1,000 a month would be more than I need to live on!
$1000 more or $1000 period?
Lower middle class here.
Despite that, no debt and two running vehicles, both paid off.
What would I do with an extra $1,000?..
To start, probably get my piano either fixed (if possible) or replaced (if not). After that… since I live within my monthly income already (most months) it would go into savings to first save up enough for a new-to-me vehicle younger, less tired, and more reliable than what I currently have. Would also be able to afford to do a little more traveling than I do now, but nothing extravagant, mostly to see family and friends who don’t live nearby.
Anything more than that (and probably at least a set amount each moth) goes into emergency fund/savings/investment/retirement.
Upper middle class. Wife just retired, I’ve got about a month to go. We just moved, bought a new house. Lots of unforeseen expenses. We are thinking about installing a fireplace downstairs, as we see spending more time down there in the winter.
I can buy it out right, and they use that money to build my ‘buffer’ ‘cushion’ back up.
Also, since we don’t live remote anymore, we are discovering a slew of restaurants near us. We do lunch or early dinner a couple times a week. That adds up real fast.
Upper middle class. I’d pass it on, either via Patreon for various musicians, or donations to a couple of causes. Would consider increasing gifts to our kids/grandkids.
Upper middle class, retired.
We live mostly off investments/IRAs/etc. The only change would be reducing monthly distributions by $1000 (assuming the windfall is tax free).
Comfortable, close to retirement.
We’d put it into the home improvement and/or travel fund. We’re already maxing out our 401k/403b.
$1000.00 a month would allow me to quit my two part time jobs. I’ll be 70 on my next birthday and I’m tired of working. I could probably almost scrimp by with just my SS but that would mean no tv or phone or internet. I’d die of boredom.
So I keep working until I physically can’t do it anymore and hope I can save enough to keep those luxuries. My standards have definitely fallen, but what the heck, you can’t take it with you.
Period.
Solid middle, no debts, no money sucking dependents, and a 30 Large “buffer” separating me from having zero reserves.
I think I’d save it for a new car. In 3 years, my car will be 7 1/2 years old. With the money saved plus the trade-in value of my current car, I could pay for the whole thing and not have a car note.
Very comfortably retired, so chances are it would go to grandson’s preschool tuition and summer camp for granddaughter. We help cover those anyway, but with extra $$ we could do it in full.
Retired, middle- to lower-middle.
- Half to pay down my mortgage (my only outstanding debt).
- One quarter split between the two charities I support on a regular basis (Planned Parenthood and the local YWCA Womens’ Shelter).
- One quarter split between the Ottlets.
I’m dead broke. If it threw me off benefits I’d be screwed. If it didn’t affect them I wouldn’t be in a panic about whether or not I can pay bills; I’d spend part of it on things I need that have been wearing out and the rest towards paying down credit cards.
Probably middle to slightly below middle class for our area. Debt free.
Part of it I spend it on would be eating out at more upscale restaurants every now and then. Our go-to going out to eat (probably 2X a month) is McDonald’s using the receipt code and app offers so our 2 meals are usually around $10-12 total.
Get one of us a new vehicle.
The rest would probably go into a Roth IRA/investments for future retirement needs.
We’re solidly middle. My kids are coming to the age where they’ll need to drive places. My wife currently has a car that she doesn’t want them driving, and I have a work truck that I also use for personal somewhat, but also don’t want them driving. So we’re gonna have to get something for them (and ideally me) to drive. $1000 a month would allow us to get a good car, pay the insurance for them, gas it up, etc.
Anything left over would probably just get lumped into the grocery budget.
Retired. Comfy class. No dependents, no family.
I’d have no use for it, so it’d just disappear into the invested money that’s already accumulating faster than I can spend it. Now the current ructions in the government could sure upend all that comfy. So that’s a worry.
My understanding is only earned income can be put into a Roth. If this windfall came from one of your side gigs you’ve spoken of, then sure. But if it’s a gift from a mysterious benefactor, or a bump in e.g. your SS (hah!) or pension or investment income, IMO that would not be Rothable.
Money of course is fungible, but IIRC IRA contributions (Roth or otherwise) are limited to 100% of the amount of your earned income.
For me, that’s zero. For you?
I think of myself as middle-middle class but with recent changes in my country’s economy I’m probably higher in the scale than that, locally. On the other hand compared to someone in the U.S. I am definitely more lower middle class than higher.
I would do what I do with everything extra after bills and food these days:
Spend it on refurbishing my house, we bought our first house ever last year ( I rented all my previous adult life) and we are happily refurbishing and embellishing it.
(We need to build a wall at the end of the garden to separate it from our neighbor’s garden, completely refurbish the washing room, fix the kitchen’s ceiling and flooring, improve the bathroom, somehow find a way to enlarge the garage so our car’s behind doesn’t pop out of the house, fill the garden with earth because it used to be the local fishing hole and it fills with water every time it rains, etc, etc)
House renovations, and spoiling my wife. Middle class.
Upper middle. No kids.
I’d donate it to a non-profit legal aid group. Right now, probably an immigrants rights group of some sort.
This has actually happened to me (one of my grandparents was good at investing, and, along with my brother and my cousins, I eventually inherited a share in the proceeds – which makes me, I guess, pretty solidly upper-middle class by background if not necessarily by current earned income). I opened an ETrade account and did a bit of investing of my own, but it didn’t take me long to figure out that I hadn’t inherited Granddaddy’s gift for picking stocks, so I’ve mostly gone for a conservative mix of index funds / bonds / just letting it sit around in the bank. Plus maybe a bit more travel, but I’m a cheap traveler.
Honestly, the biggest difference it has made in my life is that I know I have … not quite fuck-you money, but certainly take-some-time-off-and-formulate-a-thoughtful-exit-plan money if anything goes wrong with my current job – which very well might happen, since I’m a humanities professor at a state university in a very red state.