If You Had a Million Dollars

Pay off debt. The rest goes into college funds. Boring, I know.

Now if it were TEN million dollars...then I could REALLY start dreaming!

A million doesn't go as far, I don't think. I'd pay off the house, but there's not much left. I would like to donate a lot. Other then that, it would be dumped into college and retirement...with the rest.

A million does not go far these days. I would pay off my car and whatever bills. Give my kids a portion and then do so traveling. Kids are married so college is not necessary and we are retired. Would need to do some updates on house. Wounded Warriors and St. Jude's would receive the the biggest chunk.

How did no one say... I would buy you a green dress (but not real green, that's cruel)...
My real answer would be depressingly practical like those below, but if forced at gunpoint to be frivolous and not think of my student loans... take my kiddos and husband on a trip around the world, like REALLY around the world. Buy my husband a sexy 70's muscle car and convert it to run on bio diesel. Hmm, and maybe a baby ring tailed lemur. They had two at the zoo in Maine, and I am pretty sure if I had a million dollars they would give me one.

Million bucks - before or after taxes?

After taxes? Take the family on a round the world cruise....Australia, Bali, New Zealand, China, Africa, Russia, Europe.....

Invest in stocks that we already have and gain more footing...

Pay off my parents house.....

Who knows!! It would be fun!

isn't it depressing how we all realize how little a mill is any more?
i'd pay off my kids' college loans for them, go on a bang-up trip somewhere cool like a greek island, or ireland, with the ol' man. the rest would go to income-producing properties so we could keep earning off it into our dotage.
khairete
S.

Pretty much little would change. Sure pay off the house early but beyond that it would be dumped in with the rest.

For starters... A million dollars is not that much money if you consider retirement and college educations. It's not enough if you plan to fund both.

We live debt free so that's not an issue.

I wouldn't change too much. In all honesty... If you were to come upon a windfall... My theory is to do nothing drastic for at least a year.

I am fortunate with my family set up, stability, daughter heading to college, etc and my first thoughts would go toward helping my brother and his family to make sure his children get through college debt free. My brother is an old soul and he loves animals, as do I. His youngest daughter is his first foster child and she is such a blessing to our family.

Other than my brother, , I would focus on the community outreach programs we have and focus on children and animals in need.

That's just who I am!! Love me or hate me.

First I would tithe 10% to my church. Then I would buy a house (we currently rent), buy newer cars for my husband and I (both our cars are 13 years old). I would take the family on a "fun" vacation since we have never had one. I would then help my mom some and put the rest away to hopefully make more money.

I would become totally debt free. That would leave a chunk, I'd help family and friends with monetary gifts.

I have a friend who has MS and her husband has been out of work due to his profession basically becoming outdated. He's currently going to school full time and making good grades but his financial aid is just not enough to pay their monthly bills each semester. They would be so relieved if suddenly their $1000 monthly house payment was gone. They have tried and tried to get it refinanced to get lower payments and since he isn't working they won't even talk to them. He went and got a job at the local country club as a gold pro so now they have some income but the bank still won't talk to them. They aren't behind or anything, she pays the mortgage each month but they could really use not having that much money gone out of his financial aid. So I would pay off their house. They only owe $60K-$70K on it anyway.

I have a friend who is going on a cruise later this year and although they have saved and saved to pay outright for this vacation it would be nice to have some extra spending money.

Then I have a friend who could really use some extra money. She is a faithful person who leaves within her $600 per month SSDI income. She lives on food storage and a few fresh veggies and fruits. She is a deserving person who could truthfully enjoy a blessing.

I would buy a whole mouth of dental work for 20 people who are low income and can't afford to pay for a dentist. I have bad teeth and have suffered with pain, decay, broken teeth, holes where teeth were pulled out, and black teeth. So I know how people look at those who are poor and have no way to get basic dental care. I would help them have beautiful smiles again. I have to be put to sleep and have my teeth just pulled. I have an odd reaction to Novocaine shots in the roof of my mouth. So it becomes truly expensive for me to have anything done.

I would also donate to the local church for their food program. The offer free hot meals to anyone who wants to come and eat 4 days per week. They love each person who comes in and offer them a hug and hand shake. No matter how stinky a person might be or how dirty or how prim and proper. They love everyone and give them food til they pop if there is enough for everyone.

