I recently found out that an old relative passed and I am getting a small portion of a pretty significant trust. After taxes/fees, I am guessing my portion will come out to around 20k-25k. Currently, my savings is very sad. I have about 1.5k in an emergency fund and 13k in a State sponsored retirement account (this can be refunded at the end of my employment with 25% tax withholding, or can be rolled over to an IRA). My rent increased so I am moving back home, and should be able to save a lot more as my mom is not charging me rent. I make around 50k and have very limited expenses. I have no debt: no student loans, car loan, cc debt, etc. I am, however, applying to attend law school starting fall of 2027. Obviously, I have no idea how much it will be as I won’t find out about admits/scholarships for another year. So right now the plan is to save as much money as humanly possible. What is my best plan of action? I think I can save around 1.5k a month when I’m back home. Should I throw everything in a HYSA? Start investing? I obviously won’t be able to work in law school, so I’m assuming I will rack up a significant amount of student loans. My mom has around 50k sitting in an investment account for me from my dad’s passing. I do not have access to this money (yet), but she is able to help me a bit with school. Any help is appreciated!
Coming into 20k at 24 what to do?
byu/Cold-Risk-3411 inpersonalfinance
Posted by Cold-Risk-3411
4 Comments
Start with this flowchart in the PF wiki:
https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics/
Sounds like you know exactly what to do. Save every penny of it. Since you may need it in 12-15 months the stock market may be down, so I think a HYSA is a wise choice.
Since you may need the money in 1–2 years, investing in the market or individual stocks might be a bad idea, no one knows where the price will be by then. It will probably be higher, but lower is also very much an option. So just keeping it in cash or a HYSA is probably the safest move for your situation.
Don’t cash out that retirement account. Keep it rolling in an IRA. Sounds like you have decent income if you’re going to move back home you should be able to fund your Roth IRA and put the rest in a HYSA.