings

I think it’s fair she will sit and think about what she does with it, and not rush to spend it. Seems sensible to me, I’m also sure she can think of a million things to spend it on.

Ok so I think for me-

£10k- new (secondhand) car
£10k- ease the burden of DH being a SAHD for a couple of years when we have baby no.2, and support him in learning to drive
£3k- family holiday
£5k- minor home improvements eg. Desperately need new flooring in kitchen as we have ancient peeling lino
£1k- some fun treats for all of us
£5k- charity donations (I always try and give at least 10% of any extra/surprise money to charity although obviously it’s never been this much!!)
Remaining £16k invested in a stocks and shares ISA

I would not spend it on things that normal income is supposed to cover, like cars and holidays this year.

I would either pay down mortgage or add it to pensions and investments so that I had a little extra income not going to those each year, so the benefit was spread evenly over the rest of my life. The little extra income would make each year slightly better than it would otherwise have been.

It'd go in the house renovation pot.

New kitchen 100%. We are saving for that at the moment.

Other than that it would go in savings and be there for treats like holidays etc.

I would give a few thousand to family too.

This.

Surely if you were in this position, you'd take time to decide which of the 'million and one things' you would actually buy, rather than just spending it on the first thing you came across?

After all, you'd feel rather foolish spending it all on a new car and then realising it would have been better spent on home improvements or similar?

Pay off a loan we’ve got, then remaining on a holiday, some home improvements & leave a bit in savings.

But in reality I’d also think about everything except paying off the loan for a while before splashing out.

I'd treat myself to the watch I've always wanted and the rest would go to Exdh to buy him out of the house.

I think your friend is being very sensible.

I think if it was me I'd use about £10k to do all the home improvements we have been putting off, so new flooring throughout, new bathroom, new sofas.

I'd consider getting solar panels too, but I am not sure what that would cost or how suitable the house is.

A couple of nice holidays with another £10k ish.

So then £20 - £30k left to go in savings. This would be at least in part be intended to replace the cars in due course. Mine only has a year or two left in it, the other will last longer.

This is based upon our finances. It would be different if we weren't reasonably secure.

Kitchen extension and refurb.

I'd blow £20k on a few house improvements and helping out some friends and family and then stash the rest in savings. A happy mix of being extravagant and sensible. 😊

Pay off 2 loans which would leave us £400 better off a month and then buy new windows. £50k gone but we’d be able to save more and have lovely new windows

Mortgage. All of it.