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[chixdiggit]

TLDR: My grandma left me with some cash. I will roughly have $35K after taxes and paying some bills. What should I do with it? (Besides coke, hookers, or charity. All three would have her rolling in her grave).

My grandmother just passed away a month ago. Growing up she was absolutely the cheapest person I have ever known. She pinched every penny imaginable. For Example:

• Would re-use paper plates and plastic utensils, often taking them home from functions.
• Would re-use gift wrapping paper and greeting cards by cutting off the bottom where signature was to add her own
• Would open and close bank accounts at any and every bank to take advantage of free gift for opening account. Would give those gifts away as Christmas presents.
• Would take home free donuts and cookies that were given away at banks/picnics/events/etc, freeze them and serve for company.
• She would take me and my siblings to Burger King, order off the value menu, but with one small soda cup to share between us all as it can be refilled for free. She would also bring in coupons for items she did not order and argue with the workers until she got the money taken off.
• She worked as a nurse and would bring home any and all the food she could. She would make entire batches of peanut butter cookies from the little plastic single serving packs of peanut butter.
• Nothing was bought without a coupon, rebate, sale, etc.
• As her health declined she was moved into a nursing home. She fought, argued, and was angry at my Mom for this because "I would rather die today then give this shithole a cent of my money". (For the record place was not a shithole).

Growing up I just assumed she had no money because my parents for real had no money as well. Turns out she just didn't spend any of it and I got willed a portion of it. After paying off a personal loan (interest 6.9%) I will have roughly 35K of unexpected funds.
I have a mortgage and a car loan but both are very low interest and I have no problems making the payments. I also have a retirement account that is doing well and I contribute to it every paycheck.

So what should I do with this money?
Invest? In what?
I also thought about starting a business. Not sure what though. I already own a business but do it for the love not the money. So if I did start something it would be profit orientated.

 

[GymWolf]

Cocaine and whores?!

 

[Con-Z-epT]

What are you interested in? Hobbies?

 

[SpiceRacz]

Put it away and don't touch it.

 

[Con-Z-epT]

Cocaine and whores?!

What should I do with it? (Besides coke, hookers, or charity. All three would have her rolling in her grave).

 

[Con-Z-epT]

 

[levyjl1988]

Grow it, invest it, put it into a passion project.

 

[jshackles]

First of all OP, I'm sorry for your loss. I had my grandma pass away recently as well.

Your grandma sounds like she was a lot like my grandma, a child of the great depression. My grandparents used to tell me stories all the time about how things were in the 1930s, and it explained a lot about their frugality. My grandpa even wrote a book about it (pretty tragic, he was abandoned by his parents when the depression started and he was pushed through group homes and foster homes for most of his childhood).

If I were in your situation, I'd do like SpiceRacz said and not spend any of it.

 

[crazepharmacist]

Do you have an emergency fund? They say it should consists of 3-6 months worth of expenses.
if not, building one with I-bonds may be a good idea. They are yielding over 7% for the next 6 months. Only catch is that the minimum holding period is 1 year.

or if you have one already, you can invest it. I recommend SPX etf like VOO. Don't waste your time trying to beat the market, you won't be able to do it over the long run.

 

[Mistake]

I would definitely reinvest it. As Warren Buffet says, money not invested today, is money lost tomorrow. The idea is that even if the market fluctuates, it will still go up over time. I’d hit up the investment thread, it’s full of good advice

 

[crazepharmacist]

Put it away and don't touch it.

and let it get eaten away by inflation!?

 

[haxan7]

I'd splurge $2-3k at most on some nice things you want and then put the rest in mutual funds.

Watching it grow every day will be fun

 

[hemo memo]

Burn it because it is not about the money but it is about sending a message.

 

[Doom85]

 

[chixdiggit]

Cocaine and whores?!

Literally covered in the first couple sentences of the post.

What are you interested in? Hobbies?

Martial Arts. I already own and run a MMA gym in a small town. It's successful but not much opportunity for growth.

Put it away and don't touch it.

Savings account is low interest. Surely there would be better ways to invest.

Grow it, invest it, put it into a passion project.

How?

First of all OP, I'm sorry for your loss. I had my grandma pass away recently as well.

