Posted on 08/23/2024 9:48:10 AM PDT by libstripper
A woman who inherited $250,000 from her late grandmother has revealed how she quit her job, blew through the money and now lives in a rental home.
Sarah Faith Jacobson, a 40-year-old corporate consultant in Texas, said after she received the large amount of money she had no idea what to do with it, and 'regrets' how she spent it.
Her grandparents were successful Bay Area real-estate investors in the 1970s, and after her grandmother died in 2020, Jacobson inherited $175,000 from her life insurance policy and another $75,000 from her will.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I am dealing with probate which will leave me with about that amount.
We are putting it towards our debt. I had a stroke back in November and existing until I could work again ran up our credit cards. We had some business related vendors act as asshats and cut off our terms. We now have to pay them back AND pay for inventory in full. It will make me smile when I pay them off and then change to a different vendor.
Whatever is left will be invested. I am planning on 50% in something safe and 50% invested by me. My stock and fund picks have outperformed the market for the past 20 years, but crap can happen, so 50% boring.
We are coming up on our 40th anniversary and we have talked for years about taking our two boys and their families on a cruise. We will pay for the actual booking, the rest is up to them. They are good with it. That is the extent of our discretionary spending.
well aint that the truth 🤓👍
I would have immediately took a hit and packed up and found a new location as soon as the project was apparent. Taking a hit to move is better than losing it all.
I was familiar with a a family, father, mother and kids, back in the late 70s. They lived in a trailer, were getting food stamps. Won something like $30,000 in some lottery, a big sum back then. In that rural area, you could actually buy an ok house for $25,000 at the time.
Less than a year later they were broke, still living in the same trailer. They had partied, etc, kids had wrecked the go-karts and motorcycles. They had absolutely nothing to show for the money. They just didn’t know any other way to live.
Not spend anything for several years.
Yes save it never know what’s coming down the pike.
Mindset
Any asset like this you are the steward / caretaker of it , not the owner.
God is the owner and you are doing the best job possible to take good care of it.
That mindset will help
Ditzy
Entitled
Idiot
Got it.
A Crazy Cat Lady at 40. How sad.
“I would also stay away from restaurants because the margins are usually not great.”
I understand, ran a truck stop for several years. The money was in the tires, towing, and mechanical repairs not the restaurant. But without the restaurant you don’t have the “package” they want to make it worth stopping.
Yes, it's nothing. Far better to pay off some debts, put the rest in a high-interest bearing CD and forget about it for a year or two. My wife was responsible for her mother's trust, and wife's siblings were fighting about the coming inheritance and got a lawyer to fight us. Our lawyer said the amount is nothing ($250,000), but it caused grief in the family with greedy siblings. Our lawyer fought off the siblings. When mom-in-law passed, my wife distributed the money and won't have anything to do with the stupid greedy siblings. $250G is nothing nowadays.
I agree. It doesn’t go very far since the 2008 crash. Paying off a mortgage and debt can quickly eat up that 250,000. Then either going back to school or starting a business and poof...it can be gone in a real hurry. Hopefully some of that self-improvement investment is wise and eventually produces a return, but it doesn’t always work out that way.
A degree in women’s studies?
Gotta be a lot of money in that.
$250K is not a lot of money when it comes to retirement. But she could have invested all of it for 25 years or so in an asset allocated portfolio while continuing to work and it would have certainly given her a good start on a retirement.
A simple lazy index portfolio would have worked well for that.
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Lazy_portfolios
Your recommendations are absolutely spot on, in my opinion. That’s about what I did, and we are forever grateful that we are still frugal, still watch every expense, and spend when we carefully choose to.
We’ve been able to help many others too, though sometimes I get really frustrated when I see how they are handling their own money.
I know the type. Money just slips through their fingers. Doesn’t matter if they’re able to live okay on $1500 per month, if you gave them $3,000 per month, it would somehow still not be enough.
My late mom’s housekeeper was such a person. She was always hiding from debt collectors and selling gifts to pay loan sharks. I looked at her budget and she made way more than enough, even with her expensive cigarette habit.
Lost in America; outstanding!
Do you have any financially responsible nieces or nephews?
Perhaps a church or trustworthy organization like Samaritan’s Purse or Teen Challenge.
“I had told her she could triple her money in a year in real estate, but she thought that was too risky. Unlike living with a drunkard.“
I’m 65 years old, living on Long Island all that time and at most any point in that time line your advice would have been absolutely golden. At quite a few points it would have been severely understated.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.