I’m salivating thinking about how many books $15,000 could buy.
I’d buy my dream car - Chevy Nova. I don’t really have anything to pay off.
I can splurge! Whee!
15 thousand, jeez. Just be glad you didn’t see how excited I got when I won 10 bucks on a lotto ticket. Sigh…
15K? Invest in a stock of my choice, then get back to work.
Useless, you are spreading it too thinly.
Unless you are loaded down with credit card debts, find a stock and put most of your money in it. No use for mutual funds - why pay a fee to somebody who plays with your money? That is just one of the dumbest ideas ever conceived IMO.
Of course, the picking is a hard part, but you aren’t in any hurry. Take your time, do your homework.
You people with all your solid financial advice. Screw that! 15K isn’t enough to make me rich forever, so I’ll invest in something else.
Using the Dutch retail price, I’d need an extra 2K for this BMW R 1150 RT, but I think I can scrape 2K together somewhere.
I might be dead tomorrow, or next year, or in 50. Who knows? I’ll take my chances on the present, and buy something that I can enjoy now. Which is not to say that I don’t save and invest - I do. But a nice little bonus like $15K would be spend on something nice, not something sensible.
FWIW, the Ducati ST4 is another option, but I’m a little scared of the maintenance bills, compared to the BMW. 
I agree that it makes sense to pay off loans but, like fretful porpentine, my vote’s for travel. You don’t necessarily have to immerse yourself in south east Asian culture for 6 months or see the Amazonian rain forest but I couldn’t let a decent windfall go by without getting some sort of a holiday out of it.
Actually, I’m waiting for my similar inheritance right now.
The plan is to pay off my old bills, my current bills, and put a down payment on a house. Throw in some odds and ends (like a desperately needed additional computer) and I should have the entire thing spent relatively quickly.
Since that money would almost double with the exchange rate, I’d move back to Oz for a while.
With 15K you could travel for a full year if you kept it cheap and don’t mind staying in hostels and the like. You could go from North Africa, across southern Europe, up Eastern Europe, across Russia, into China, and down to Vietnam and Cambodia. It’d be awesome! What’s the point of saving up if you are never going to experience life. Do something crazy and wonderful that will always be a part of you.
The tough choice for me would be between travel and financing a short film. 15K doesn’t go far in the film world, but it’d be enough to make a good solid short film that could get into to festivals and hopefully lead to a lot more oppertunities in the field. At the very least, it’d buy me an XL1 (video camera), a couple lights and a reasonable sound setup. I could use that to make my own movies and also to start a videography business (shooting weddings and stuff) so that I can pay my rent while waiting to make it big.
Thanks, all. Interesting advice - Now I’m even more torn.
Well, I don’t have to pay a tax on it so it’s all mine. I don’t have any debts to pay off - no major credit card bills or loans.
I’ve got a steady job that pays the monthy bills so this is actually spare change. I’ll probably take a little trip later this year. Maybe put some aside to help my girlfriend out when she goes off to do her postgraduate work at uni next year.
Thing is, this is only part of the total sum. I think there’s another 100 grand coming at the end of the year so I guess I’d better start reading up on them stocks.
Hark, do I hear a bunch of Italian and Russian poets at my door?
Wow.
You *are * lucky!
(My condolences if this is part of a will.)
When feeling indecisive, the best thing to do is nothing regarding this money. Locking it up in some low rate CD for six months to ayear could help take the pressure off and give you some thinking room.
Ask people you respect. Ask well dressed strangers whilst standing in line. You will get varying opinions which will be able to help you find your financial due north. Read up on it. Listen to those dull, dull, dull money talk shows on the radio. Listen to them until you start to grasp what they are talking about.
Don’t do anything until you are confident with what you are doing is best for you.
It’s a great time to buy stocks. Buy an index fund. They are cheap and end up out-performing the proffessionally managed funds because of their diversity and low cost. The Motley Fool is a great website that has an index fund guide.
They also have a nice .
If you are intimidated by stocks and investing and don’t know where to start seek the advice of a financial planner.60 second quide to index funds
While they do have many nice "."s on thier page, what I clearly meant to say was they have a nice 60 second guide to index funds.
15 grand? Hmm.
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Invest. 2/3rd’s of it. In Gold.
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Splurge on car mods.
I’d buy my girlfriend some flowers. And a bottle of champagne.