Your grandma sounds like she was a lot like my grandma, a child of the great depression. My grandparents used to tell me stories all the time about how things were in the 1930s, and it explained a lot about their frugality. My grandpa even wrote a book about it (pretty tragic, he was abandoned by his parents when the depression started and he was pushed through group homes and foster homes for most of his childhood).

If I were in your situation, I'd do like SpiceRacz said and not spend any of it.

Yes exactly. She grew up during the great depression. Is your grandfathers book published? I would actually be interested in learning more.

Do you have an emergency fund? They say it should consists of 3-6 months worth of expenses.
if not, building one with I-bonds may be a good idea. They are yielding over 7% for the next 6 months. Only catch is that the minimum holding period is 1 year.

or if you have one already, you can invest it. I recommend SPX etf like VOO. Don't waste your time trying to beat the market, you won't be able to do it over the long run.

I do have a nice emergency fund.
7% seems good. I do like the idea of a safe investment but at the same time I don't mind taking a risk either as the money was never accounted for.

 

[crazepharmacist]

Literally covered in the first couple sentences of the post.

Martial Arts. I already own and run a MMA gym in a small town. It's successful but not much opportunity for growth.

Savings account is low interest. Surely there would be better ways to invest.

How?

Yes exactly. She grew up during the great depression. Is your grandfathers book published? I would actually be interested in learning more.

I do have a nice emergency fund.
7% seems good. I do like the idea of a safe investment but at the same time I don't mind taking a risk either as the money was never accounted for.

Def look into i bonds then. You can only buy them directly from the .gov treasury website (which looks like it was designed in the year 2000). The annual max is $10000. Just ask yourself why would the government put a cap on how much you can buy. Because it’s actually a good deal. Guaranteed to match the rate of inflation and keep your buying power.

 

[Thaedolus]

Most higher interest savings accounts (money market accounts? Not sure what they’re called I need coffee) start at like a 10k minimum deposit, just throw it in one of those while you figure out what to do with it. And if you’re paying interest on debt that’s a higher rate than what you’d get back in that account, pay that first

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Invest in index funds.

 

[The Pleasure]

Pay for some of this

 

[jufonuk]

Do a course ?
pay some mortgage.

 

[p_xavier]

If your finances are doing well, I like to attach someone's money to a renovation. For example I'm redoing my downstairs bathroom and I will say, well my dad paid for it. That way you can genuinely appreciate something tangible and be thankful for that person.

 

[Enjay]

Weird af flex attempt.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

I admire people like your grandma, I really do. I could never open bank accounts to get a free gift only to close the account a short time later. I don’t have the gall, and I could never muster the energy.

Then I ask myself, what do they save all the money for? Apart from leaving it as inheritance, I mean.

 

[Con-Z-epT]

Martial Arts. I already own and run a MMA gym in a small town. It's successful but not much opportunity for growth.

Seem like it is more focused on hand to hand combat but there sure are things you could renew in terms of furnishings and / or equipment.

Or do as p_xavier said and invest in things like that at home. With this amount of money there are a lot of things that could be changed that will make you happy in the long run in your everyday use.

 

[Amory]

Put it all on black

Real answer: I'd have some fun with some small portion of it and put the rest in a high dividend ETF

 

[Cyberpunkd]

ETF S&P 500, the end.

 

[Fbh]

These days you can almost buy a GTX 1060 with that !!!!

 

[German Hops]

35K ain't shit.

 

[Bunker Hosted]

Savings account is low interest. Surely there would be better ways to invest.

You should look at something like BlockFi or Celsius; You can earn upwards of 10% interest on stable coins. Regardless, I'd agree with dollar cost averaging into the market

 

[AJUMP23]

6k into a Roth IRA
Spend some so you can get it out of your system
Pay off some debt
Invest the rest in index funds.

 

[Marc13]

I highly recommend you check out the "PersonalFinance" community on reddit. There are many threads with similar questions.
Post this up there and see what you get. Most of the people give sound advice.

 

[zeorhymer]

Pretend it's not there and shove it into an investing vehicle. When you decide to retire or sending your kids to college, you can use it without worries.

 

[levyjl1988]

How?

Bury it of course.

 

[German Hops]

I highly recommend you check out the "PersonalFinance" community on reddit. There are many threads with similar questions.
Post this up there and see what you get. Most of the people give sound advice.

Good advice on Reddit?

