I know this is a common topic here and also that it's a really small violin, but my sister and I are so overwhelmed that we don't even know where to start and I'd really appreciate any personal advice beyond the googling and sidebar-link-reading I've been doing. Throwaway account because I don't want this info associated with my regular account which is easily traced to myself.
A close relative recently passed away and left everything to my sister and myself. We did not know there was much to leave behind; he lived a very frugal/simple life, had been retired for decades, and we figured it would only be a bit, but to our surprise he had about $140k in a savings account, to be split between us. The death was rather sudden so we're both a bit shell-shocked still. We grew up working class and had absolutely no idea that he had saved so much, as he'd never spoken of it before.
However, in cleaning out his house, we keep finding money. I thought this was all just cliche and rumor but it's real I guess that people of his generation did that, and he must have been hiding money in the house through his whole life. We have found about $200,000 so far. We have also found certificates for some stock that we didn't know he had, as well as several thousand in savings bonds.
Obviously this is a good problem to have, but we are kind of overwhelmed with both grief and with this, and we don't even know where to start.
So, the question: 1.) Who should we should talk to in order to help with this in the initial stages? Where do we start especially since so much of it is cash? (e.g. "what the hell do we do with all this cash" "what do we do with these stock certificates and bonds" "what's the tax situation on this like") Neither of us have ever seen or conceived of this much money before so are a little overwhelmed with how people are supposed to handle it.
(background about me: I'm 29, I make about $65k, I just finally paid off my student loans this year (YAY) but I have about $6k of credit card debt as well that I've been chipping away at. I do not have significant savings yet but I'm starting to contribute more to that now that my student loans are gone. My credit is around 700. I live in an expensive city, but try to live as cheaply as possible. I have no real desire to spend any of this money and will do my research as to how to best save/invest it, but I have also dreamed for years of buying a small house out of the city and am a little blown away that I might now be able to have a down payment for that, but am also nervous that would be a very stupid idea.)
Thank you so much in advance!
Submitted October 08, 2017 at 01:47PM by WhereDoWeEvenStart http://ift.tt/2xrKSAl
