Recently received a £5k windfall, very unexpected but much appreciated as you can imagine. There were no provisos given but I’m pretty sure pissing it all away on a shiny new bike wouldnt go down that well. I’d like to do something bike-related with it though and thought of a few options.

Kickstarter projects – although nothing appeals at the moment its something to consider
Bike courses, qualifications as a potential second career
Buying a few far east frames and bits and building up some bikes, could turn a small profit or could lose a bit

For context, we are comfortable but not rich and live content within our means. We could use it to pay £5k off the mortgage but that doesnt really appeal and house improvements for the next 18 months are already budgeted for, cars ok etc etc so lfortunately have no immediate issues.

Any sensible thoughts?

Put most of it away until you come up with an idea, spend the rest on a top notch biking holiday.

coke and hookers.

Who’s we? Family? Couple? is the other half a Mountain Biker?

Some other thoughts anyway.

LWB van to convert into camper
Holiday to dream destination with bikes (one week bikes, one week not?)

Bike, bike, Bike, BIKE!

Or mortgage and some new bike shiney’s for your own bike, don’t **** about with the far eastern stuff, Planet-X and co have that sown up.

My vote is still for a new bike

Up to £1k for a new frame rather than a whole new bike

Keep the rest until you find something good to do with it.

Adopt a millionaire’s lifestyle for a couple of days

“We” is me, wife and 1 year old daughter, I like the van idea, hadnt thought of that! We are planning a trip to Australia in October 2016 to see family and had thought we could upgrade from economy to not so economy but that doesnt seem to make best use of the money although it would be nice.

I honestly cant justify a new bike although I may dip into it a bit to buy a new track bike in the summer. I have good road bike, mtb and commuter and I think replacement for the sake of it would be a waste.

The bike brand idea is to build up some road race bikes, good quality race-orientated geometry frames and finishing kit (to pitch under £1500) that people wouldnt worry about racing in criteriums and potential crashes rather than racing a more expensive bike. I have no idea as yet as to whether they would sell but figure if no one buys them I strip them again and sell the bits off at a loss and apologise to the wife as to why we’re not millionaires….

Fund my frame building aspiration?

See today’s Dirt website, I’m Joe of Starling Cycles. A bit of funding would greatly help me get my design to a suitable stage for selling. Interest is looking good at the moment.

If you’ve got any skills to help, that would also make you get more out of your money?

Joe, looks interesting, I’ll be in touch.

4K on coke/hookers. Blow the rest.

My advice is buy experiences not things.

So spend it on holidays or days out for you/your family – not new bikes and stuff.

A summer holiday that involves equal amounts of downtime fun for you and your partner with riding in the mornings. How about Tenerife in the next couple of months?

My advice is buy experiences not things.

So spend it on holidays or days out for you/your family – not new bikes and stuff.

This I agree with.

My advice is buy experiences not things.

Yep, Go make some memories.

Coke and hookers then. Nice!

Have a look on seedrs.com loads of interesting small scale investment opportunities that could earn you money (rather than kickstarter where you don’t get stake).

That’s what I’d do…or invest in my own start-up of course 😉

How about putting some of the money into a savings fund for your daughter or buy her a gold plated pimped balance bike.

Any sensible thoughts?

Bank it, that’s the sensible option, horde your financial resources, it’s what most of the baby boomer’s did, half of those buggers retired before 60…

My advice is buy experiences not things.

So spend it on holidays or days out for you/your family – not new bikes and stuff.

^^ This ^^ if you have to have a treat of some sort, and everything is already budgeted for, I’d suggest you bank at least £3k, £4k would be better (a shored up emergency fund will help you and your missus general feeling of security IME)…

Then just set yourself a limit, you could do a lot with a grand if you’re smart…

You could have a good trip or two abroad with the bike for around grand, or dump the nipper on Grandparents and take a nice long weekend break with the better half (help keep her on side)…

How about putting some of the money into a savings fund for your daughter

and be/become bank of Dad. Child gets into the mindset that they will always come to you for more funds- house etc whilst you live a monastic retirement?

I’d be spending it on visiting somewhere new too

and be/become bank of Dad. Child gets into the mindset that they will always come to you for more funds- house etc whilst you live a monastic retirement?

😕 So if you give your kid a £5k lump sum to help with paying for university/buying her first car/deposit for her first flat etc and she will presume you are a never ending source of money?

No more than me giving her a glass of milk and her thinking I am a cow…

To the OP, if nothing needs buying then I would hold onto it and wait for something that you really do want.

and be/become bank of Dad. Child gets into the mindset that they will always come to you for more funds- house etc whilst you live a monastic retirement?

