I got a check for $50,000 

While the title is a little clickbaity, its true. About three months ago I sold my house and was cut a check from the bank for just over $50,000. Holding this check in my hands I realized it was the largest amount of money I’ve ever held onto at once.  Thoughts began to run through my head about what I should do with this money. The same may go for many of you who have also sold a home or other expensive item, got an inheritance of some sort, or maybe got a new job that pays really well. While this is a problem that you have to worry about, it is definetly a good problem to have. 

Thinking about what to do with this money  was something I was conflicted with, especially due to the fact that the idea of a recession is looming around. I would hate to invest $50,000 in the stock market right now only to see it drop significantly in the near future when the recession hits. This brings the idea back of trying to time the market and gamble on when it will go up or down which in a way I’m trying to do, but for the sole purpose of protecting my assets by not dumping this $50,000 straight into the stock market all at once. 

 I came up with the idea that I would put $25,000 of this money into a money market account through Vanguard. A Money Market account is a very safe investment that on average earns approx. 2%. This is pretty much in line with what a lot of the online banks are offering for savings accounts these days.  The money market account then gives me a way to still earn some money without my money just wasting away in my checking account earning little to no interest. As of now the remaining $25,000 is sitting in my checking account but I am investing $2,000 extra per month of it into my Vanguard brokerage account. This will allow that $25,000 to be spread out over a years time vs. being all invested at once. This provides me a little safety net of buying into the market at a super high price and also provides me options throughout the year in case there are other things I want to do with that money. 

Most recently my new venture is to start getting involved in real estate. My goal of owning properties is now starting to come to light and it is mainly attributed to the fact that I sold my home and now have this $50,000 to play around with, so to speak. I look forward to sharing with you all the details about this real estate investment stuff, but as of right now it is in the very beginning stages so stay tuned.

So you may be asking yourself what is the best thing to do with a large sum of money that you’ve recently come into for some particular reason. My first response would be, don’t just spend it all away on new things you like. I’ll admit as I was holding onto that check the thought of going to buy a brand new car definetly popped into my head. I then snapped out of it and realized doing that wouldn’t really make me any happier. The only time I would encourage you to spend all of a large lump sum of money is if you are investing it or paying off debts. Most importantly I would urge you to be patient and find ways to diversify this money. Try not to put all your eggs in one basket at one time as the cons generally outweigh the pros. One caveat to this, is that the market may be at a low point as it was approx. 10 years ago. If through your research you believe the market is currently low and on sale then by all means go ahead and invest as much money as you would like. As I mentioned before I am kind of playing it safe right now due to the idea of a recession coming which has resulted in me going against that approach and dragging the timeline out a little further.

While everyone’s situation is unique I urge to start thinking about what you would do if this situation happened to you. How would you spend or invest the money? What urges would you have to fight off? And finally what fears do you have that come along with managing a large amount of money all at once?

If you have any questions about your personal situation please feel free to reach out to me and I will attempt to help you come up with good solutions for your financial future. 

Thanks for reading, 

-Matt-