My dad died in January and left me about 55K. Here’s where it went:
new car - 18,000
paid studen loan - 11,000
paid credit card debt - 6,000
furniture - 7,000
home electronics - 2,000
art - 3,000
loan to coworker - 2,000
don’t have a clue - 6,000
Total - 55K
I don’t think I’ve “wasted” it. I’m very please to be living in the most comfortable circumstances of my life, which I can sustain on my own salary, and I have no dependents to worry about. The 6k that I don’t have a clue about is a little worrisome, but OTOH I’ve also been smoke free for about 5 months so I save that just in cigs in not too long.
I still have most of mine. A year ago I was told I’ll be laid off, so it’s resting for a while. I want to buy a house in Washington so I can move up there when I’m jobless. It’s tough, though. I really want a Sony PD-150. I can get one on the interest I’ve accrued, but I can’t bring myself to spend that much yet. (And I need a new camera because my pro hi-8 camera has an unfixable problem. I can record, but I can’t play back.) And recently I’ve been missing my 1966 MGB roadster. But there are enough of those around that they’ll still be affordable after I move.
That’s 6 thousand over 9 months. A little here, a little there. A bunch of DVDs, some CDs. Lots of books. A fair amount of traveling and hotel expenses back and forth to Chicago to deal with my dad’s estate. Quite a lot of clothing, since I was traveling on the weekends, and buying new clothes rather than doing laundry for about 6 weeks. I probably spent 200-300 on Chidope. I visited DC in May to see old friends, that was probably something between 500 and 1k. I bought a few presents for some friends, but nothing over $100.
But to tell you the truth, I don’t know where half my money goes anytime anyhow. After the rent and utilities, I don’t keep track. I do know my checking account balance is now going up again, so I’m not spending more than my income.
I agree with you: Bah, no worries. You spent it on living.
My husband got a software buyout and after we bought furniture and the condo, he spent a good chunk of what was left to outfit himself in his new hobby, woodworking. He loves it, it was totally worth it. It’d be nice to have a bigger cushion in the bank, but I love having a happy husband. And we’re not starving.
Why am I suddenly reminded of the joke about the guy who inherited $1 million dollars and a year later was broke. When a friend asked him what had happened to all the money, he replied, “Well, I spent about $950,000 on women and drinking. The rest I just wasted.”
Paying off debts, buying things you need and treating yourself to a few things you’ve always wanted would hardly qualify as wasting money. When my mom died my share of the estate was used to pay off my credit card debt and provide a down payment for a house, with a little left over for a belated honeymoon and a few things for the new house.
The 6k dissapearence almost seems like a given but 3k on art?! You’re the type of guy that needed a new car, had a fairly large student loan balance, needed furniture, and was 6k in the hole to a credit card company and you spent three thousand dollars on art? Reminds me of this joke I heard…
The slight concern is that to spend $6k over nine months menas that you have got used to a certain standard of living that your wage income cannot support.
If you take home around $2k a month and then add that $6k divide by 9, it does add up to a continuing overspend.
I’m sure that any parent would hope that anything they passed on would be appreciated, and it seems to me that you have done pretty reasonably.
Sure you could have salted it away, investing in the current climate might have been wasteful and stressful, but you made your choice and as long as you are happy with it then I think you did the right thing.
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