Friday Q & A – Managing a windfall

Question

I’m halfway through spending my $500,000 inheritance due to not having a plan or a job. Is it too late to save myself?

Answer

Without knowing any more about your situation (especially your age, health and expenses), today’s always the best day to improve your situation so it’s great you’ve taken the step to investigate your options.

You’ve been fortunate to inherit a lot of money and $250,000 is still a lot of money that can be used as a home deposit or you can invest to grow it and earn an income.

Momentum can be a hard thing to stop and unfortunately, at the moment the momentum is going the wrong way so I would first focus on a plan to stop this momentum and stop drawing on this money and the only way to do this is to reduce your expenses and increase your income.

To reduce your expenses you really need to figure out where you’re spending your money as it’s likely you’re spending (wasting) money on things that you don’t need or value. Once you’ve done this, come up with a spending plan and set-up separate bank accounts with automatic transfers to help you stick to your spending plan. Another tip would be to take these funds off yourself to eliminate the temptation. One way to do this could be to utilise a Notice Savings Account.

Increasing your income can be more difficult depending on your situation and age however assuming your health is fine I’d work on a plan to get back into the workforce by working out what you’re passionate about, what you’re good at and what experience you have. With the inheritance, you could set-up a plan to draw on it further to study or train to increase your chances of employability however make sure you have a plan that you know you can stick to.

You have a good opportunity however I have seen these funds disappear very quickly so would suggest you take action now. If you don’t think you have the knowledge or willpower to do this, an independent financial adviser is likely to add loads of value as they’ll keep you accountable (an independent financial adviser would say that though ;)).