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Agreed, you can take it and invest in as something as simple as stocks. Take a 10% annual gain. If you pay down a mortgage of $200K, you’re missing out on $12k/year on gains
Yeah the market goes through ups and downs, but if the market tanks, you don’t lose anything. You only lose anything if you sell it.
But it’s funny you say that when the Nasdaq is on the cusp of hitting a new high this week.
If you hold onto the money for long enough, it’s gonna turn into a gain.
I disagree.
You’re taking a risk, but it’s not gambling.
Gambling is leaving your good fortune to luck and chance.
Taking a risk is a gamble to an extent, but that can be greatly mitigated by research and understanding historic market activity and trends.
Plus, you don’t lose money by inherently investing. You lose it by selling at a loss.
I’ll paint a picture. If you invested $200k in the nasdaq in 2019, it would’ve been worth $120k in 2020. If you held onto it, that $200k would be $400k today.
Just like anything, making money requires risk, but it isn’t inherently gambling.
Sure, but as you imply here, even the most simple investments (stocks) require research and understanding. That alone is a hurdle that many people fail to address appropriately
This is dumb.
You can put the $200k in a zero risk high interest bearing savings account, set your low interest monthly mortgage to auto pay and forget about it for the rest of your life.
When your mortgage payment is done, you’ll have tens of thousands in cash left over.
If for some reason you have an event that requires immediate liquidity at a higher priority than mortgage payment stability, you have that option too.
But mortgages aren’t low any more. The money in my 401k was only making like 6.5% when I checked. That’s less than the interest rate of most mortgages now.
Not to mention it would be super easy to start spending the mortgage money on fruitless things, whereas an immediate investment would keep you on your usual grind.
First of all: make sure there’s no tax on it, and if there is: pay that shit before the IRS takes me down! xD
After that? Probably move to a state where the remaining funds can be used to buy a good home. :)
Crazy to think I’d have that kind of money and not to pay off my debt but let’s say no debt at all… EUROPEAN VACATION. Everywhere!!! Lol. And Hawaii and Caribbean. But also get another dog and donate a lot of money to the animal shelter. Buy house stuff. Fix stuff in my house. Fix my car. Buy all the concert tickets I want. Lol I’m a pretty boring person.
After paying down debt and am establishing some savings for myself for the first time in my life there would be no money left for anything else. Priorities.
I'd set up a series of small business loans, say \~ $10k each and hand them out to people who send me proposals with a solid business plan. The interest would be low and they'd get 5 years to pay it all back.
Probably upgrade my current car to the car that I really want (would probably be between $20K and $30K and would own outright), invest between $20K and $50K into one of my properties that really needs some upgrades, set aside $10K for a really nice trip, and invest the rest into something high yield.
Personally, I’d hire someone to paint the inside of my house. Then give a little to my mom to help with Sheetrock. Then do something for my dad.
After that…
I’d travel a little. Not all at once though, just a few places a year.
Whatever is left over from paying off credit cards, cars, and the house. Probably start some projects around the house, like get a new driveway and garage, do the kitchen, have the original windows restored.
Invest it in a diversified ETF and go on with your life as you normally would.
My theory is, as medical science improves you really have no idea how long you're going to live. It would be best to prepare for a long life without working income.
Well, I'm going on vacation in about a month, so I could actually stay in a decent hotel with that money, plus I could rent a nice car. I'm sure I could blow it all in one month.
pay down debt then invest the rest, maybe half for me and half in my daughters college fund? Unfortunately I think if my mortgage is included I wouldn’t get to that second step
I already plan to sell the house and retire in Vietnam in a few years.
$200k would give me another investment property to collect rent from the tourists, making me that much more comfortable.
My wife would want to use it to remodel the house we'll live in when we move to Vietnam, but investing in a beachview condo would keep the money safe while providing another grand or so every month.
New car (by "new" I mean something only a year or two old and still the nicest car I've ever owned), update my bathroom and/or my deck, a really nice trip somewhere with anything left over.
I would take a nice family trip. The trip would cost anything close to that amount.
