If you had lots of money ?

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I’m a solo mum. I was fortunate to get a good chunk of inheritance recently.

Im looking for ideas on how to spend some of it to make my single parent life, with lots of pets, much much easier.

Solo parenting 100% of the time is really hard.

Any ideas welcome.

What woukd you do?

More info would help. Do you work? Do you rent or own? Is it tens of thousands or millions? I’d secure or improve my housing, pay for a cleaner/gardener/nanny/online shopping, pay into a pension.

How much did you get?

Secure yourself - reduce or pay off your mortgage, pay into pension and cash isas (while you still have £20k)

how old is your child? Would they do residential trips in the holidays to give you a break? Do you have a reliable babysitter you can use?
meal delivery service? Cleaner
dog walker/sitter

Get a cleaner, ironing help and gardener. Buy yourself back some time. Reduce hours at work? Get a nice gym membership?

Pay off mortgage
Reduce working days per week
Buy the kids some gold
Holiday/car/coffee machine/massages/wellness & welbeing

How much? Do you have any debt to pay off first? Would a bigger house help?

I work part time from home. I’m happy to continue this but it’s for myself so doesn’t restrict me, plus it’s very rewarding so is a mental health thing and doesn’t affect childcare or school . Inheritance paid off my mortgage on our big house and i have enough to never work again.

I would pay off or down my mortgage (or use as a deposit if you don’t already have your own home).

Use it to secure my career prospects in some way, further training, investment in professional development, starting a business that would give me more flexibility.

Put money aside for childcare for a few years depending on what stage of life you’re at.

Save money for holidays and school trips (in secondary they can be £500-2k each).

Cleaner would be my 1st thing then if I had the money basically anything that would save me time

So you’ve paid off your mortgage and don’t have to work. Hmmmm what about private school? I’d probably just go on loads of holidays to interesting places and pay to get an easy travel experience eg private transfers, fantastic accommodation, private tours of places.

Have you invested what's left so that it can give you continuous passive income and continue to grow? If mortgage is paid off and you don't have to work, that would be my first choice. After that, I would split it into different pots of:

Fun (travel, nice hotels, beauty, and so on)

Cleaner / gardener / ironing pet-minding service.

Private healthcare, gym, personal trainer

Pension

Children (house deposit, uni fees etc)

Future house repairs.

In the longer term, what are your plans? Do you want to stay where you are, move to a bigger house or by the sea? It's worth mapping that out and then making some new pots for that. I really like Ramit Sethi's advice about how to manage money - he says how important it is to know what your 'why' is, what kind of life you want to live now and in the future, which will help you shape your money choices.

Set up a savings/ISA what have you for your children. Form a trust and look into how you can protect the money.
If someone dropped a million into my lap I’d do up my son’s house, pay off my DD’s student loans, and move into more central London (that would eat quite a bit but I have a house worth over a million mortgage free already). I’d set up a trust for my kids so its outside inheritance tax.

I’d pay off the mortgage and make sure I had a great pension. I’d get private healthcare and get a personal trainer So I’m healthy enough to enjoy life for as long as possible!

I’d also get a good financial advisor to help me invest the money wisely so my children have support in the future for university fees and/or house deposits. Once all that was sorted I’d look at the ‘now’ luxuries, such as cleaner, holidays, home improvements.

Good luck OP, I’m sorry for your loss but hope you make wise choices with the inheritance you’ve received.

Great that you've paid off mortgage. What is your pension situation? I work part time and mine isn't as good as I'd like, so look into that?

Cleaner would be high up my list, especially as you have pets.

Put aside something for each child for a house deposit (but don't tell them until an appropriate age). It could potentially be used for anything unexpected for that child. Depressing outlook i know, but for examole my Dsis developed agoraphobia following a traffic accident. NHS waiting lists were serveral years, and my parents used savings to pay for her to get private therapy. I don't have that kind of savings for my kids and wish I had.

Housekeeper who can do pet care and occasional childcare if you wanted. Someone who can do the meal planning, online food shopping and putting away, do the housework including rotational deep cleaning, errands like returning parcels, picking up a birthday card/gift and organise trades people.

Private sch?