Throwaway account for privacy. I have been working hard over the past 6-7 years specifically to work down my debt, and make an attempt at building up a retirement fund. I had finally raised my credit score enough to buy a home about 4 years ago. Things were going well, a little slower than anticipated, but I was down to about $6k left in credit card debt this past month.
Then I received an inheritance. The 6k left in debt was totally manageable for me, and I would have had it paid off in about 7-8 months at my current rate, but this little boost has definitely moved me into the green.
My situation:
Not married, but girlfriend lives with me in my home that I own and helps with expenses. 35yo and no kids. Live in the midwest in a city with a slightly higher tax rate but totally reasonable cost of living.
Salary: $86,500
Mortgage: $136k-ish remaining on 30 year mortgage. 4 years into it. This is my first home. ~$1200/month payments including property tax and insurance.
Car: Paid off in full. 2008 Subaru Impreza with 68k miles. My office is 2 miles from home, so not much regular driving.
Savings: $5k
Credit Cards:
1) AmEx: paid off in full (down from $3k)
2) Capital One: paid off in full (down from $8k)
3) BoA Visa: Now paid off in full!! (Down from $17k)
~$45k in a Vanguard 401k, contributing 8% with a 6% employer match
~$45k in stocks passed to me from my dad last year. Did not know about this account prior, and have not touched it.
~$2k in a personal stock portfolio
All said and done I usually have about $1.5k each month to "play" with. Sometimes it goes towards living life, and other times it gets invested/saved.
Inheritance:
~$350,000 ($92k is taxable unfortunately due to the way in which an IRA was closed to distribute. There were no beneficiaries listed on the IRA, so it was liquidated and added to the Estate, which is split 5 ways) And now that I am in the green, and my credit score is right around 800 I am trying to figure out the best way to use my money to plan for the future. I am looking for opinions on how to handle this going forward. I was going to make an estimated payment on the $92k that is taxable, to get that out of the way. I have already used $7k to pay off the credit cards. I inflated my savings/emergency fund to about $10k. The rest is currently sitting in a Schwab brokerage account. I don't plan on changing my lifestyle at all, I just want to get a boost towards my future. Is it better to max out my 401k contributions, and basically draw out the difference in my take home from this inheritance in order to maximize on taxes? Is there a good way to take advantage of my HSA with this? I've read about people using it as a tax advantaged account.
I am already planning a vacation to Europe this summer for which I had already paid for air fare, but am now going to use some of this to step up the quality of the vacation just a little. I was hoping to use my credit card a lot more now to accumulate points. If I use it for regular expenses, and pay in full each month, this should be manageable. I don't plan on increasing my monthly spending, just controlling it more. It's going to take discipline. Ok now I am done laying it out. Now you get to lay it on me. What should I do now?
Edit: Formatting
Submitted May 10, 2017 at 03:29PM by thefunky_1 http://ift.tt/2q6FUXA