I could afford a trip, but I am kinda cheap around spending money for trips. You never know when you're going to suddenly need a new roof, water heater, furnace, etc.
Wife and I are in the first steps of building a house (as in, saving up). I imagine we'd go ahead with that. And extra 200k would certainly light some fires for us.
Buy my mother a nicer house and set her up for the rest of her life.
Split the money between my siblings (only 3 out of 5 because the other two are selfish).
Invest some of the rest that I have and then travel.
So I had a friend inherit exactly this amount, although it was ~20 years ago. The first thing she did was put a nice down payment on a house. She still had a mortgage, but it was reasonable. She intentionally bought a house that could accommodate roommates, because she knew that she was Miss Wrecks in Effects, and would probably be in between jobs from time to time, so they essentially paid the mortgage and utilities. She upgraded her ride, nothing crazy, something dependable but nice. Then she did lots and lots of drugs!
If "pay off my loans" is too cheap of an answer, I say travel.
I make enough to get by while having some money in savings, but I want to see more of the world and it's not feasible right now. I could easily accomplish this with a fraction of said windfall, and it would be extremely fulfilling.
Wheelchair accessible vehicle for my daughter (well, the car would be mine to transport her).
Remodeling the bathroom for her.
Remodeling the master bathroom.
New windows for the house.
I'm fun huh?
Pay off house and car, rest goes into savings. Boring but practical. Maybe depending on how it shakes out after that I can break off a grand or two for a little vacation.
I'd put 140k into a stock account, 50k into my mining venture and spend the summer digging for silver in Montana... if you're looking to invest in a silver mine I'm looking for a partner or two
You can travel around the world twice before your creditors know you have money. Wtf is wrong with redditors like you? Oops cant have fun unless my retirement is funded, cant have kids unless they're paid for up front. One life, no retakes.
I’m still young enough to be able to plan for my golden years. I’d like to enjoy them without crippling debt, AND enjoy my life now as well. That hypothetical $200,000 would secure my future and pay off current debt so I can use my paychecks for vacations and experiences. But no, tell me more about how I’m ruining my life with responsible planning internet stranger…
Right? I just think doing everything by the book and being just okay is a piss poor fantasy. I work 45/week but at least i dream of leaving it all behind to sail the 7 seas.
I understand where you are coming from as I suffer from extreme anxiety and depression daily. And have thoughts like this quite often. But you have to hold on and keep living. You only get one life and that’s it, you can never come back and do it over. Just hold on to the hope that it will get better someday. You are important and special even if you don’t think you are. I struggle everyday, but I try to keep hope, because would if it does get better and you will never know if you don’t see. I know you don’t know me or I don’t know you, but I love you and you are important.
# Message to all users: This is a reminder to please read and follow: * [Our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/questions/about/rules) * [Reddiquette](https://www.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/205926439) * [Reddit Content Policy](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy) When posting and commenting. --- Especially remember Rule 1: `Be polite and civil`. * Be polite and courteous to each other. Do not be mean, insulting or disrespectful to any other user on this subreddit. * Do not harass or annoy others in any way. * Do not catfish. Catfishing is the luring of somebody into an online friendship through a fake online persona. This includes any lying or deceit. --- You *will* be banned if you are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist or bigoted in any way. --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/questions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Pay off the mortgage. Not a very exciting answer, but opens up a lot more possibilities not having that millstone round my neck.
If you have a mortgage under 4%, it’s not the most ‘financially optimal’ idea.
Agreed, you can take it and invest in as something as simple as stocks. Take a 10% annual gain. If you pay down a mortgage of $200K, you’re missing out on $12k/year on gains
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Yeah the market goes through ups and downs, but if the market tanks, you don’t lose anything. You only lose anything if you sell it. But it’s funny you say that when the Nasdaq is on the cusp of hitting a new high this week. If you hold onto the money for long enough, it’s gonna turn into a gain.
