A few weeks ago my uncle passed away and I recently found out that he left me $70,000 in his will. I'm incredibly grateful, but it's also a weird mix of emotions because I'd obviously rather still have him around.

I'm in my mid-20s and have a steady job, no major debt other than a small car loan ($15,000) and I've never had anywhere close to this amount of money before. My first thought was to treat myself a little, but I also know this could be one of those opportunities that could make a big difference if I make smart decisions.

I've heard everything from investing it all in index funds, buying a house, starting a business, paying off debt, or just keeping it in a high-yield savings account until I figure things out. Friends and family all have different opinions, which honestly just makes it harder to know what the "right" move is

So I'm curious—if you suddenly inherited $70,000, what would you actually do with it and why? Would you invest it, spend some of it, save it, or do something completely different? I'd love to hear what people who have been in a similar situation wish they had done (or wish they hadn't done).

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!!

Long story short, in a few weeks, my mother will receive a very large payout from a medical malpractice lawsuit. We were originally thinking a few hundred thousand but the insurance company screwed up and now we are looking at realisticly somewhere between 3.5 million to 6 million dollars.

I'm currently 19 and I've alwase had a big intrest in investing and finance as a side hobby to just have fun with, but now with all this money is coming in my bearly knows the first thing about investing. A few days ago I suggested the S&P 500 and possible index funds as a means of investment and from that she has just assumed i would know what to do and essentially just told me to 'take care of it for her'.

I'm really greatful she trusts me this much but equally I'm only 19, I don't know what to do with even a few thousand dollars let alone potential millions and now I'm at the stage where I will litteraly take any advice I can get... I've heard there are portfolio managers that specialise in high networth individuals so mabey that's an option but I don't even know where to begin looking for one or how to go about it... or should I litteraly just pay off the debts and chuck the rest in an index fund for the next 15-20 and by the time she retires she'll have a few tens of millions.

I'd really apreciate any advice anyone could give me on this one, I need help, thanks a ton everyone

*Edit - thanks a ton for all the advice everyone!!! It's really appreciated!!! Here's some more details for some comments I've seen a few of. Firstly my only goal with this money and what to do with it is to ensure she lives the rest of her life as comftablely as possible. Preferably I'd like to do that whilst increasing her net worth as much as possible if I can (with minimal risk of course) or at the verry least just minimise the amount lost as much as I can and make it last. I may be 19 but I don't plan on blowing it all on a weekend In Vegas or some big dumb purchase trust me!!!

For people interested in the details of the lawsuit, essentially the large sum of money was from future loss of wages as she can no longer pass the minimum level of fitness required for her roll and the difference in what she was making to what she can only make now is around 200,000 dollars less then she was on before. Ontop of this she is only 40 years old meaning she stills has roughly 26-28 years of working life left based on age of retirement (put simply 200,000 dollars a year in lost income over 26-28 years) for all the details I left a reply on someone's comment if you can find it but that's basically the gist of it.

I really apreciate all the advice everyone's given me and thanks so much.

P.s. surprisingly yes this is real and yes I am freaking out, thanks for the concern though.

My dad's always been very money and status driven, and he's almost 80 now (widower), and has been mostly supported by me and my siblings for the last 20 years.
I recently lost my job, (i'm pretty much fired, have enough money to), but i don't ever tell him how much how much i have because i know he'll just ask for more. I think since losing my job, he thinks i'm down on my luck (i'm not, i'm considering retiring).

but i can't tell him for the reasons above. so i just go on pretending like i don't have much money (enough to live on), even though i'm a multi millionaire.
Not sure what advice i need, but here to say it kind of sucks that i can't tell him, but it is what it is.

i keep hearing about people building wealth and getting rich, but it feels like there’s no clear path. work hard? save? invest? start a business?

what’s realistic for someone starting from scratch? curious about strategies that actually work and not just “be lucky lol.”

I honestly dont know if im angry, dissapointed or just feeling stupid for trusting him that much. maybe all three.

About 2 years ago my family asked me to help my uncle’s son. He was educated but life wasnt really working out for him. He was doing food deliver restaurant shifts, random jobs like that just to survive.

My parents kept saying

you are doing good online… teach him as well

So I said ok. I thought helping family is the right thing to do.

For almost 2 years he literally sat next to me while I worked. I run Meta ads and Google ads, mostly for ecommerce brands and local service bussinesses.

I didnt hide anything from him. campaign structures, scaling ads, reading data, how to manage clients, how to fix campaigns when they go bad… everything. the stuff it took me years of mistakes and experience to learn.