That’s a bit simplistic (though that’s maybe about right for you, Hora 🙂 ). It is of course a possibility but just that and IMO an unlikely one.

I’ll be paying into savings for my kids so that hopefully they can go through uni and come out the other side largely debt free. Once they’re graduated though, they’ll have to manage themselves and they’ll be clear on that. Just as I was was my parents.

Third on mortgage, third in a dedicated pot (not general expenditure) for holidays/other good but unplanned stuff*, third on bike related.

*e.g. C+H

Buy a carbon Bronson then hire a super model to snort coke off.
Everyones a winner, be the envy of your mates.

Holidays and experiences +1

Unless you are in financial dire straights money spent on material goods or the mortgage are unlikely to bring much joy unlike a holiday or experience which are also often harder to justify from normal income.

My advice is buy experiences not things.

So spend it on holidays or days out for you/your family – not new bikes and stuff.

Clearly I’m in the minority here, but generally I prefer ‘stuff’, which can be enjoyed for a long time. Holidays are alright, but they’re very finite, a nice bike keeps giving pleasure for much longer than a 2 week holiday.

Not to say I’d spend every penny on a bike, or other ‘stuff’, but I wouldn’t blow it all on a holiday either.

+1 njee. I get pleasure out of my bikes every time I ride them. I like holidays and the associated memories too. there’s room for both and IMO both is the right way to go.

who wants memories? Crystal Meth and skanks for me:-)

Sure by a bike if your current one is past it best but I’d get better value out of a holiday than buying a £4k bike to replace a £1.5k bike.

Sure by a bike if your current one is past it best but I’d get better value out of a holiday than buying a £4k bike to replace a £1.5k bike.

Nah, I’d buy the bike.

So would I (well, I wouldn’t pay £4k for a bike but…) but I’d definitely want a mix of things and holidays. Each to their own, eh 😉

exactly that dilemma with that exact amount of cash a few years age.
As it turned out my Full Sus bike at the time had a crack in it so i replaced the frame.

The rest is still waiting for something..
the Bike has definitely given me the experiences despite being a thing.

Once something else crops up I’m in a position to do something.

probably not helpful…!!

and be/become bank of Dad. Child gets into the mindset that they will always come to you for more funds- house etc whilst you live a monastic retirement?

WTF? Looking back, I got a degree with a grant to live off and no tuition fees. Then lucky enough to buy a house when prices bore a sensible relationship to wages. None of that exists now.

It isn’t about giving kids handouts on a plate – more about saving a bit to stop them having a much crappier start in life than I did.

I do however agree with the buying experiences thing (parents and kids all gain a lot from this).

Put it on ernie bonds till your Oz trip.

coke and hookers

I’m sure Mrs BristolPablo is going to be really impressed in 6 months time when all he has to show for his windfall is a nasty rash and a £500 a day habit!

Maybe his other half will have Malibu in her coke and gigolos?

I am the crown prince of Uganda. I need to transfer $10 million to a UK bank account and will pay you $1 million commission if you can help me. Please send £5k admin fee to my account and I will transfer the dollars soon.

Whilst a bling bike is always nice, if you already have a decent enough bike then, it won’t buy you any new experiences? A few upgrades, maybe somehting different (you mentioned trying a track bike), or a winter SS bike to gety ou out more, but A.N.Other trail bike wouldn’t be my choice.

I still remember biking hollidays, barely remember the bikes I took on them.

I’ve been lucky and had 2 similar sized windfalls, one “relocation package” from work, and an inheritance that was in trust till I was 21.

One went on a clasic sportscar, the other on a racing dinghy. Figured both were good comprimises as:
* Assets I could sell to recover the money if needed.
* Tangible things I could say the money was spent on rather than getting absorbed into day to day expenses.
* Sufficiently different to anything else I owned that they’d provide new experiences.

I could have bought a really nice bike with either windfall, but I’d probably have gone on all the same rides I’ve been on anyway so it wouldn’t actualy have bought me anything ‘new’.

I’d recommend:

– Subscribe to the UK Motley Fool “Champion Shares Pro” service
– Subscribe to the US MF service “Rule Breakers”
– Open a brokerage account & pop the money into a shares ISA
– Work hard..putting in the extra hours needed, learn as much as possible from the MF team and everyone on the forums.
– Be patient. Don’t follow every recommendation without your own research and thinking.
– Turn the £5k into a larger amount
– When you’ve doubled your money, then spend £5k…and keep going.

I’ll drop the OP a PM with details of the returns I’ve made on a similar amount over the last few years.

Camper/day van and go ride somewhere new every other weekend. 🙂