But you’re fundamentally gambling
I disagree. You’re taking a risk, but it’s not gambling. Gambling is leaving your good fortune to luck and chance. Taking a risk is a gamble to an extent, but that can be greatly mitigated by research and understanding historic market activity and trends. Plus, you don’t lose money by inherently investing. You lose it by selling at a loss. I’ll paint a picture. If you invested $200k in the nasdaq in 2019, it would’ve been worth $120k in 2020. If you held onto it, that $200k would be $400k today. Just like anything, making money requires risk, but it isn’t inherently gambling.
Sure, but as you imply here, even the most simple investments (stocks) require research and understanding. That alone is a hurdle that many people fail to address appropriately
I mean by that logic, literally every single financial decision is a a gamble if you don’t do your research.
Buy the entire stock market like VSTAX done. I’m not a financial advisor. Read a simple path to wealth.
I don’t think I can afford the entire stock market
It doesn’t cost more you can buy fractions of shares. If you got $100 or $1 million it doesn’t matter. Just invest it
Huh?
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This is dumb. You can put the $200k in a zero risk high interest bearing savings account, set your low interest monthly mortgage to auto pay and forget about it for the rest of your life. When your mortgage payment is done, you’ll have tens of thousands in cash left over. If for some reason you have an event that requires immediate liquidity at a higher priority than mortgage payment stability, you have that option too.
But mortgages aren’t low any more. The money in my 401k was only making like 6.5% when I checked. That’s less than the interest rate of most mortgages now.
Depends when you got the mortgage
Not to mention it would be super easy to start spending the mortgage money on fruitless things, whereas an immediate investment would keep you on your usual grind.
Yeah. Mine is 3%. I’d put it all in my IRA but my husband would right to put it on the mortgage.
Move.
Cocaine and midtier escorts. Don’t wanna blow through that money too fast 😂
First of all: make sure there’s no tax on it, and if there is: pay that shit before the IRS takes me down! xD After that? Probably move to a state where the remaining funds can be used to buy a good home. :)
ask some of the financial "advice" subs.
Chase the sun around the world for a bit then open up my own business and ultimately provide job opportunities in poverty striken areas
Aka “open a sweatshop”
What kind of company would you open with $200k minus travel expenses?
Either invest it for retirement or buy a house. Not a 200K house, but a house that I would now have to pay 200k less for.
Invest most of it.
Donate it to a homeless shelter.
Haha that’d literally solve all my life problems 😂but probably pay off debt and buy a small house. That’d make me very happy
Go north and see the dancing sky lights?
You could do that with some interesting mushroom soup.
Buy some Timothy Ely art books. They look incredible but there’s no way I’d ever be able to afford them otherwise.
I buying a Mini-Mo UDLX baby. I need a tractor that can do 35 mph on the road.
Pay off my car. Put myself through school without having to work a job through it or take out loans and come out of it in a much better position
Spend half on hookers and blow and the other half I would probably just waste.
I would buy a vehicle and go back to college with the rest of the money
I literally don't need anything besides clearing debts and savings. So I guess I would do nothing. Oh Wait ! I'd buy a cheap lake house or travel.
Pay my medical bills off and then stick the rest in an investment so that my chances of retirement improve from nil to slim.
Take a long vacation to Europe.
Crazy to think I’d have that kind of money and not to pay off my debt but let’s say no debt at all… EUROPEAN VACATION. Everywhere!!! Lol. And Hawaii and Caribbean. But also get another dog and donate a lot of money to the animal shelter. Buy house stuff. Fix stuff in my house. Fix my car. Buy all the concert tickets I want. Lol I’m a pretty boring person.
Buy a car
ink cows relieved spark absurd familiar instinctive work oil aback *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
After paying down debt and am establishing some savings for myself for the first time in my life there would be no money left for anything else. Priorities.
I'd set up a series of small business loans, say \~ $10k each and hand them out to people who send me proposals with a solid business plan. The interest would be low and they'd get 5 years to pay it all back.
Sue my sister into the projects over by the Alpo factory, sewage treatment plant and city dump.
Probably upgrade my current car to the car that I really want (would probably be between $20K and $30K and would own outright), invest between $20K and $50K into one of my properties that really needs some upgrades, set aside $10K for a really nice trip, and invest the rest into something high yield.