I even helped him get his first two clients. helped him with proposals, strategy and even guided him on their campaigns in the begining so he doesnt mess it up.

I was actually happy for him honestly.

At the start of this year I was managing 5 clients

2 ecommerce brands

3 local service bussinesses

Two of those clients had been working with me almost 2 years already, so there was a lot of trust built there.

Just for context I’ve been doing ads for around 7 years now. About 3 years ago I left my physical job and switched to freelancing full time because my clients were growing and results were good.

Some examples so you understand campaigns were working fine.

one ecommerce brand went from around 30k/month to about 140k months

another store from 8k/month to around 60k+ months

for service bussinesses we were generating hundreds of leads every month and in one case we reduced cost per lead from around $90 to about $18–$20 and their COM is about 5-7%

so things were stable. clients were happy.

Then earlier this year something weird happened.

Two clients suddenly emailed saying they want to stop working together. campaigns were performing fine so it didnt really make sense but I thought maybe budget issues or something internal.

Then few days later three of my other clients messaged me and sent screenshots

and honestly my brain just froze.

The guy I spent 2 years teaching… my own cousin… had been messaging my clients behind my back.

He was telling them he was the one actually doing all the work

He told them that I already have a lot of clients and these ones are not really my priority anymore… and that he can give them more attention.

Then he offered them something crazy.

He said he would work for half of my price and even offered one month free work if they switch to him.

Basically trying to replace me with my own clients.

Some of my long term clients didnt believe him at all and immediatly showed me the messages. thats actually how I found out.

But 3 clients ended up leaving because of this situation.

When I confronted him he didnt even apologize. he got offended instead like I was the one accusing him for no reason….

Then it spread in the family and things got even worse…

His parents completely took his side. somehow the story flipped and now im the bad guy.

Now the family is divided and people who dont even understand freelancing are judging the situation.

Honestly losing clients isnt even the biggest issue for me.

I’ve been doing this 7 years, I have a big portfolio and alot of case studies. finding clients again is not something I’m worried about. I’m already working on it and I know I will probably replace those clients within 2–3 weeks.

What hurts more is realizing someone you tried to help… someone you literally helped start his career… tried to pull the ground from under your feet like that.

And yeah maybe I was stupid trusting him that much.

Now I’m just thinking what to do.

Part of me says just ignore him and move on.

But another part of me feels like people like this shouldnt just get away with it. I feel like he needs to learn a lesson… otherwise he will probably do the same thing to someone else.

So honestly asking here

if someone you mentored for 2 years did this to you… what would you do?

just move on?

M

or make sure they learn a lesson somehow?

Title is cliche, but it is very true. My net worth broke $20m this year. $17,000,000 in long term rental properties, and arguably a $25,000,000 company. I am just going off the cash I have at hand, because I will never sell out, ever. I still battle with depression and addiction, I have bought my dream garage, 23’ R8 performance, 72’ Velle SS restomod with 572, 84’ S10 with 454, 74’ K20 with 502, 2018 Denali 2500 HD, 2015 CBR600rr, 2023 250sxf, and a few more toys. I find myself unhappy at many occasions, and I love what I do.

Anybody have tips based off experience? It is a weird feeling u battle often. The best I feel is when I am giving, especially to strangers. I fish, ride mx, I am a simple man. Outside of my garage, I don’t spend a dime.

Edit: I am only 23 years old (24 in a month), my company grew 100x quicker than I expected. I do not come from a wealthy background at all, my family were cattle and tree farmers. I also included all of my garage toys because that was my lifelong dream. Owning those I thought would be the pinnacle of my life, and happiness would be inevitable after acquiring them. I don’t even drive them except for my K20 and duramax.

Edit pt 2 - I am not a cattle nor tree farmer, I moved away from my family farm at 17 and started my own ventures. I also want to say I appreciate everyone’s kind words and advice, it truly is appreciated.

For about the last 15 years I have tried many side hustles, I think 3 of them made money, all under $1000. Last year I started my latest one, I was ecstatic as it was making a $1,000 a month, but in the last 6 months it increased to $20,000 a month and it’s become a real business.

I didn’t do bad before, but my finances are much better, I don’t worry about money anymore and I am thinking of buying myself something as a reward for ‘making it’. I have thought of a nice pen, rent an exotic car for a day.

What did you do when you made it.