We have been truly blessed when we have been at the bottom of our finances. We have had hot meals, clothes, vehicles for pennies on the dollar, love and support. If I was blessed to receive money I would do what I could to return this help through the same programs that have been the most helpful to my community.

I'd also take a long long long cruise with the family and invite a few friends. We'd have an amazing vacation and come back rested and ready to face life with a more positive attitude.

Then it would be back to work because a million isn't enough to quite work. I'd still want to be active and working in at least some way.

the first thing I would do is pay off my husbands student loans then I would buy a nice house. Nothing too big because I don't want to have to spend all my free time cleaning, but just enough for us. The rest I would put away for my kids college

Pay off debt.
Buy a house. Just a normal sized house. No mansions here! Something with a big yard.
Put aside money now into accounts for my kids to be able to go to school. Something that would grow their money as they are still pretty young. I think Washington has a GET program for college.
Buy two new cars. Nothing fancy, but something that has 0 miles on it when I buy it!
With about 50,000 we could buy a GREAT house in Mexico, so we would probably do that as well as my husband's family lives down there and we would be able to visit them a lot.
The rest of the money would go into stocks or something that would grow money for us. Neither one of us have a retirement fund or anything, so it would be nice to actually have some money to retire when we are a bit older.
L.

Pay off the house
Redo the kitchen (small scale)
Put in a second toilet

Save the rest. Put it into a 50/50 college savings program for our son. Kiddo's college is 12 years away, but it will be knocking on our door too soon!

Go on a Disney cruise with my family of 3, and then take my family out for ice cream with what's left over.

I would invest all one million in some stocks that pay a 10% or larger dividend. (Yes there are a lot of them out there, but you have to look.)

Then I would use the $100,000 that would come in each year to buy a home and pay it off. Then buy my wife a new car. (Her car just celebrated its 11th birthday. I wouldn't buy one for myself because mine still works fine, even if its 10 years old.)
Then my wife would retire and we'd spend the rest of our lives visiting our kids and grand kids and taking them with us on vacations and cruises.

I would carry several $50 and $100 bills with me in envelopes. I would visit the down and out and if I saw someone there that was willing to work, I would take tm to goodwill or the Salvation Army or Deseret Industries and buy them the clothes and stuff they needed to get a new start. If I found someone that wanted to work, but needed their glasses fixed, I would get them new glasses. If they needed their car fixed, I would try and get their car fixed so they could get a job and keep it.

Thanks for the nice question. Good luck to you and yours.

This kinda makes me sad...but I don't know I would do anything with it other than invest it (where, I don't know because the return on investment money is horrible these days)...

Last calculation was my husband and I will need 1.5 million to retire at age 70 and still live like we do now...that really makes me sad. So no fun for us, but retirement for us!!

Invest in real estate. Use the rental income to retire and travel.

I know a very young man who is dying and has some very modest "bucket list" items...so I'd fund that 100%.
Then travel a bit more and put in a retirement fund.

I'd pay off all existing debt (which isn't much) and invest the remainder.

I would continue to work until my retirement (27 May 2022....less than 9 years away), which happens to coincide with the time the kids will be in college, and then my husband and I would go and travel the world. Not sure at this point if we would keep or sell the house.

This is a fun question. :-)

I will say, we are so close to being debt free (except for our mortgage, which should be paid in full in about 4 years). That's probably the closest feeling to winning the lottery. :-)

Good question. If that's before taxes it changes things a bit because $500K or whatever would be left over isn't a life-changing amount. But a million after taxes?

Well we have two major life areas where money would change our options. The first is marriage. I think that if money were no object, my husband, who is just not cut out for marriage, would rip the band-aid off this mess and opt out. This way our kids could stay in the same neighborhood, schools, sports, etc. even if we were not together, which is not something that we could do apart now with our current finances. So we'd probably split the money 50/50 and he'd get his own place and use the rest to supplement his income, because he makes less than I do.

The second thing is that we are underwater on our mortgage and are in a house that's too small. The location is great, but the house needs a second floor (which was our intent when buying it 7 years ago). So together or separate, I would either buy a big enough house in this neighborhood - nothing outlandish but with 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, enough space to host a holiday dinner and a garage I can actually park in - or move out of this for 6 months and add a second floor and gut and renovate the first floor. With the house paid for, I could easily afford the rest of our monthly expenses on my salary alone. I'm almost out of debt other than the mortgage so I'd pay off any lingering bills as well and would increase my retirement and college savings a bit because of not having to pay the mortgage or any other debt payments. But I would suspect that the house situation would eat up most of $500K where I live, which would be my half after we split up the marriage.