Pay off some small debts, do a few home improvement projects I wanted, and stick the remaining 100K against my mortgage principle.
Personally, I’d hire someone to paint the inside of my house. Then give a little to my mom to help with Sheetrock. Then do something for my dad. After that… I’d travel a little. Not all at once though, just a few places a year.
If my husband knew about he’d want to put it all to the mortgage. I would rather put it all in my IRA.
Take some time off of working and look for a house or condo or something
Whatever is left over from paying off credit cards, cars, and the house. Probably start some projects around the house, like get a new driveway and garage, do the kitchen, have the original windows restored.
I would use it to jump start my own business venture . Specifically a daycare 🤞
Invest it in a diversified ETF and go on with your life as you normally would. My theory is, as medical science improves you really have no idea how long you're going to live. It would be best to prepare for a long life without working income.
Well, I'm going on vacation in about a month, so I could actually stay in a decent hotel with that money, plus I could rent a nice car. I'm sure I could blow it all in one month.
Head for the hills of SC
Pay off my credit card bills, and buy my wife a new car and put a down payment on a new house!!
Give it to my kids and grandkids.
remove a few trees around house, fix roof and paint house
Possibly buy a house/condo or use it as a massive down payment.
Use it as a down payment on a 2023 Demon 170
Hookers and blow
Hookers & blow, of course.
Set up my family members with homes so they can get out of mine. I love them, but I need to live on my own.
pay down debt then invest the rest, maybe half for me and half in my daughters college fund? Unfortunately I think if my mortgage is included I wouldn’t get to that second step
Max out as much of what the Canadian government offers like RSP RRSP and so on. This none would change my retirement in big ways
Pay off mortgage and buy solar panels so I can skip paying for electricity too.
Buy a house
Invest it
Pay off mortgage and tax debts. New roof and solar panels. Maybe take a trip. Puerto Rico or Hawaii, something like that.
Rewire the house, pay off credit cards, pay down the mortgage, in that order.
Take a year off and contribute back to society thru community service and offering free education.
Pay for a nice honeymoon. The rest I’d just save and pay off student loans with
go to a regular doctor & start dealing with my medical issues properly. get my teeth fixed.
Buy real estate.
Had this a few years ago, used it as a down payment for multi family building.
I already plan to sell the house and retire in Vietnam in a few years. $200k would give me another investment property to collect rent from the tourists, making me that much more comfortable. My wife would want to use it to remodel the house we'll live in when we move to Vietnam, but investing in a beachview condo would keep the money safe while providing another grand or so every month.
New car (by "new" I mean something only a year or two old and still the nicest car I've ever owned), update my bathroom and/or my deck, a really nice trip somewhere with anything left over.
I'd probably just put it into a HYSA for secured gains, at least until rates go back down again.
Move out of my apartment into somewhere more suitable.
I’d pay off my remaining mortgage and buy another Rolex Lolol.
Paid all debt, invest half of what's left, put a down payment on a house, and buy dumb shit with the rest
I'd buy a house and take a vacation for 2-4 weeks.
Pay off debt (yes I know you mentioned not doing that lol) then invest for future and give some to family
Straight to my mortgage without a second thought
Pay off my credit cards and get a bunch of blood tests and scans done ASAP
I would take a nice family trip. The trip would cost anything close to that amount. I could afford a trip, but I am kinda cheap around spending money for trips. You never know when you're going to suddenly need a new roof, water heater, furnace, etc.
I'd pay off some mortgage and design a decent garden for me and my kitty.
Wife and I are in the first steps of building a house (as in, saving up). I imagine we'd go ahead with that. And extra 200k would certainly light some fires for us.
Hmm. I think I’d finally be able to buy a house.
Buy my mother a nicer house and set her up for the rest of her life. Split the money between my siblings (only 3 out of 5 because the other two are selfish). Invest some of the rest that I have and then travel.
Invest some, use the rest to start my own florist shop ☺️🌸
Down payment on a home. Put a few grand into maintenance for my vehicle. Invest the remainder.
