What to with a "gift"

[mitchwebb]

pay for a year of DD tuition

 

[nowellsl]

Funny, I just had this happen to me. I put $9,000 in the bank (which brought the emergency fund up to about 12 months), spent some on a disney trip (short weekend trip) and still pondering the rest. If I had debt I would definately pay that. Oh, and I did buy a Kindle Fire!

 

[bedogged]

There is no gift, No money, just more of a "if this would happen" type of thing.

Long, long story , short
MIL's 87 yr dad just made a will.
If MIL dies before him ( not going to happen) her share goes to my Dh and his brother, not my FIL. FIL is fine with that, he does not need the money.
MIL wanted my DH and BIL to give my FIL the money. FIL said "No, it should go to the boys as in the will"

MIL calls and wants us to promise IF this would happen we will pay ALL the money towards our mortgage.

it is a never gonna happen scenario ~ I am not arguing with her, I just disagree that paying it all on a mortgage would be the right thing to do.

It is not uncommon for someone to leave their estate to their blood relatives rather than your FIL who is only related to him by marriage. If your MIL inherits his estate, she can leave her estate to anyone she wishes to such as her husband.

In regard to what is or isn't ever going to happen, you never can tell who will outlive who. I am the eldest of three children and I am the only one still alive.

 

[ssawka]

The mortgage is the last bill you should ever pay! It's the only one, besides student loans, that has a low interest rate and is tax deductible. So in other words, pay other bills first.

 

[kirstenb1]

Our mortgage is 15 yrs in, and in pretty good shape. So I'd vote to put it into savings (maybe do a long weekend in Virginia Beach just for fun)

 

[mossy1]

I agree with others about paying down the high interest debt first, then I would invest the rest in a dividend stock of your choice. Nothing super risky, I believe AT&T(5.7%) or Verizon(5.3%) , best way to get some nice interest with banks paying almost zero. Plus you would have some (not a lot) growth potential. Sounds like a nice problem to have....IMO.

 

[disneymomjcs]

I would put it in our emergency fund.

 

[Swimalie]

Instead of arguing over a hypothetical with her, just say "That sounds like a great plan!" or "Yeah, that would be nice" without promising anything, then let it go. If something happens and she dies, and you get the money, then go ahead and do whatever you want with it. There's no point in letting it bother you in the least now.

I agree, as long as your husband agrees with you as well. As for me, we don't' have any debt except our mortgage (which we don't plan on ever paying off since we will be moving as soon as possible). So we'd put it in savings, cushion the retirement a bit more as well as the college fund.

 

[cvjw]

We receive money each year from my Dh's parents. I will tell you what we have done over the years. We didn't have any bills to pay, so that wasn't an issue for us - although if we did, we would have paid them off with the money. We have used the money to pay off our mortgage (I know other people are telling you it isn't a good idea, but boy does it feel great to have no mortgage), we pay cash for our cars, and we invest the rest. We only use the money for necessities, we don't use it for frivolous things, it is for our future. It does free up our everyday earnings for more things, like DVC, and more travel than we could have afforded before.

A monetary gift can change the course of your life. It can allow you to get out from under some debt, and start saving money, which can vastly impact your future. My advice is not to blow it!

 

[mossy1]

I have noticed many have voted they would put at least part of the money into savings...are you talking about a regular saving account at a bank for some other kind of fund?? Really with the banks not paying much interest, you might as well put it in the mattress....just my 2 cents

 

[mrsklamc]

I have noticed many have voted they would put at least part of the money into savings...are you talking about a regular saving account at a bank for some other kind of fund?? Really with the banks not paying much interest, you might as well put it in the mattress....just my 2 cents

Except that if you put cash in a mattress and your house burns down you're out of luck.

 

[nowellsl]

I have noticed many have voted they would put at least part of the money into savings...are you talking about a regular saving account at a bank for some other kind of fund?? Really with the banks not paying much interest, you might as well put it in the mattress....just my 2 cents

I prefer to take no risks with my emergency fund, so yes, it's in an online bank (Ally) that currently pays just under 1% for savings (slightly better than the mattress). Most of it is in CDs, laddered from 4 yr. to 2 yr. with somewhat better interest rates. I would be able to raise the interest rates once with the 2 yr. and twice with the 4 year if interest rates where to go back up.

 

[bedogged]

I have noticed many have voted they would put at least part of the money into savings...are you talking about a regular saving account at a bank for some other kind of fund?? Really with the banks not paying much interest, you might as well put it in the mattress....just my 2 cents

I have read advice that suggested that a family should have at least five thousand dollars in CASH at all times. The reason they recommended this is that in any kind of national emergency, the first thing that would go would be access to your bank and that during that period, cash would rule. I don't know if I agree, but it is an interesting thought especially with interest rates so low.

