as title, if you came into a windfall (eg. inheritance) that was a substantial sum but not life changing, say £30K, what would you do with it? Coke and whores an obvious humourous reply, but interested in peoples opinions, priorities, attitudes (eg. responsibility vs. reward/decadence, now vs future etc).

Cheap van, sleeping bag in the back etc & use it for holidays – long & short for years to come

probably get solar power fitted, (about £15k), get a new car (about £5k), and pay a whack off the mortgage.

Edit, Banks, I’ll sell you my VW camper for £1000…

depends on your circumstances.

I’m a single bloke, so would save half and spunk half up the wall on coke, whores and carbon biking exotica (ok maybe not the first 2 but I’d go out and enjoy myself with it)

Lifes to short not to have fun, you might get hit by a bus tomorrow…

obviously if I had a family to feed I’d be a little more prudent

its a hard amount of money, not enough to make a big difference but small enough to be quite easily frittered away.
really i think it depends how much you earn and how big a sum it is to you? how many family holidays would it be for you for instance? for some people 2, for some 30.
so only you can answer really, but I would look at splitting it between enjoying it myself (bike?), with my family (holiday?) and something sensible (credit card debt?)

either a new milling machine, or just stuff it in the bank

…not enough to make a big difference

For some reason I find those few words really depressing 🙁
It would make a massive difference to me personally, and I’m sure many others, and I don’t mean financially either. If I ever got to the stage where I thought 30k wouldn’t make a difference in my life I think I’d have to have a few words with myself! 🙂

For me I definitely would not waste it on mundane crap like bills/mortgages/savings/cars/tat, 30k dropping in your lap really doesn’t make much of a difference if spending it on those is the limits of your imagination.
I’d spend it on an experience, if it is inheritance, make sure it is something truly memorable. For me that is a simple 30 footer, and cast off towards the horizon for a while.

If I ever got to the stage where I thought 30k wouldn’t make a difference in my life I think I’d have to have a few words with myself!

I think the OP means it’d make a difference, but not enough to retire on.

I’d be boring, probably: new car, nice family holiday, then stick the rest in savings or towards the mortgage. Oh, and a new laptop.

Spooky, will be in that very position in a few weeks.
Part into boys Uni fund.
Rest into clearing a big chunk off the Mortgage on advice from accountant, interest rates are not going to go down.
May have a family weekend away to remember a brilliant Uncle who left us the money – you were a top bloke Uncle Eric.

before, I’d have said pay off the mortgage (or towards it [*and depending on circumstances]), however this year mum has died (82 so ok really) and dad has alzheimers, so a lot more of me is saying do it while you can…..

I certainly wouldn’t ‘piss it’ (*well I did until I was about 25 but that was a while ago), so maybe a few years of epic trips, or maybe use it (*edit as part of a bigger early retirement plan and hope health lets you enjoy it

If there’s a mortgage involved, I’d offload it onto that – you’ll be far better than 30 grand better off come the end of the mortgage…

How about banking half of it and allowing yourself to ‘play’ with the other half? Personally unless your mortgage is <£100k I don’t think I’d put it all into your mortgage – it won’t significantly change things in that regard IMHO. Better to keep some as a rainy day fund (for if the roof falls in, etc) and enjoy the rest.

As for the ‘what’, how about a new (s/h) car, a new bike and a fantastic holiday? A new kitchen and a week away? A year off work backpacking around? Buying an old beater of a van in the US and driving it about for 6 mnonths?

Most on the mortgage and probably an Mojo SLR!

We’re about to inherit a slightly smaller sum but it has strings – we HAVE to buy a conservatory with it 😕 Can’t complain and there should be a good chunk let over to sort the damp, fix the flat roof and other boring toss.

Well I have had a windfall of about a tenth of that so I’m taking a year or two off work to spend time looking after my 2 and 3 year old while my wife goes back to work.Did buy a couple of Reverbs and some nice Easton bits first though.Save some as you never know what’s around the corner and a few grand can give you the freedom to be able to make choices rather than have to do stuff you don’t really want to but have to ‘cos you can’t afford it.

I said life changing, Damo said big difference, and I basically agree which is why I posed the question on that amount. You probably cant pay off a mortgage, cant retire, you could spend it on one biggish ticket item (the archetypal STW Audi for instance). More imaginative “sail to the horizon” ideas welcome- a bucket-list career break is a nice idea.

I also like the idea of trying to honour the “donor” with something memorable in the case of inheritances (which the romantic/imaginative ideas would do).

£30k?

