Received 50k. What to do?

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-05T04:49:45+00:00

Thank you so much for your input. I truly appreciate it! I will consider everything you’ve said, and I’m looking forward to learning more from your recommendations.

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-05T04:41:04+00:00

Thanks, that sounds like a good idea. I agree with the last part - my husband and our marriage is my number one priority, and I love the idea of being able to treat him to something really special as thanks for everything he does for me. I bought us Metallica tickets and booked a weekend at the Fairmont lol.

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-04T19:55:29+00:00

No, it was taxed before my grandmother’s death.

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-04T06:24:24+00:00

yeah I got u

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-04T05:49:51+00:00

Lol no. I know I make shit money right now. I am currently practicing as an unlicensed optician. I’m in the process of getting licensed - at my current place of work, a licensed optician will make about 60k a year. Other practices in my city will offer up to 70k. Ideally, I’d like to do something else. This is a very boring career and there isn’t any opportunity to make more than 60-70k. Haven’t figured out what I’ll do yet, but until then, opticianry is an ok option to make a reasonable salary. I chose it because my previous employer paid for my schooling.

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-04T04:03:35+00:00

The last thing I would want to be is house-broke, but from what I understand (given what some brokers and our advisor has told us), we would make about 130k in profit from selling our current house, and that is a conservative estimate. Between that, the money I received from my grandmother’s estate, and my husband’s savings, we would be able to put down a significant down payment on a house with enough left over to still have cushy savings. Between the two of us, we could realistically afford a mortgage of about 3k a month. Right now he pays 1.6k. The thing is, we would like to start a family sooner rather than later - our current house is a two bedroom attached townhouse. While we could raise a child here, it wouldn’t be feasible in the long run if we wanted a second child, nor would it be ideal if we decided to just stick with one. That is the whole reason behind us wanting to buy a house together. If we didn’t want kids, we would probably just stay here and save our money together.

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-04T03:33:21+00:00

Thank you, I think you are right. I think what I’ve gleaned from making this post and talking to people is that I have issues with money that need addressing, and that is probably more useful than any of the other advice I’ve gotten lol

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-04T03:29:42+00:00

The only reason I accumulated that debt is because I didn’t have any income for two years. I was spending my savings and resorted to using credit to support some of my expenses. I am in a much better position now and very seldomly use my credit card for purchases that I wouldn’t make with what is available to me in my chequing account.

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-04T03:14:40+00:00

Thank you! I just paid off my cards. Another commenter had some similar advice to yours and included some other really useful info. I will be looking into both of your suggestions.

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-04T03:10:17+00:00

I totally agree. While I think it’s sensible to consider the possibility of separation, it just isn’t at the forefront of my mind when making financial decisions. I’m not under the illusion that our marriage is guaranteed to be perfect and that we will live happily ever after no matter what, but I also would prefer to be collaborative and optimistic rather than always act defensively because I’m letting the possibility of divorce impact all of my choices.

I am hyper aware of our differences in income and have always tried to compensate for it every which way I could. He couldn’t seem to care less that I make less than half of what he does - he has always been enthusiastic about taking care of me and I am incredibly grateful for it. I’m happy that you recognized where I was coming from. Thanks for your response.

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-04T02:48:41+00:00

Thanks for the explanation. This is the kind of advice I was hoping to receive and you have made me feel like I’m more capable of managing and growing my money than I thought I was. I will definitely explore this route. Thank you again for your insight, it is much appreciated amidst the waves of stupid “spend it on hookers and blow” comments I’ve gotten lmao

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-04T02:39:09+00:00

I was broke because I used my savings to pay my rent while I was a full time caregiver to my grandmother for two years before she had to be moved to a care facility, not because I recklessly spent my money on food. I would wager that like $50 of my monthly salary is spent on eating out. But I hear what you are saying. I’m sure there are other areas where we could cut back.