 

[KarenAylwood]

Instead of arguing over a hypothetical with her, just say "That sounds like a great plan!" or "Yeah, that would be nice" without promising anything, then let it go. If something happens and she dies, and you get the money, then go ahead and do whatever you want with it. There's no point in letting it bother you in the least now.

Exactly. In order for this hypothetical situation to actually happen, MIL would have passed.... it's not her place to say what you do with the money anyway. I'd appease her without promise and move on

If I personally had the money...
$2K towards a trip
$8K into savings which would eventually go to future kid's college fund(s)

 

[shortbun]

I'd keep 10% and pay off my highest interest debt with the rest. You can use that CC if an emergency comes but it just costs you money if it's full of debt.
Once that card is paid, begin depositing the payments you WERE making to the card into an emergency fund.

 

[crashbb]

There is no gift, No money, just more of a "if this would happen" type of thing.

Long, long story , short
MIL's 87 yr dad just made a will.
If MIL dies before him ( not going to happen) her share goes to my Dh and his brother, not my FIL. FIL is fine with that, he does not need the money.
MIL wanted my DH and BIL to give my FIL the money. FIL said "No, it should go to the boys as in the will"

MIL calls and wants us to promise IF this would happen we will pay ALL the money towards our mortgage.

it is a never gonna happen scenario ~ I am not arguing with her, I just disagree that paying it all on a mortgage would be the right thing to do.

I don't understand.

If your MIL dies first, then HER will is the one that matters, not your FIL (since he isn't dead). So, I don't understand what your FIL redoing his will has to do with anything. If your MIL wants your FIL to have "her share" of the money (what share is that anyway - again your FIL is alive so it has nothing to do with his estate/will, it is her money), then her will should state that your FIL gets her money when she dies. Is your FIL telling your MIL what she should have in her will?

 

[HM]

I don't understand.

If your MIL dies first, then HER will is the one that matters, not your FIL (since he isn't dead). So, I don't understand what your FIL redoing his will has to do with anything. If your MIL wants your FIL to have "her share" of the money (what share is that anyway - again your FIL is alive so it has nothing to do with his estate/will, it is her money), then her will should state that your FIL gets her money when she dies. Is your FIL telling your MIL what she should have in her will?

It's not FIL's will. It's the MIL's Father (the OPs husband's grandfather).

 

[crashbb]

It's not FIL's will. It's the MIL's Father (the OPs husband's grandfather).

Thanks, I missed that. Makes way more sense now!

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

There is no gift, No money, just more of a "if this would happen" type of thing.

Long, long story , short
MIL's 87 yr dad just made a will.
If MIL dies before him ( not going to happen) her share goes to my Dh and his brother, not my FIL. FIL is fine with that, he does not need the money.
MIL wanted my DH and BIL to give my FIL the money. FIL said "No, it should go to the boys as in the will"

MIL calls and wants us to promise IF this would happen we will pay ALL the money towards our mortgage.

it is a never gonna happen scenario ~ I am not arguing with her, I just disagree that paying it all on a mortgage would be the right thing to do.

OP, if it makes you feel better, we go through stuff like this with my MIL. She's 81, and has more money than God. And some serious control issues. I know she has retirement accounts, that will go to her two sons (her only children). She keeps harping on DH to refuse to accept these accounts, so they can go to the grandchildren. Now, this may or may not be a good idea when she passes--things are pretty complicated--but bottom line, if she really wants that money to go to the grandkids, she should set up the accounts that way--not badger her sons to turn it down, so it goes there, KWIM? But, if she could control things from beyond the grave, she would.

Anyway, my stock answer is, "That's a real good thing to think about. I don't think we could make any kind of decision until we had all the facts in front of us at that time."

FTR, right now, I would probably put that extra $10k in savings. A year from now, I might give a different answer. DH needs a newer vehicle, and our oldest goes to college next year...

 

[MrsPete]

I have to agree with those who say that it'd depend upon my place in life:

If this'd happened back when I was first married, I would've put it all into an emergency fund. We had $200 between us when we got married (bought a house the same week), and we didn't feel comfortable having nothing upon which to fall back.

If it'd happened 5-10 years into my marriage, I would've put it all on my mortgage. After we built up an emergency fund, our two big priorities were paying off the mortgage and maxing out our 401Ks. Knowing that every brick, every cabinet, every window BELONGS TO YOU brings enormous security, and -- having grown up without that -- I value it highly. I will never, ever owe anyone for a house again. Also, once your mortgage is paid off, your income skyrockets. That is, once you can keep all that you earn, you have soooo much more.

Today if I received some money, I'd put it into my plain old short-term savings. Our oldest starts college in the fall, and if I had more cash in my plain old savings I wouldn't have to pull money out of investments to pay her college costs.