If you came into some money

[puzzleannie]

If I had debt, I would apply any windfall to debt, after 10% tithe to Church and charity. This is what we have always done. Now that debt is cleared up and we have retirement and estate plans in effect, windfalls are put into charitable annuities, where the income goes to us or someone we designate during their lifetime, and to the charity (usually a religious missionary order or Catholic social welfare agency) at the death of the annuitant.

 

[LSK]

Feanaro's Wife:

If you and your family were going to receive a lump sum of money (lets say $15,000 american), what would you do with it? Let’s assume that you do not have credit card debt.

Would you put in towards your mortgage? Buy a vehicle? Invest it?

What would you do?

Malia

Actually I am about to receive my part of my inheritance from my Dad’s estate. I took out a line of equity credit to buy into the better Tier of my retirement plan and I am going to use the inheritance to pay off the line of credit. That way I will only have my student loans and small credit card debt to my name. YIPPPEEEEEEE:dancing:

 

[Rob_s_Wife]

Feanaro's Wife:

We have a mortgage (21 years left on it).
No. Just 1 extra payment a year toward the principle can cut your mortgage time considerably. Also, I wouldn’t put a large sum of money in it unless I had to to sell it or I was planning on retireing in it.

We have a 1994 Geo Metro that we are needing to replace.

We live off of one income…I am disabled.

We do not have any savings.

We do not have any investments.

What would you do in our situation? We are leaning towards a vehicle because we could never take one on payments. We would like to have a safer more reliable vehicle for any future children.
Go for a reliable and gas saving car. HAGGLE! Full amount up front is a HUGE money saver and negotiating tool! Even if you later have more than the 2 kids to fit in back, dh can use this smaller car for work driving. Do not mention trading your current car! It has nothing to do with the price of the car you’re buying. Sell it on your own.

We have until next summer to make a decision. As someone pointed out, it is not a lot of money. We would like to do the “smartest” thing with it and i am looking for advice.
Investing the rest depends on what you need to invest in. I don’t know the physical needs of your disablity, but if you have a need in that area - investing in your health is just as important, if not more important, than financial investments.

---

**Otherwise, I’d invest in Ave Marie Mutual Funds. They only carry stocks/companies that do not contribute to things against Church teachings. (No companies with homesexual partner plans, no companies that sponsor abortion rights, etc…) **

 

[spacecadet]

Would you put in towards your mortgage?

a big fat yes from me. getting rid of or at least decreasing the amount of interest you pay on a mortgage every months is about the smartest thing any homeowner can do. (of course part would go to charity)

 

[KathleenElsie]

Feanaro's Wife:

OK, here is the situation. When hubby comes back from Afghanistan he will have a lump sum of money.

We have a mortgage (21 years left on it).

We have a 1994 Geo Metro that we are needing to replace.

We do not have credit card debt.

We do not yet have any children.

We live off of one income…I am disabled.

We do not have any savings.

We do not have any investments.

What would you do in our situation? We are leaning towards a vehicle because we could never take one on payments. We would like to have a safer more reliable vehicle for any future children.

We have until next summer to make a decision. As someone pointed out, it is not a lot of money. We would like to do the “smartest” thing with it and i am looking for advice.

Malia

**With the options offered.
Since you are going to need a car soon, IMHO I would look at one that you can pay cash for. We pay cash for ours and that way we do not have the payment hanging over our heads, insurance is lower, you have more bargaining power and then you can put the money that you can afford for a payment into savings for that safety net we all need.
**

 

[Feanaro_s_Wife]

With the options offered.
Since you are going to need a car soon, IMHO I would look at one that you can pay cash for. We pay cash for ours and that way we do not have the payment hanging over our heads, insurance is lower, you have more bargaining power and then you can put the money that you can afford for a payment into savings for that safety net we all need.

We would only buy a car we could pay for in full. We cannot afford a car payment. So we could not put that money (that would be used for a car payment) into savings because we don’t have it. I hope that made sense.

What I am trying to say is this is the only forseeable chance we will have to purchase a new vehicle. That is why it is at the top of our list. But we need to explore all of our options.

malia

 

[Feanaro_s_Wife]

ProudArmyWife:

Have you looked into the Army Thrift Savings Plan? It’s a great deal.

I don’t know if Canada has anything like that…but I will look into it.

Malia

 

[Feanaro_s_Wife]

AmISearching?:

Ah… now why doesn’t the Canadian military have to move around??? Thats not fair!!! LOL!!! - No actually I miss moving in an odd way now… though I’m sure my parents would have loved it if they hadn’t had to move around - they wouldn’t still have how many odd years left to pay on a house payment when many other folks their age no longer have a house payment to make…

Aria the AF Brat

I didn’t mean to imply that Canadian military members do not have to move.

It’s just a few things…

one, the main infantry base/training area is right here.

Two, because of my health he could put in a compassionate memo to stay here if they wanted him to move because my family is here.

Three, our military is small and there are not that many places to move to, lol.

Malia