Oh, and this:
made me:eek: 
. Then I remembered that the rest of the country is not Los Angeles, where fixer-uppers in marginal-at-best neighborhoods start at $250k.
My financial adviser does not do taxes but it wouldn’t surprise me if there is some overlap. Have you done your 2014 taxes yet? If not, pick up one of the software packages; you can create and save multiple returns. You can be sure you’re doing it right this year, and then mock one up including the windfall info and see how it changes things.
As you said that you’re “about to inherit some money” but haven’t yet received it, definitely don’t spend any of it yet. Just in case Something Bad happens.
Regarding the idea of buying a house, I think it matters whether you plan to stay put for a while. If your goal is to move someplace else in a few years, it might be better to keep renting.
Not usually. When we had a CPA for my wife’s writing work I wouldn’t trust him for investment advice (and he never offered any) and I wouldn’t trust my financial adviser with tax advice, not that he has ever offered any either.
10 year ago it cost somewhere around $700 to have a CPA do our taxes - but after a few years things were stable and we moved to TurboTax. This was only because my wife was a writer and could use some non-obvious business expenses to reduce her net income. I don’t know anything about inheritance income, but if it is truly not taxable in your state you might get away with TurboTax only. Worth doing some research. I almost enjoy doing taxes with a program, but if you hate it it is worth getting a CPA. My wife is very organized, so for us it is a breeze.
I wouldn’t hire any fee based financial advisor, many of them aren’t any smarter than you are. I would talk to a CPA and make sure you won’t owe any taxes.
Then I’d pay off any debt higher than 8% interest. Why 8% - because that’s what the stock market pays out conservatively over the long term.
Then I’d look at where you are and where you need (not want) to be short term. If you have an urgent need for a functional car because the POS you drive is impacting your ability to work, that’s something you need to address short term. If you have a perfectly functional car but have always wanted a BMW - nope.
Then I’d look at where you need to be in general. Are you 50 with no retirement savings? Are you 24 with a job where the stability is questionable? Do you have kids? Are you married to someone who is likely to spend it if its in the bank? All those sorts of questions - but answer those questions slower. Put six months of living expenses into a savings account you don’t touch.
And in the meantime, read the Bogelheads forum. It will take a while for the money to arrive and you’ll be fairly well educated about what you feel comfortable with by then.
It depends on the state, the type of debt, who the heirs are (e.g. surviving spouse, minor children), and how you have structured the assets (e.g. payable-on-death accounts, trusts, gifts). YM will V. If you have sizable assets and care where they end up, it can pay to pay for advice.
This, in spades!
You could take three to six months researching and thinking about what to do. Just dump the money into a FDIC insured six month CD in the bank.
Another example; Apple, the giant company that makes the iPhone and Macintosh computers, is sitting on $178 billion in cash. And yet a couple of weeks ago, they sold $6.5 billion in bonds (and have over $40 billion in total debt).
The vast majority of people don’t have trusts.
So creditors will have first claim against estate assets.
So keep the money out of your estate.
Or set up a trust. It doesn’t just happen on its own.
Life insurance is paid directly to the named beneficiary. It’s not an estate asset, unless the estate is the named beneficiary. But that’s dumb. (Some people still do it that way, though.)
But if she does that, the recipient of her largesse is going to start a thread on the SDMB that goes:
What will your advice be?
Try to find out fairly quickly what your tax liability will be. As noted above, probably no federal tax, but possibly some state tax. Either way, if it’s any non-trivial amount, you may need to pay estimated tax on it right away to avoid some kind of penalties later.
Actually, unless you have crummy credit it should be fairly easy to get a new car loan for 3.75% or less.
High interest debt gets settled first. Short term savings such as for a home down payment that is anticipated in the next few years get set aside next.
For longer term retirement savings the OP mentioned not having a 401K. She may want to consider a Roth IRA in addition to a SEP, Traditional, or SIMPLE IRA that (currently) can be rolled over into the Roth (a so-called back door Roth) as a means of leveraging the tax code to improve her retirement situation long term. The more years you have until retirement, the more advantage you gain from using the Roth.
Of course any funds put into a Roth or any IRA should be funds you absolutely will not need to access until retirement. Early withdrawal taxes would apply.
Just to clarify, funds that you put into a Roth IRA can be withdrawn at any time without penalty (since they are after-tax). The gains on those funds are subject to tax/penalty. However, it’s still a good idea to look at any retirement fund as untouchable.