F23. A couple years ago I was wrongfully terminated and it turned into a pretty serious lawsuit. I won’t get into all the details but it’s finally wrapping up and I could end up getting somewhere between 60k and 100k depending on how everything settles. It still feels weird even typing that.
I’m a community college student finishing my associate’s. I don’t really have debt. My living situation is affordable, my old car is paid off, and my job covers my monthly bills so I’m okay month to month. I only have about $1,000 in savings though, so I’ve never really had any kind of financial cushion.
I’ve never had money like this before and that’s what’s stressing me out a little. I was thinking about maybe investing some of it, but I honestly don’t know anything about that world or if that’s even smart with this amount. I just don’t want to make a dumb decision because I got excited.
I’m also in the process of joining the military on active duty and that should happen within six months to a year if everything goes smoothly, so I don’t really want to make any big purchases if I might be leaving soon.
This feels like one of those moments that could either set me up or be something I regret if I handle it wrong. I’m open to any advice, ideas, or things you’d do in this situation.
I Might Be Getting $100k at 23 and I’m Terrified of Messing It Up
byu/peachymochi333 inMilitaryFinance
Posted by peachymochi333
2 Comments
Put half into savings, invest another 25 percent into individual stocks or ETF’s , put into an Roth IRA /max it out and go do something you haven’t done like go to a new country or a restaurant you wanted to always go to that’s just my advice also if you’re gonna join the military with half of your degree might as well look into WGU or other schools and get your bachelor and commission as an officer
Military has Roth TSP, you should contribute to that when you get in the military. Open a HYSA and park like 15k in it for emergency savings. Pay off any debts. Look up /rbogleheads and start a Roth IRA account and just do VOO (or something like that, research into bogleheads for more information) and max out the yearly limit for retirement. As for banks that cater to military members, I personally have Navy Federal Credit Union as my main bank and USAA as my second bank. Federal Credit union has great customer service and really good credit cards (Flagship credit card gives free Amazon subscription) and USAA has good insurance for my car. While you’re in the military you can also utilize the GI Bill to go back to school, and also please document and go to “sick call” for any medical reasons while you’re in active duty. This will be important for later if you get messed up and need to file for VA Disability.
Edit: I use M1 Finance for my Roth IRA retirement account and HYSA, but you can do your own research and decide for yourself