I'd use maybe $2 or $3k of it for various things (shopping, paying off the last of the car loan, maybe some wedding-related stuff), and invest the rest. $20k will be worth a pretty penny in 50 years or so .
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To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment ~ {Ralph Waldo Emerson}
For me, it would definitely be the down payment on a house.
If I already had a house, it would pay off what I owe (student loans, the car I bought last year). Then if there was any left over, I would save the rest, except for a few hundred that I would take out for a little shopping spree.
invest all of it. my bf gets large gifts of money every year, and i am always in awe that he puts every dime of it away. one day he showed me what is becoming of the money and this is what i looked like...
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"i tell you one lesson I learned
If you want to be something in life, You ain't gonna get it unless, You give a little bit of sacrifice, Oohh, sometimes before you smile you got to cry.." -The Roots
I'd save 1/3, invest 1/3 and blow 1/3. I can't do Math so Im just using 1/3 instead of real numbers. I suck. Hmmmm now I'm thinking about how many shoes I could buy with that.
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I'm thinking balls are to men what purses are to women. It's just a little bag, but we feel naked in public without it.
Carrie Bradshaw
I'd sell my house, and use the $25,000 plus the equity we've built up on our house to put a down payment on a condo in San Diego. (Sadly, I'm not sure that would be enough for a down payment still.)
I'd spend $1000 on a long weekend to London to visit my friend who's studying abroad there. Maybe $500-$1000 on shopping. I'd save the rest, I don't need anything.
What I wouldn't do with $25,000! I'd pay off credit card debt, trade in my car + whatever was leftover and get a new car! Yippee! $25,000 would hit the spot. Anyone care to donate to the cause?
Pay off some debts and than use that for a down payment on a house , I want so bad to own a house but my credit is all screwed up and well our income is really on the low end.
$6,000 to finish getting everything I want for my house.
The rest I would have to save. I would also use the money to make payments on my car. I would not pay it all off since I would like to keep that account open to it's full five years since I am obsessed with increasing my credit score to the maximum possible you can have.
the extremely rational part of me would say use it as a downpayment. but since i'm applying to grad school that doesn't make sense b/c it's not like i'm going to be able to afford the monthly payment.
in reality i would pay down my undergrad loans, then sock the rest in some sort of cd that i couldn't touch.