I just inherited some money. what should I do with it.?

25,000 in cash. Pay off car? pay down 2nd mortgage? Invest? fund retirement? Fund college edu. for kids?

Pay off your debt first, the highest interest rate first then on down. The exception to this is you may want to hold off paying off mortgages as this interest is tax deductible, but thats your call.

After that I'd invest it in Mutual funds. Dig around a bit and find one or two of the better ones and invest in them. There are aggressive mutual funds (investing in small companies or emerging markets) and conservative ones (large companies or index funds). Wihch type you pick is up to you, but with minimal hassle you can pick some good ones.

You may want to keep a little bit aside (5-10% or so) and fun some fun with it. If you go this route I'd suggest whatever you do be decided by the entire family.

Good luck, and have fun.

go shopping!

Why don't you give it to that lsingle mother who is in debt, whos advice I gave "Stop having babies" JK, it ain't your fault. If you're under 25, blow it. Have some fun, have a Vegas trip you'll never forget

pay off your high interest credit cards first. Don't pay off your car because you will likely only be paying your principle. They hit you with all the interest upfront so if you only have a year or two to go it doesn't make sense to pay off the car. Same with the mortgage.

Get your debt down to manageble levels. Kids education is good as long as you take advantage of any matching scheme offered by the government.

Finally, do something frivolous with some of the money. A cruise or something.

I would put it in the bank and have an interest check sent to me every month. Keep adding to it to make the interest payment increase. Don't blow it. You will be disappointed in yourself later if you do that. I know because that is what I did. I would be a millionaire today if I had not blown the money on material garbage that I don't even have anymore.

First of all if you have any debt like credit cards, get rid of it. If not, then put the money on the highest interest rate whether that is the car or 2nd mortgage. You should really worry about your retirement before you worry about the kid's college fund. Set aside as much money tax free as you can and then fund a Roth IRA (after tax). You don't have to do any ONE thing and you don't have to spend it. Set up a semi-liquid emergency fund just in case you need cash due to employment or medical issues. Don't get stuck without a dime. You've listed five suggestions... why not put $5,000 on each or $2,000 on each and $15K into a "cushion" for emergencies??? Something else to consider... if you don't have a will and/or trust, don't worry about the kid's college as much as worrying about them if something happens to you. Don't make them go through probate AND greiving for something you have the money to protect them from. Get to an attorney's office for estate planning. Some company uses the motto, "life comes at you fast" ... so does death.

I would put 4K(and another 4K for any spouse) in a ROTH IRA. The flexibility is to great to pass up.

Assuming this is someone close, the rest of it I would put for a money market for a year. Then after the feelings of grief are not as strong, make use of the money that is most honoring to the person who gave it to you.

Park in a money market paying 5% for now at Vanguard or your bank, then talk to a financial advisor for suggestions.

If you have high interest credit cards, pay them off first, then any 2nd mortgage (depending on the APR and if a variable HELOC). You can fund your Roth IRA this year and make sure you contribute to your employer's 401K now that you can afford to take that contribution match. There is no loan for retirement, so a 529 for the children is optional depending on your situation. Then go take the family out for a nice dinner.

Stick it in ING or somewhere else with decent interest, and then spend a few months playing around with ideas of what you could do with it. One approach is to write down all of your ideas...everything you can think of...on separate pieces of paper, then play "trade off" -- pick two pieces of paper at random, and choose one of them; discard the one you didn't choose; pick another, and weigh it against the first one you selected, and choose between those two; keep doing it until there's one winner. Then think about it for a week, pretending you actually went with that idea, and see how you feel about it.

Pretending you made a choice and committed the money without actually doing it lets you "try on" all the possible solutions to find the best fit, what you'll be happiest with in the long run.

This is great!! I'm a financial adviser, Pay off your car first, if interest more than 2-4%, the rest of the money should go to pay down 2nd mortgage, you will emprove your cash flow, so if you have any extra left every month keep pay down your 2nd mortgage, this is your saving for your retirement or college education for your kids

Using the choices you provided, the answer is obvious. Pay off the car. The mortgage is a tax writeoff (even as a 2nd). An investment is good, but if you're not making more interest than the debt is costing you, then it's not a wise investment. The debt is a guaranteed rate. The investment is not. Giving yourself more cash flow, by getting rid of debt, will only help the kids in the long run - more than a college fund will.

Your first priority when dealing with money should always be to minimize/erase your liabilities (debt). You need to focus on paying of debt first, because after you do that you are free to build wealth and the sky is truly then the limit. You simply cannot dues 'big things' in life if you are in horrible debt.

Until you can pay off your debt, set apart a certain percentage of each paycheck (aim for $100 a month to start out) for building savings/retirement. I forget the math, but I remember hearing saving something like $100 a month starting at 20 until age 40 at 9 or 10% interest would make you a millionaire by the time you retire. If you are already past 40 I still recommend paying off debt to set yourself free (via that lump sum and some sort of payment plan), then socking away larger ammounts of your paycheck to play catchup for your retirement. If you were to just invest that 25k and things went sour, what would you do then? You'd be screwed . Trust me, your money is best spent paying off your debts and planning for the future.

Dont waste it. Reinvest it in a good business.This is how people with money make more money!