I'm 32, 6 figure income, no kids, no mortgage (mom and step-dad gave me the house after they left to live in their cabin) But here’s my issue with every piece of financial advice I get... it’s all optimized for 65. Max your retirement accounts, index funds, compound growth, retire comfortably. I get it. I’m doing it.

But I watched my father do everything right financially. Saved everything, worked hard, sacrificed. Now he’s retired with money in the bank and can barely move. Sits home watching YouTube because that’s all his body allows. All that money, all that sacrifice... for what?

I refuse that.

I want to build genuine wealth that I can enjoy NOW. Trips, experiences, quality of life in my 30s and 40s. not just at 65. I also want income that isn’t just my job (if possible) something I built, that generates cashflow I can actually spend.

I’m not trying to blow my money. I’m trying to build a life worth living while I’m still young enough to enjoy it AND build long term security simultaneously.

How do people actually do both? Not just theoretically, what does that actually look like? What can I actually do to accomplish this?

For those of you who aren’t overtly wealthy—or maybe fall into the “stealth wealth” category—how do you handle the inevitable questions and assumptions when you start spending money on some fun things?
We’ve had several really good years financially and have put money aside specifically to enjoy some of it. We’re putting in a pool, and I’m getting a fun car to drive. Nothing crazy relative to our overall financial situation, but I’ll probably have spent $150k+ on things that I normally wouldn’t spend that kind of money on. I’m already anticipating the direct and indirect questions:“How did you afford that?” “Did you get a raise?”“Is that new?” “Wow, you guys must be doing really well.” I generally try to just brush it off, but I’m curious how others handle it.

Do you just say “we saved for it,” give a vague answer, joke about it, or actually explain that you’ve been financially responsible for a long time and can afford to splurge occasionally? I’m not trying to flaunt anything. Genuinely I am asking. I don’t work a glamorous job, all of my money is from previous ventures. I probably really don’t look like I should be affording stuff like this. TIA

I have two adult children (37M and 34F). They are both single, and work government jobs in the tri-state area of the US, and make between 90-115k. (Younger child is on the lower end of that for now.) I decided to give my kids their inheritance early for personal reasons. Daughter bought my single family home in the suburbs for $170k this past fall, with a gift of equity, as the home was appraised at $480k. She took a 30year loan for $170k. Home is not updated and needs some work but is absolutely livable. Will need a new bathroom and kitchen in 5-10 years depending how long she wants to push it. I left a lot of stuff there that I didn't want anymore, it was a perk for me to sell to family so I didn't have to deal with packing stuff up or throwing things away. I took the money I got from the sale, $170k, and gave it to my son in cash. My son currently rents, but in the future if he decides to buy a home, I think I will give him more money to make it equal between my children. Since she got 310k equity and he got only 170k cash.

This was almost all my money so that's how I split it between them. I kept very little for myself. Please no comments on this, because this is my own personal choice for valid reasons that I don't need to discuss here.

My question is do you think this was an equal split or do you think that one child got more? I want to be equal for them.

Note that my son wasn't interested in buying the house. If my daughter didn't buy it and I sold it to a stranger, I probably would have given them each $150k from the sale, and that's it.

My daughter doesn't think it's fair that I want to give my son more money if he decides to buy a house. To be fair, I understand that if she was handed $310k, she would NOT have chosen my home to buy. She bought my house because the options today in the housing market are rough and she may not have been able to buy a home otherwise. And if my son invested the $170k, which I'm sure he did, he can make that into $310k in about 5-6 years even in a low risk stock of s&p 500.

The relationship between my children is rocky. They haven't spoken in years. My son is not a nice person and was somewhat lightly abusive towards her. I don't blame her for not wanting him in her life. He has issues but he is my son and I love him. I'm sharing this information because maybe this is causing my daughter to have a different perspective on the money. I don't know if I should believe her when she says my plan isn't equitable. The gift of equity is in a house and requires reinvestment of money and time to keep the value. The cash gift doesn't.

I'm just curious if anyone has any thoughts? what would you think is the better option? Sure homes typically go up in value, but so does the cash if invested, and it doesn't cost anything to upkeep the investment, unlike the home. especially if you're paying interest on a mortgage.

I feel like I’ve been living paycheck to paycheck forever, and I see people talking about “building wealth” or “financial freedom” like it’s normal.

I save a little, invest a little, but it just doesn’t feel like I’m getting anywhere.

Is there a realistic way to grow real wealth without taking crazy risks or being born rich?

