None of the above.
Pay off the house. Use the >$1500/mo to learn to fly small planes.
If it’s $20,000,000, then pretty much the same thing, except also purchase an amphibious dual engine “flying boat,” and spend my life following the hunting & fishing seasons around the Americas & Caribbean.
Sit at home and start my new career as a self employed loan guy via www.lendingclub.com.
Pay off the mortgage (that’s half of it) and set up in business.
Uh, none of the above. Pay off all debt (~ $30,000K), and put a large enough down payment on a modest home to get a really good APR. Invest whatever’s left over on some medium-low risk mutual.
Pay off the house. Finish paying off my once-crushing medical debts. Invest with the intent to give all or most of the interest to charity so long as I can afford to.
Well, I didn’t vote in the poll, because my choice would be a corollary to the first choice; that is to say, not to start a new business we’ve always dreamed of, but expand on a small business we already have.
We own two sets of investment properties. Our goal is to use the collateral from them to buy more investment properties, and eventually have enough to retire on. The kind of money the OP speaks of would get us there faster. . .
We need a new roof and new windows. I want a new front door and a replacement for the nasty back patio doors. I want a deck out back. I want to give my husband the workshop he has been wanting to build. I want new countertops in my kitchen. And if there’s anything left, I’d get a landscaper to do something with my yard. It’s too big a job for me.
My only debt is around 20k in student loans, so I’d pay that off, buy a new but not very flashy car, and put the rest towards a house.
Live a cheap life (roommates, small apartments, use the bus, frugality, etc) but spend several months at a time in cities all over the US and the world before moving on to the next city. Atlanta, NYC, San Francisco, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Rio, London, Berlin, etc.
I’d probably burn through $50,000 in 2-3 years doing that. I’d invest the rest.
Oh, yes, this sounds good. But I would say just one month in each city…that way I don’t have to be as frugal.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t a pay off mortgage/debts - stow the rest into a rainy day account selection - so I went with the improve house…as the closest alternative
Pay off my house. That’s be like getting a $1300 a month raise for the next 18 years.
Pay off my student loans, use the rest for an extremely generous down payment on a house.
Condo, then bank with balance.
I don’t have any debt except for the mortgage, so I’d pay that off first. Then I’d max out my retirement contributions while living off the balance of the windfall.
And, probably, a nice truck.