What would you do if you suddenly got a $50k/year raise?

Good thoughts above. Seven years ago I relocated to a job with a net jump of 90K. I put all the extra money into our new 10-year mortgage and paid off in four. Then invested the extra funds since then. It will soon come in handy when my daughter attends a university worthy of her talents. Frugality is a great stress-reliever compared to the alternative. (I've used money like Dave Ramsey since way back when a young Dave Ramsey declared bankruptcy.)

Do two things: buy yourself one nice gift for yourself that is a bit of a luxury (though not too exorbitant), and second - invest the rest.

When I got a promotion many years ago, that's what I did. One token gift and the put the rest to work for you.

This is assuming that you are in a place already where you like where you live and what you do. Otherwise, spend it on improving those.

I'd take one nice vacation for like $10k (family of 4, so not THAT nice) and put most of the rest into kids' college funds.

Send the money to me, Al Franken.

I'd book a vacation to Ireland for my family of five.

We'd probably take home 30K of that. Currently we take home after taxes maybe 250K, so not a huge bump. But enough for a nice vacation.

do the responsible thing and invest in your family's future by buying memecoins. this time is different

What would I do? I'll tell you what I'd do!

Two chicks at the same time.

Same here. High dollar ones too.

It’s so context dependent that it’s hard to give a recommendation. Agreed with what others are saying about maxing out Roth/401K if relevant, then paying off debt. After that hard to say - probably mostly saving for retirement with a splurge somewhere to celebrate.

The answer to what I would do is save it and act no differently on a day-to-day basis. My income has gone up a lot recently (from roughly 400K to 900K over the last year) and mostly just save more and think about how I want to retire as early as possible.

Mostly you've got the right idea and got good information in this thread. Get rid of debt, especially non-mortgage debt if you have it. Invest a ton and then also start to throw more money at the mortgage.

Once the mortgage is gone, continue to invest heavily, but spend some too if you have something you've been putting off as you will have earned it at that point.

Follow the "money guy show" order of financial operations. Invest/save it all...you don't know when the gravy train will end.

A more fun way to approach this question is - what would you do with a $50k raise if you couldn’t invest it, save it or give it away?

hookers and blow

maybe travel a little more, but mostly save/invest and retire earlier

Financial Planning: I would review my current financial situation and goals to determine how best to allocate the additional income. This might involve increasing contributions to savings and investments, paying off debts, or planning for larger expenses such as a home purchase or retirement.
Professional Development: With the increased income, I might explore opportunities for further professional development, such as advanced training, certifications, or courses that could enhance my skills and qualifications in my current role or prepare me for future career opportunities.

After taxes it wouldn't be 50k. I'd put it all into investment accounts for retirement.

I'd invest it all, and keep my life exactly the same. Assuming you were already making more than you lived on and saving money the past number of years, and now you're saving an additional $35k per year on top of that, then after a few years you can have the financial freedom to do pretty much whatever you want. If you don't love what you're doing, you could get a lower paying job that you enjoy and still be living as good as ever because you've invested hundreds of thousands of dollars.