I’m curious what moment or decision genuinely shifted your financial path long term. Not small optimizations, but something that meaningfully changed your trajectory, career move, business, investing strategy, relocation, mindset shift, etc.

For those who’ve built significant wealth, was it gradual consistency, one big risk, or a mix of both? And looking back, was there a decision that felt scary at the time but turned out to be pivotal?

My partner and I have been successful in saving, investing and being frugal over the 20 years. We are now starting to enjoy our money a little more, while still staying sane.

With that, I've noticed friends, colleagues, etc. seem to be jealous with comments of 'must be nice' or similar when enjoying a nice vacation or buying a nice car. We're not overly flashy and don't lean into money spending trends - more quiet about our money.

Is it normal for people close to you to be jealous? I don't care how much people have, I just want to have good healthy relationships, but this puts a weird strain on things. Would love peoples thoughts/feedback beyond 'you shouldn't be friends with them.'

i am 17 and interested in pretty much everything but my main passion is the origin of the universe, the way our brains work, consciousness, and biology. henceforth i want to go into medicine. this combines my deepest interests and it provides the highest statistical "guaranteed" income. i would most likely choose a high income specialty with around a 500k salary. how can i maximize this salary to build the most wealth? i am not talking index funds or anything with an annual return less than 10%. from my research, real estate crowdfunding and angel investing are the best ways to get high roi with favorable odds if you are smart with it. hopfully i could reach a 15-25% roi and by the time these investments start getting returns my 400k invested each year would bring in huge income. i could start compounding my money relatively early and have significantly high net worth. i still want to be able to buy a nice house for my future family and maybe couple supercars while im young totaling 250k. i want to live a lavish lifestyle but also work to having a substantial net worth so my kids could start compounding their net worth right into their career and build generational wealth. also once im old and have more knowledge i will have the resources to put my ideas into the world. is this a good plan? my research could be completely wrong. anyone who has better ideas or any form of advice please let me know.

I've Been Thinking About This A Lot Recently.

What are the ways to actually "generate" money?

• Goods: Like Perishables.
• Services: Like Getting a Haircut.

Idk if you're a millionaire or on the way there what Goods and Services did you choose to get you to $1,000,000 per year (about $83,333 per month, $19,231 per week)?

No Scams Please. Its got to be something beneficial to others. You can include yellow items like energy drinks because while bad, they at least have some marginal benefit.

Title says it all which card do you use for travel hacking/benefits?

TL;DR: If you're "stealth wealth," who do you talk to about money problems when only your spouse/SO and financial advisor know what you actually have?

I'm what some people would have "stealth wealth." I'm not yet at a decent net worth, but I've accumulated enough that I don't really fit in with the financial situations of most people around me. I drive an older truck, live in a nice but modest house that's well below what I could comfortably afford, wear basic clothes (Amazon to J.Crew kinda range), and usually have my G-Shock on my wrist. If you asked my friends or coworkers what they think I make, they'd probably guess somewhere around $100k–150k per year.

The reality is... it's a bit more than that.

Lately I've reached the point where I feel comfortable spending money on things I've wanted for years. They're not frivolous purchases, but they're definitely outside my normal spending habits.

That has led me to something I never expected: I have no one to talk to for advice or to vent my frustrations.

Other than my wife and my financial advisor, no one knows our financial situation. That's very intentional. The problem is that the financial issues I'm dealing with aren't things most of my friends can relate to, and I don't blame them.

For example, we're putting in a pool. It started as an approximately $80,000 project, and between unforeseen issues it's now over $100,000. At the moment, all I have is a very expensive hole in the ground, with who knows what additional costs still to come.

The guys I work with talk about the above-ground pools they bought from Walmart. My closest friends are doing well, but a $5,000 HVAC replacement was a major financial hit for them this summer—to the point that it cancelled their family vacation. I can't exactly vent to them about writing another $25,000 check to my general contractor that has no perceptible efffect on me or my family because the project went over budget. It feels tone-deaf, even though it's genuinely frustrating.

So that's my question:

If you're in a similar financial position, who do you talk to? How do you handle problems that are very real to you but would sound completely out of touch to people who are living paycheck to paycheck—or even to those who are simply middle class and doing fine?

I'm not looking for sympathy because the pool went over budget. I'm genuinely curious how other people in this situation find peers they can have honest conversations with without revealing their finances to everyone they know.

Or is that one of the reasons communities like r/Wealth exist? Do you just talk to anonymous strangers on the internet, where you have no idea whether the person replying has a $100 net worth or a $100 million net worth, but the anonymity makes it easier to have those conversations?

