Small windfall - what would you guys do with it

You should ask around to see if all the women and minorities in your company received the same bonus. If not, you should split it equally between them.

Document this all on Facebook. Once it goes viral, act surprised when an anonymous individual starts a Gofundme to repay you for your act of kindness. Watch as $500K floods into the Gofundme. Claim that you don't really care about the money, but that you are willing to reluctantly accept it to raise awareness about pay disparities in this country.

Windfall wrote:

I am presently debating between the following 4 scenarios:

1) Throw it all in our taxable brokerage account (standard 3 fund portfolio)

2) Split the difference between paying down house and taxable brokerage

3) Beef up savings to 1 years expenses and then either 1 or 2

In all of these scenarios I am also debating dollar cost averaging vs. lump sum investing. I know... don't time the market but it is hard to not look at the current political environment, valuations etc. and scratch your head a little bit.

Ummm... I see only three scenarios here. What's the fourth one?

Lol @ 270k aftertax bonus.

Depends what your interest rate on house is?

Since you are in family mode, I would just beef your savings up by 25k more and then throw the rest into your mortgage. And send 100 bucks to me for the decisive advice.

Interest rate on the house is 3.8%.

Why mortgage vs market?

Sorry this was a typo... originally I considered DCA vs lump sum an option but then realized it applied as a general principle to anything headed to the market.

I would give yourself 1 year liquid and buy better insurance. Then 1. Why pay down the house when you can find a higher interest rate in the market?

What kind of insurance? Life? Umbrella? All of the above? We have 2m term life right now and no umbrella.

Spend it before Liz Warren takes it with her wealth tax.

Idk it depends what your priorities are.

If paying off 3.8%, divide that by the tax on market gains and it might be like 5% effective return? And it's locked in 100%.

More stability. Unless you or your family will benefit more from the extra $10k a year in returns from investing it?

I think the issue I am facing is that from a practical standpoint we won't benefit immediately regardless of what we do. We have plenty of cash flow. Paying our mortgage + daycare + basic living + saving isn't particularly difficult. Ultimately the goal is to retire on the earlier side in our 40s. Now that I am saying this out-loud it seems like the best call is probably just to dump it in an index fund and forget about it.

I would probably throw about $25k into doomsday prep. Maybe more. Depending on where you live, you might want to buy some land for a bug out location. I honestly think doomsday prepping would be one of the funnest hobbies if I had more money. I can't get enough of that damn TV show.

I feel really shitty about myself an my self worth is controlled by my bank account, so I would probably come on LetsRun to brag about how rich I am.

It does sound like you are on here to brag, now.

You could get in a car accident or have a stroke tomorrow. What do you do where you make what sounds like half a million with low enough debt to retire after 20 years of working? Basically partner at a top firm is the only position I know of where that would happen.

Save for your children. You are not that rich.

As much as I like the idea of prepping, when I do have extra money, I honestly usually have a home improvement project that I do. But that depends on how old your house is, and how much you like it.

I do agree with the other poster that your liquid savings is a little low. I'm nowhere near as financially secure as you are, and I still keep 6 months of spending in savings. And I'm actually adding to that because I know that I'll probably have to replace my furnace sometime in the next 5 years.

I keep thinking of things you could do with the money. I would hide it. 50% of couples get divorced, and it sounds like you have a lot to lose if that happens. Start stashing money away now.

warren2020 wrote:

Spend it before Liz Warren takes it with her wealth tax.

Vegas, baby Vegas. You can double those $, and get laid.

Lizzie W., The Indian chief, wants to tax ALL real estate transactions, so keep that in mind.

Is the college fund a 529? If not, open 529s for each child and contribute the max.

You say you're putting 20k towards college. Assuming this is a 529 for your current 2 yo - you can increase that contribution and that would be the best place to start with the money. You and your spouse jointly can put in up $30k/year (to avoid gift taxes). You can also front load 5 years of contributions - so you can put away $150k. This way the money gets to earn returns sooner rather than later with zero tax on the gains. You're going to have to pay for college anyway, so you may as well shield the gains on that principal from taxes. Your state may even allow you to deduct some amount of these contributions to the 529.

It seems like with the exception of the house, almost everything is in equities of some form or another. Given that it's very likely there will be a significant correction or a recession in the next 3 years or so you might want to diversify. You can afford some risk so why tie more up in the market?

I think I would add 25K to the savings. Pay some down on the mortgage and risk some in other non-equity investments.

Total BS. Any really believe someone got a bonus worth $270K and is going to an anonymous message board for advice? Someone smart enough to get a $270K (after tax witch was probably $400K before taxes) is not dumb enough to seek financial advise on LRC.