 

[chromhound]

invest it in a ETF (maybe QYLD, 12% per month) duhh lol

 

[newtypepilot]

pay off your car loan or the mortgage.

otherwise, hookers and blow

 

[LegendOfKage]

TLDR: My grandma left me with some cash. I will roughly have $35K after taxes and paying some bills. What should I do with it?

Do you have a nice (not amazing) version of everything you want? A nice television? A nice Computer? A nice audio system? Appliances? Bed? Furniture? Etc? Then you're already good, right? For the most part spending money would just be to buy nicer versions of nice things you already own?

If that's the case, I'd just say say save it all for an emergency. Money is security, after all.

 

[Kev Kev]

coke, hookers

 

[Punished Miku]

Become an excessively frugal person to honor her memory, and then pass all of it on to your grandkid.

 

[Dr Bass]

Become an excessively frugal person to honor her memory, and then pass all of it on to your grandkid.

You almost stole the words out of my mouth on this one ...

However I was going to say your grandma sounds like she had that extra money as a result of being extremely frugal in her life time. You called her cheap, but she probably didn't have to fear running out of money because of how she lived. And she left you a portion of it.

I would do something wise with the money to honor that. If it were me, I would invest 100% of it. You would have a lot of options there. Mutual funds, a couple of recent tech IPOs perhaps. Don't buy something you don't need. Don't upgrade your house. In 10, 20 years, you'll be happy you invested it.

 

[Fools idol]

What is this - YOLO it all on AMC call options like a good millenial.

Nothing feels better than the rush of your entire net worth potentially expiring in the morning.

Jokes aside, you are getting a nice little seed chunk of money right there. Invest well and you can retire early. It's more than I had when I bought my first shares of Tesla, and now its worth millions. You just have to make sure you don't go all in on one thing, and also don't over diversify to the point your gains are super low.

If you can acheive just 10% gain per year on that 35k and add more cash on top over time you will be financially free within a shorter time than you think.

 

[Classicrockfan]

Put it in the bank like Savings or cds?

 

[Raven117]

INVEST IT WITH A FINANCIAL PLANNER.

 

[*Nightwing]

Set up a mixed martial arts tournament where you pick your opponents via video submission so you can be sure to pick all the flashiest cockiest fighters you will have no problem beating, then after a few tournaments when people start wising up and accuse you of grifting sell it to a semi reputable sports promotion company that will start to make it legit like the Gracie’s did with UFC and profit

 

[p_xavier]

Become an excessively frugal person to honor her memory, and then pass all of it on to your grandkid.

I will never understand frugal people. What is the return in life enjoyment/frugality ratio?

 

[BigBooper]

What do you want to do? Spend it, invest it, hoard it, or give it away?

If you want to spend it, might be time to buy a Tesla.

If you want to invest it, maybe talk to a broker about opening a retirement account and invest in something you don't have to watch like an index fund.

If you want to hoard it, I recommend a savings account instead of your mattress. My grandmother hid money all around her house and then her house burned down.

If you want to give it away, I recommend St Jude Children's Hospital.

 

[intbal]

Invest in honey.

Ten years from now, 10,000 jars of honey will still be worth 10,000 jars of honey. Whereas that fiat currency will be worthless.

 

[HoodWinked]

grandma took all that effort to save that money but never actually getting around to enjoying that money.

not really sure how you could spend it, if you blow it on something frivolous maybe it's still justifiable because she never took the time to enjoy the money
you could also save/invest it which is more inline with how your grandma may have used it
even tho you mentioned she doesn't care for charity still might be a good thing to do in her name

but whatever the option i think it's more about being super appreciative to your granny, 35k is a pretty decent amount since that's just a fraction of the money i'd imagine your parent got the bulk of it.

 

[daveonezero]

If it was mine I'd pay off all debt.

Then in order of importance.
1 Use some to have saving in cash, bank account and emergency funds, (3-6 months expenses and 3-6 months of food and water).
2 guns. Then lots of ammo. Then lots of training
3 alternative currencies, Bitcoing, monero, gold and silver
4 generate more money buy bitcoin miners.

idk just depends where you are at in life and what you want to do.

It may be cool to just quit your job buy a motorcycle or RV and travel.

Put it away and don't touch it.

*if you want it to be worth nothing due to inflation.

 

[Leyasu]

Pay off your car and put the rest down on your house. Get the mortgage down a few years.