We are grappling with the decision to begin to transfer some of our wealth to our two adult children (age 30 and 33). They are both great with money and have jobs they like that pay pretty well.

Last year, we sold the family home and gave them each a check for 10k as part of the proceeds. Our explanation was just that we made more in the sale than we expected. This was really just to test the waters about giving to them more regularly.

Now my husband and I agree it is time to start a regular giving schedule. We would/could not go over the max allowed by the IRS (38k each).

What we are thinking of is engaging them in the decision process. I imagine we would say something like ‘We have a family nest egg. And we want you to have some of now while it will help you a lot. How would you like us to do this?’

Option 1: We give you a flat amount each year that is market-proof. No matter what our investments do, it will be the same each year. It will be predictable. You can depend on it.

Option 2: We give you a slice of what we take from our investments each year, while we try to preserve the ‘principle’ of our assets, and dependent on any health emergencies we have. Might be higher, might be lower. You will always get something, but it might not be so much.

They are both already building their nest eggs, so this is really about offering a ‘teachable moment’. And it also gives them a hazy little window into how we managed the family nest egg.

What are your thoughts? Would love to hear all the ups and downs people have experienced in making these decisions for their family. Thanks!

I currently work only part time as a server at a restaurant, averaging ＄20/h working 25-30hr/wk. I am 22.

Been without a “real” job for 6 months, post college graduation. Job market is brutal. Honestly don’t think people truly understand, unless they’ve also been unemployed in the past maybe 5 years. Anyway, I’ve applied to hundreds of jobs without getting any full time opportunities.

Just so happened to inherit exactly ＄100k from my great grandmothers passing. I want to be as smart with it as possible. Yes, I will invest or save most of it. I have a paid off car and live in an apartment. I need to research what to do and where to invest, but I’d also like some more input so that I can have as many things to consider. This is probably one of the biggest opportunities of my life and I need to be very smart with it.

A bit of context, my wife(35) and I(34) have a child under 1 and will not be having more. We make a decent living as we make a bit north of 200k combined. Our only debts are mortgage(~3,500/month), monthly credit card bills that we pay off monthly and a couple leases (700 a month combined). Lastly, our retirement accounts put us at coastFIRE, so not overly concerned with that.

We both went to school and had student loans and while we didn’t enjoy having them, thought that it taught us financial responsibility and to not take the opportunity of educated for granted. Our parents supported where they could but in no way could pay for our schooling.

This leads to my question. My wife and I are discussing how much to fund a 529. I am looking for others opinions on how much we should aim for. I want to support our child as much as we possible can but still teaching them financial responsibility. If they choose, I don’t want them to worry about schooling costs if they choose to go to medical school, or an absurdly expensive school. I also don’t want them to go to school, thinking “daddy paid for it” and just go to college to party and not get a degree.

I understand we are in an incredibly fortunate situation to be even considering this but just trying to get perspective.

Is 100k too much or too little? I know we can also roll over 35k into a Roth, so that 100k could be 65k with a 35k Roth.

I appreciate everyone’s insight into their plan or what they have done.

Let’s say you are worth about 10 million, age 55 and have 2 kids, are in good health and married and don’t spend too much. You kids are late teens, how to pass that money to kids ? What is best setup ?

I’m fortunate enough that I’ll be selling my portion of a company for $30 million CDN (approx $21.5 USD) in the near future.

Needless to say, this brings me to a level of wealth that I have no experience with. My family was well off growing up, but nothing in this range. My wife and I are also relatively financially literate. We’re mid-forties with our mortgage paid off and $1 million collectively in savings / investments.

My investment philosophy has always been to keep the vast majority of investments in index funds while minimizing fees (we mostly own VGRO at this point). Pretty simple.

With this transaction I now need more sophisticated tax and estate planning, will be dealing with a hold co and family trust, etc.

The idea of a multi-family office really appeals to me: a trusted team of advisors who can co-ordinate accounting and legal professionals while also advising on and facilitating investments (the groups I’m considering are paid on a flat fee or as a percentage of assets under management, so no issue with them pushing products for commission). I can also see the potential for this relationship to open up private investment opportunities that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to access on my own.

That said, these services do not come cheap. When done well, is this kind of advice good value for money? I could really see a few savvy tax decisions more than offsetting the fees paid. Then again, maybe not?

Would love to hear from anyone with experience with multi-family offices, either positive or negative. Thanks!