Like you said, pay off everything. Always pay cash going forward. Build a retirement nest egg. College would be paid for our kids. I would take my family (parents, brother/sil) on a vacation. Perhaps this dream can come true one day. In the meantime DH and I are trying to get debt free on our own thanks to Dave Ramsey.

I would put it away for my kids college funds ( they all pay half), i would save it so i would be rich.I do t like spending too much moneh

I'd put a bunch in each college fund, buy a new house and use left overs to invest. I'd probably take a trip Italy, but I'd invest the rest.

But I'm a saver. So I'd save it.

Sadly a million won't do much. My husband and I have always said if we win big, both of our parents are getting a chunk off the top. They sacrificed so much for us, so to do something big like that for them, wow!

We would want to pay off all of our debt and have our income be solely for income. We'd save for retirement and plan for the kids college.

I'm sort of embarrassed to say I've thought a lot about this, which is ridiculous, since I don't have a million dollars and never will.

But, I would do the following:

Pay off the whole house. Pay off the equity loan, the husband's grad school debt, the credit card debt.

Put aside enough money for my son to spend 4 years at any college in the world, plus some for a graduate program, so he doesn't wind up in the hole we're in. But no trust fund, just funds for his education.

Put aside some money for a retirement / emergency fund. With my husband's health issues, he may have to take some kind of early retirement, so this is important.

My husband would insist on a travel fund, even if he's too ill to work, because he's a ridiculous human being. So sure, that.

And if any is left over (and, sadly, it'd be well short of a million), set up a foundation and give it to worthy causes.

In a way, this is a really depressing exercise, since it just hits me in the face that I need a lot of money I don't have :(. We get by, day to day, but there's no rainy day fund, even when we're staring at a health-related storm.

I have an ex-BIL who is an investment banker, so I would hire him to advise me on investing.
I would pay off my house and all my debt, and replace my daughter's and my old vehicles with new, more fuel-efficient ones with bumper-to-bumper warranties, invest the rest so that when I can no longer work, I will have income.

Probably go to a better school, and pursue a Bachelors degree or higher, instead of the Associates I am going for at our community college. Hubby too... Plus get a car that actually runs right.

I would also be able to pay for the surgery my Dd needs to fix her flat head... (She will grow out of it my a$$... Shoulda gone for the helmet when I had a chance. Shows what I get for trusting the pediatrician. :/) unfortunately, because it's considered cosmetic, insurance won't pay for any of it.

The rest, I would split between savings and investments. Try to grow it a bit for my Dd (and any future children's) college fund, and our retirement.

After taxes?

My current mortgage rate is so low I don't think paying it off would be wise so I'd have a little fun and then invest it. At a modest 5% return it would double in about 15 years. Passive income, it's how the rich are getting richer they just want the rest of us to think it's all hard work!

Pay off our student loans $200k left
Buy a new home $800k

That'd eat it all up, but it'd also free up about $5k/mo of our income so we'd then be able to actually save for our kids' college funds. We already do save quite a bit for retirement, but we'd do even better. My husband does a lot of side jobs, so we'd form an S-Corp, and then I'd be able to be paid a salary, which I would put into an IRA, and do educational IRAs for our kids.

Pay off any debt (including mortgage), and add to the retirement and college savings funds. Since I am in the process of purchasing a veterinary practice, it would go toward that too.

My dad started out with just saving and investing, and eventually, between his 401K and other investments in the stock market (primarily mutual funds), he was able to amass a net worth of a few million dollars. He was very conservative in his spending and was still able to send both me and my brother to college (including grad school) without the use of loans.

Mutual funds are probably the safest way to invest in the stock market - it is the magic of compound interest.

Put it away for retirement.

If it was really $1 million (post tax!) I'd probably buy a vacation home somewhere. Nothing extravagant, but somewhere we'd love to visit often. I'd probably also take one big vacation. I'd save the rest - some in retirement, some in the kids' college funds, etc.

A lot of our investments are in mutual funds to get more diversity.

Pay down debts, pay off SD's student loans, pay off DD's college fund, take a trip, buy new cars, fix the house, pay my mom's debts, and put the rest away. As for how to make money with it, that would be something I'd talk to our financial advisor about. I might also take a job that is fulfilling but low paid because I could supplement with the residuals.