What would you do if you were left a considerable amount of money?

[oneofsuesylvesterscheerios]

As in not completely life-changing, never have to worry again type amount, but enough to pay off debts and enhance your life?

How much would you invest for your dcs?
And how much would you invest for your retirement if any?
Would you be sensible with all of it or would you use it in a more frivolous way?

if i have money - i'd give my grown kids if they needed anything - deposit for a hous
car to get to work - etc if i had the money.

i think saving for your kids futures is a misnoma.

what are we saying - saving to pay for university - or more than that?

becuase if more than that, by the time the avg person dies and leaves moeny to their kids - that kid is grown up, with a family, uni under belt, mortgage, job, car to pay for.

i mean its a bit late at that point.

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or

go on lots of hiolidays and have fab times yourself - but to leave it in thebank is sinful

spoke to someone only today who spent an inheritance on disney/ florida trip. Once in a lifetime 2 week no expense spared trip for her self, husband , and dt (12)

She said you could not pay her a million pounds to repeat the experience. COuld not wait to get home!

indeed, i would rather eat my own arse than go to disney

but i hae heard many anecdotal stories of people who have loved it

many people must love it presumably - or else it would go bust.

any way blowing it all on one holiday was plain stupid imo

It would take me a long time to eat my own arse so I'd go to Disney just to save time

I got a modest legacy about nine years ago when my gran died. I can tell you exactly what I did with it. Half was invested for my DS, specifically as a 'college fund'... because my gran was mad keen on education, having been denied the opportunity herself. The other half went to good use funding day-to-day expenses.

Why on earth would you spend a fortune on a Disney holiday if you don't like disney????

What I was trying to say was spend some doing something you will always remember, see the world etc, because you will always have good memories (assuming you pick something you actually enjoy )

be sensible with the rest (in whatever form would work for you, home education etc)

Have one absolutly mind blowing holiday and pay off our mortgage :)

All very thought-provoking as it makes me look from others' povs based on their own upbringing. I'm sorry about your experiences with your mum, Custardo, if that doesnt sound too patronising.

It was always made very clear from when we were young that my dad put us before anything he did; not from things he said but what he did for us and the way he lived his life. It was a very sacrificial existence, I guess, but he was not in the least bit martyrish. After our mum died, he made sure we had some good memories: he took us to Germany for a long holiday quite early on (my brother & I had never been abroad before) because he and my mum had spent lots of time in Europe when they first got married, touring in their little Austin car and meeting folk.

He also took himself off on a holiday to Kenya when we were a bit older and loved it, but this was as far as his 'extravagances' went. He never remarried but said he was perfectly happy that way.

I'm much more of the mind to make some memories for us all while the dds are young enough to still want to do it with us. I like the idea of being able to take them to the theatre when there's a show we'd like to see (not very often possible previously) and go away from weekends every so often. And some holidays too. I'd love to take them to New York at Christmas one year, and take a tour down the west coast of the US too. I'd prefer this to new cars or flashy gadgets.

My dad contributed to a savings fund for the dds (his only grandchildren) every birthday and Christmas which we will continue to do. It depends on how much a dent it would make on the mortgage before we decide to pay a chunk off.

I think it's got to be a balance. My philosophy is that as long as I've covered the essentials (and I include pensions and college funds as essentials) and have something for a rainy day, 'life's too short' not to go mad occasionally and take that impromptu holiday or buy that extravagant item. I work for my money and I like to enjoy it and share it.

Danny Baker was recently on Desert Island Discs. He has a slightly different philosophy which is that he has zero cash in the bank... spends the lot, saves nothing. Gave the example of checking into a NYC hotel and booking the suite for his family even though the bill wiped out his bank account. He values memories over security. For others, like my parents, they live in mortal fear of having no money, because they've had none in the past... they can't spend anything on themselves beyond the strictly essential.

Agree with your last point about many of our parent's generation being fearful of having nothing. Interesting about Danny Baker - having a life-threatening condition must put all of this into sharp focus...

Which also raises the point about saving for the future. Dad saved his money for his kids but for the last 12 months of his life had to pay for care. The last 7 months were spent in a nursing home as he had a condition very much like MND. He was royally pissed off to be spending £3K a month for his care. I think he probably envisioned dropping dead one day in the garden. Lifes not like that though mostly is it?

Danny Baker says he has always lived as though each day was his last, and that his illness therefore made no difference to his outlook. I believe him.

On savings being wiped out by care home fees. That's why we have savings, I suppose. You hope for the best, plan for the worst. I know a retired friend of my parents that always said they were going to spend the lot and then let the government take care of them. Which sounds good on paper but I'm not sure I'd want to rely on any government to look after me if I had the option to look after myself.

People who pay for their own care (£700 a week ish) get exactly the same care as people who have no savings and have their care fully funded.

The care home may well be the same, but what value financial independence in the run-up to needing a care-home... and what about people who never need a care-home? What I'm saying is that I'm not sure I'd want to take the risk of an empty bank account and be totally reliant on HM Gov.

At least we were able to choose our care home; with state funding we'd have probably just had to take to one with the first vacancy. Dad agreed that he should pay given his savings, but we were shocked by the amount and because of his condition we had no way of knowing how long we'd be paying it. We told dad it didn't matter and we really weren't concerned with our 'inheritance' but dad was pissed off! I'm sure if he'd known what was going to happen he'd have spent a but more and also given it to us sooner. But hindsight is a wonderful thing...

I think we will get a financial adviser to help us with what we'd like to invest/pay off, but we will definitely plan out some holidays and experiences for us and the dds.