Would mean I wouldn’t have to look for work until 2014, rather than 2013 as is the moment 🙂

How about pre paying for your personal care in your old age: Current prices are about a grand a week, so invest now…cost goes up every year by several times the rate of inflation! 😈

I got a £30k+ redundancy payout earlier this year. Sadly it has been put somewhere safe in case it happens again. 😐

Go on a career break for a year with MC – and use it frugally to live off whilst you both doing voluntary charity work abroad … then reap the karma.

I’d be banging most of it off the mortgage and spending some on a bike/biking holiday!

Had a “windfall” in that region a couple of months ago – to be honest, I’d rather have my mum still on the planet but hey-ho.
Taking rest of family to see eldest daughter who’s a research scientist in the Kalahari. She was home in June for the first time in a year – mum/grandma died 3 weeks before she came back, so it’s kind of a pilgrimage. We’re also going to Botswana.
The rest has been squandered on a road bike/shiny bike bits and paying off a slice of the mortgage.

£10K on fun stuff, 20K on knocking a big chunk out of my mortgage

half decent classic expedition vehicle/motorhome/housetruck/hippie wagon..

FS bike..

that Biiiiiig holiday to the US..

shopping spree..

bank the remaining 10k

Use it for my sons university fees and living costs, and let it gather some interest in the mean time.

£30k would pay off the mortgage, and leave us about £22k to play with!

God, I’d love to find £30k down the back of the sofa!

Now I’d buy a new motorbike and pay rest off mortgage. Got 20k when i was at uni. Invested it all, then spent few k on a few cheap cars after uni and travelling for almost a year. Then 10 years later it was enough for a house deposit.

After getting a few of those things I really want, but can’t justify as there are more important things (bike bits, gadgets, Concept2 rowing machine etc):

The Kitchen and other bits of shabby house
Chunck off mortgage
The cost of moving to the next street along which has much nicer (and costlier) houses.

I got a windfall something like that. Quite a bit has gone on gear for a business I’ve started – a bit has been blown on holidays etc – some will go on buying a new house in the next year or so.

put it in the bank as it would allow us to stay on a single income for a couple more years.

Mortgage.

in priority order, I’d pay off the following:

1) credit card(s)
2) car repayments
3) overdraft
4) holiday / new bike / kitchen etc
5) top up the savings account

I wouldn’t touch the mortgage, as in theory you can get one of these fancy newfangled offset mortgages, where the balance of your savings reduces the repayments on the mortgage. or something like that, I’m not a financial advisor, but I would go see one

Easy, I’d blow it on a swimming pool . . .

pay off any loans and cards and have a nice holiday. boring but true.

Keep £5K back, then travel for 12 months including playtime in Whistler, skiing and biking.

In a similar boat here after inheriting a goodly sum from my father.I now have no official income due to being a former benefits scrounger(sorry).So i,ve started some tentative investing,ie Zopa,Cash and shares Isa and the balance in a savings account.Will have to make some other profitable investments as well.Reason being,to inherit the final part of my pas estate I have to make myself homeless!My only indulgence has been the purchase of a SR Suntour epicon rear air shock.Love to buy a top end machine of Pinkbike but the housing problem has resulted in me being very cautious with my Godsend.Apes

Buy a caravan for about £10k and pay a bit off the mortgage with the rest.

i’m in a similar position….

i’ve about 60k€ sitting in a portfolio. i’ve had it for years and have only used it once and that was when i was 20 to buy a scrapper when i went self-employed. i’ve not touched it since. for me the money is not there, but it is a nice safety net should things go tits up and it does mean that i can retire earlier than i could without it.

if i were to come upon 30k i’d put into shares/investments, perhaps with the view to buying a plot of land and building a small house in a few years time.

i’m fortunate enough to earn enough that i don’t need to borrow, do not to have any debts (partly thanks to my old man’s mentality of only-buy-it-if-you-need/want-it-and-have-the-money-to-buy-it) and do not lust after shiney things or fast cars.

Late 30s here, two young kids, wife not working, not long since I had to set up a house. So I’d clear debts, put money in the bank, buy some plane tickets to see the family and put down a payment on a caravan maybe 🙂

My folks are happily in rude health though and are unlikely to leave me anything until I’ve solved the above problems myself though 🙂

If you haven’t done it before do some travelling while you’re fit enough / healthy enough to do it – don’t leave until later in life because (1) you might not be able to, and (2) many of the really interesting parts of the world are changing so quickly that they might not be so interesting in a few years time. You only get one go at life – take every opportunity you can to enjoy it.