Using a throwaway since some friends know my username and I'd like to keep this private-
Anyways, allow me to explain my current financial situation and then I'll talk about the windfall in question and your opinion of my plans for it.
I am 23 years old and newly graduated. I work as an engineer in the auto industry (specifically auto safety which is growing faster than the rest of the industry currently). I make $68k/year and live at home so I have very minimal expenses outside of my loans. I currently have about $3k in emergency savings, a bit less than $1k in general savings, and my parents have 10k set aside for me when I get married (hopefully about 18 months from now). I am contributing 6% of my income to a Roth 401k to get the max employer match of 4% but currently no other investments or retirement savings. I have no credit card debt, a credit score of 736, and about a 20k credit line between 4 credit cards. I owe just under 10k (2.65% interest) on my vehicle and just under 30k (average 3.9% interest) in student loans.
I had originally budgeted myself (based mainly on advice found here) to have only a slightly higher take home pay than what I had previous to graduation with all of the excess going to pay off my loans (targeted to be paid of within 1.5 years). This was intended to first reduce costs of the loans and secondly to help avoid lifestyle creep.As soon as all my debts were paid off I intended to save the money I had previously put towards loans towards a down payment on a first home.
Overall I felt solid about the plan and was unconcerned. However, 2 months ago my mother lost her fight with stage 4 lung cancer and passed away. She did not have a significant amount of savings (all of which was left to my father). She did however have a life insurance policy and $100k of it was left to me. She gave no direction on how I could use the money except requesting that I give $10k to her sister who is a missionary to help her retire and move home in a few years. Over the last month I've done a lot of research and thought a lot about what to do; here's what I'm currently thinking.
I believe the best option is to immediately pay off the 40k in debt that I have, then open and fully fund a Roth 401k for 2016 and 2017. After donating the $10k as requested this still leaves 39k that I am not sure what to do with... I've been considering maybe maxing out my roth 401k for the year (about 11k) and putting the rest in mutual funds. I've also considered using the remaining money along with whatever else I can save to use as a 20%+ downpayment on a first home plus have money to furnish and remodel (I plan to buy a fixer upper).
anyways... does this seem like a wise plan moving forward? Once I receive the money (should happen any time) I do intend to place it in a high yield savings for 1-3 months while I consider my options and visit a financial advisor or two... but I want to have a pretty good idea of what I'd like to do before I meet with an advisor which is why I came here first.
Also, sorry if I rambled. It's been a lot to process and its been bouncing around my head for a few weeks.
Submitted January 17, 2017 at 04:20PM by windfallquestion http://ift.tt/2jHBm6j