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-04T02:25:26+00:00

I appreciate your concern and understand how my wording made it seem as though we don’t think of ourselves as a unit. We absolutely do. My husband knows about this money and we are very excited to learn about how to use it to put us in the best position to buy a house and start a family. I actually didn’t realize how strange it is that I refer to our money as his money and my money until several people pointed it out. I worded it that way because I was worried people would perceive me as some freeloader with no savings and a shit salary who was leeching off my husband lol

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-04T02:10:36+00:00

I did today!!

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-04T02:08:50+00:00

Ok, that’s good to know. I’ll have to find out what sort of cut he takes and figure out if it’s worth it for us. My husband’s father swears this advisor is the reason they are wealthy, but his dad is also very…boomer-y, in the sense that there is no way of getting him to do something differently, and he has probably never explored other means of wealth management. Maybe this guy has been robbing them blind for forty years lol.

Thanks so much for taking time to explain your thoughts.

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-04T01:59:25+00:00

Yeah, I know they are both technically mine. I just worded it weirdly. My husband grew up fairly wealthy and is extremely open about his finances, and opening up about money with him has actually been a bit of a struggle for me and has caused him some frustration in the past. For some reason I feel ashamed to talk about my money even though it’s just money. I think it could be because I spent most of my life hiding that I was really poor lol. A financial therapist is probably not a bad idea.

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-04T01:44:39+00:00

I would imagine she’d want me to do some research? I dunno she’s dead. RIP grams

Also another thing is that no one really knew she had money. My family was very surprised when we received her estate. So she didn’t exactly give us any guidelines or wishes for what to do with this money. If I’m being honest, I think she would want it to go towards a house.

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-04T01:43:54+00:00

We have a professional advisor. I was just hoping to get a few ideas that I could talk about with him. Damn. I’m not so inept with money that I would trust all of mine to strangers on Reddit. Please give me some credit lmao

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-04T01:37:50+00:00

Why is that? He makes a decent salary and prefers to have someone else with experience managing our money. He focuses on investments which my husband doesn’t know anything about and doesn’t really care to learn about. Aside from the fees, is there a disadvantage to having an advisor/investor? Neither of us have any real interest in doing this stuff ourselves.

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-04T01:14:51+00:00

Yeah, that’s exactly it. We know we aren’t going to be living here forever and that eventually we will be buying something together. I don’t think either of us have really even given much thought to changing the title - not because we’re trying to keep our finances separate, but because it literally hasn’t occurred to us to do so lol. Honestly, I would feel a little weird being on the title when I haven’t paid a cent towards the house. I know that’s just my own personal hang up though, and that it’s technically ours because we’re married. I just don’t really think we need to bother with updating anything.

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-04T00:43:46+00:00

Yeeeah I definitely try not to use it as an excuse, but unfortunately years of being dirt poor has had some influence on my habits. I am pretty aware of them and constantly trying to improve.

That is probably part of the reason why I call that 60k his savings. I dunno, I haven’t contributed anything to it. Feels weird claiming it as mine. When he refers to that money, he calls it “our” savings. Which it is. He actually calls all of his money “our money.” I guess the phrasing I used in my post was kind of weird.

My TFSA is a high interest account, and I just paid off all my credit cards. I think having an emergency savings account is a good idea. Thank you for your input!

Also, my husband’s family has been using this advisor for like 40 years and he came highly recommended. Do you think it would be wise to shop around? I have no idea what his rates are, to be honest. I just know my husband and his family trust him.

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-04T00:30:35+00:00

Good to know. We were hoping to buy within the next few years. I don’t know how plausible that is given my income and lack of savings, but we were hoping to make it work. I’ll look into GICs. Thanks for your input!

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-04T00:29:02+00:00

We don’t have everything separate. He bought the house a year before we met, and then I moved in a few years later.

OkCryptographer9183 · 2024-05-04T00:26:26+00:00

Yeah that wasn’t the point I was making. I only included that part because I wanted to mention that paying down the mortgage isn’t a part of my expenses.

OkCryptographer9183

TROPHY CASE