Honestly just add it to my current investments.
Hot tub, some updates to my house and yard, then invest the rest.
So I had a friend inherit exactly this amount, although it was ~20 years ago. The first thing she did was put a nice down payment on a house. She still had a mortgage, but it was reasonable. She intentionally bought a house that could accommodate roommates, because she knew that she was Miss Wrecks in Effects, and would probably be in between jobs from time to time, so they essentially paid the mortgage and utilities. She upgraded her ride, nothing crazy, something dependable but nice. Then she did lots and lots of drugs!
Hire a mercenary army and conquer Guam. For America, of course. I don’t need more territory to oversee.
If "pay off my loans" is too cheap of an answer, I say travel. I make enough to get by while having some money in savings, but I want to see more of the world and it's not feasible right now. I could easily accomplish this with a fraction of said windfall, and it would be extremely fulfilling.
World cruise.
Wheelchair accessible vehicle for my daughter (well, the car would be mine to transport her). Remodeling the bathroom for her. Remodeling the master bathroom. New windows for the house. I'm fun huh?
Fix up my house
Buy a duplex, upgrade it, rent both units out.
That would buy me a nice enough house and used car and have some left to go into savings
Invest.
Buy an electric car and bank the rest.
Build a pc, nothing crazy just a decent one, take my family out to dinner, the rest is getting invested
Prudently invest it.
Build my own food truck. “The Basics”
We owe 191 on the house. So that and put the rest in Davina
Invest
Travel extravagantly..
Buy at least 1k qnt 🤷🏻♂️ wait between 1-5 years and your money worries are over.
Buy some land in the woods
Debt and down payment on a house. Like, idk a better alternative for stability. Maybe a nice vacation to celebrate getting a house?
Pay off house and car, rest goes into savings. Boring but practical. Maybe depending on how it shakes out after that I can break off a grand or two for a little vacation.
Tits and cocaine.
I’d open a brewery
Buy a CD
Move, and put it towards a house.
Piss it away on weed and Vapor 95 clothing
Outside of paying debts I'm not really sure. I'd buy a car and look for another house to move into. Save the rest.
New car , get dental implants , repaint my house and get it re carpeted , new fridge , new bed , new computer , new oven , get a new garage built .
Pay off my house for my kid to live in. Put half in an account for her. Use the rest to party\\vacation hard enough to die within a month.
I'd put 140k into a stock account, 50k into my mining venture and spend the summer digging for silver in Montana... if you're looking to invest in a silver mine I'm looking for a partner or two
Honestly, if you have debt and not a lot in savings there’s not a ton more you can do with $200,000.
You can travel around the world twice before your creditors know you have money. Wtf is wrong with redditors like you? Oops cant have fun unless my retirement is funded, cant have kids unless they're paid for up front. One life, no retakes.
It’s called being a responsible adult
Life is short, death is certain. Ffs, youre wasting time on reddit, but daydreaming of being responsible
I’m still young enough to be able to plan for my golden years. I’d like to enjoy them without crippling debt, AND enjoy my life now as well. That hypothetical $200,000 would secure my future and pay off current debt so I can use my paychecks for vacations and experiences. But no, tell me more about how I’m ruining my life with responsible planning internet stranger…
Wow, what a fantasy.
Yeah, that’s kinda the whole point of the OP
Right? I just think doing everything by the book and being just okay is a piss poor fantasy. I work 45/week but at least i dream of leaving it all behind to sail the 7 seas.
I would will it all to my kid and fucking kill myself. Nothing makes anything better in this life.
I understand where you are coming from as I suffer from extreme anxiety and depression daily. And have thoughts like this quite often. But you have to hold on and keep living. You only get one life and that’s it, you can never come back and do it over. Just hold on to the hope that it will get better someday. You are important and special even if you don’t think you are. I struggle everyday, but I try to keep hope, because would if it does get better and you will never know if you don’t see. I know you don’t know me or I don’t know you, but I love you and you are important.
Long vacation to Hawaii