shootingstar Posted March 2, 2019 Share #1 Posted March 2, 2019 This guy inherited this: Q: My parents recently passed away and I inherited close to $500,000. I am 24 years old working as an engineer-in-training in Toronto with an annual salary of $65,000. My student loans are paid off and I carry no credit card debt. I currently live off my own salary with about 40% of my after-tax income going towards rent and car payments. I put 8% of my salary towards a company matched RRSP and they match an additional 4%. My TFSA is capped in a mix of ETFs. My question is: what do I do with $ 500,000? I have looked into mutual funds and ETFs or buying instead of renting while maintaining a safety net since I will never be able to move back in with my parents should things go south. I am unsure what would be considered ‘safe’ yet I know I should start thinking net worth and building on this nest egg. for myself, I probably had only a few hundred dollars in bank. Unlike this guy, I was working part-time because that was what I could land related to my degree. I had just graduated from university the year before. I was given a sewing machine as a gift (from my mother). It was a good thing --I sewed my business work wardrobe...suits, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheep_herder ★ Posted March 2, 2019 Share #2 Posted March 2, 2019 Living in Fort Collins, CO. Finished my BS in December and had started working on my MS that summer. Was there until autumn 1968. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 2, 2019 Share #3 Posted March 2, 2019 I was working in construction. Making good money for that time. Decided to go to forestry school a few years later. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirtyhip Posted March 2, 2019 Share #4 Posted March 2, 2019 I closed on my first home around that time. Bought it by myself. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petitepedal ★ Posted March 2, 2019 Share #5 Posted March 2, 2019 Making $14,000 a year as a youth director at a church..and completely on my own..both parents dead.. confused and unsure about my next step. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Page Turner Posted March 2, 2019 Share #6 Posted March 2, 2019 ..I wuz still attending the University of Maryland at College Park, living above a doctor's office (that had closed down the practice) in Mt Rainier, Maryland. driving a cab nights to make up the money I needed because the GI bill only paid like 300 bucks monthly, and managing the Washington Hospital Center swimming pool in the summertime, when I was not in school. Good times !!! 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisL Posted March 2, 2019 Share #7 Posted March 2, 2019 Recently separated from the PD, going to school FT and working a FT & a PT job. My mid 20’s were rough.. Edit... I was actually recalled back into the Army at 24 during the 1st gulf war... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffJim Posted March 2, 2019 Share #8 Posted March 2, 2019 Graduated from college, and got a full time job offer for $16,500 plus overtime at the CPA firm. Also got my first apartment and my parents moved out of town. As most of you remember, that is the year the NFL went on strike and they played 3 games with replacement players. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2Far ★ Posted March 2, 2019 Share #9 Posted March 2, 2019 Working full time for a decent sized international manufacturing company & getting ready to get married in October. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilbur ★ Posted March 2, 2019 Share #10 Posted March 2, 2019 Had a small house, big mortgage, car debt, crap salary, a wife, child on the way and about to join the military. 35 years later, still have no inheritance and I am very, very thankful for that. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shootingstar Posted March 2, 2019 Author Share #11 Posted March 2, 2019 1 hour ago, Dirtyhip said: I closed on my first home around that time. Bought it by myself. Different definitions of financial success early in life. But good on you. I paid probably 50% of my own university education BA and MA =5 yrs. with money from summer jobs. However even back then, top rated Canadian universities still were lower tuition fees compared to today. Rest was student grants because I came from a low-income family. (Father was a cook with 6 children.) 3 of my 5 years were living and studying in a different city, so I paid for my accommodation, living expenses also. All my siblings were like me (with some obtaining part funding support via scholarships,. That is also achievement academically and financially). Actually one of them borrowed abit of money from me....and I was still only working part-time post university. I've actually forgotten to ask her to repay me. Oh well. I've stayed at her place awhile, eaten, etc. I didn't buy my own home until I was 31 yrs. I didn't travel outside of Canada for vacation until I was around 27 yrs. old. I just had no money, no sugar parents. None of us ever plan for any inheritance because we know at final stage of life, for my mother, we probably have to sell her house to cover nursing home costs, etc. The financial story seems to me slightly fishy....there's something I can't quite lay my finger on. But even if hypothetical, it's worth thinking for a young person how they should plan financially. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BR46 Posted March 2, 2019 Share #12 Posted March 2, 2019 We were living in a cheap apartment, Wo46 was pregnant and working as a cashier for a grocery store and I was working the night shift. I think that we had $250 in the bank. I also worked part time at a motorcycle shop trying to save up a down payment on a house. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
groupw Posted March 2, 2019 Share #13 Posted March 2, 2019 I was working at a record store. Married, 3 yr old daughter and newborn son. Wife was a retail cashier soon to be a supervisor. We had a small house. No savings, yet. We kept our head above water, but things were tricky. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Page Turner Posted March 2, 2019 Share #14 Posted March 2, 2019 1 hour ago, Wilbur said: Had a small house, big mortgage, car debt, crap salary, a wife, child on the way and about to join the military. 35 years later, still have no inheritance and I am very, very thankful for that. ...you are so mean to @AirwickWithCheese, it's no wonder nobody ever left you any inheritance. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralphie ★ Posted March 2, 2019 Share #15 Posted March 2, 2019 Hmmm, doing basically the same thing I am now! Where did those 39 years go? 2 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddmaxx ★ Posted March 2, 2019 Share #16 Posted March 2, 2019 I was not there. When I was here it was in and around the Norfolk VA area renting a house in VA Beach generally trying to ignore the fact that I was in the navy. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post tybeegb Posted March 2, 2019 Popular Post Share #17 Posted March 2, 2019 Had $1100 in the bank and bought a house on Tybee and used $1000 for the down payment. Steady job, low pay, one kid, living paycheck to paycheck at that point because WofTy was a stay at home mom. It worked out. Patience is a virtue. 4 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Longjohn ★ Posted March 2, 2019 Share #18 Posted March 2, 2019 I was working a factory job that I really liked. I had not met my wife yet. I had five motorcycles, a pickup truck, a convertible, and a hippy van. I was a Jesus freak (still am). The van was amazing, a 1965 Chevy cargo van forward control. It had belonged to a fruit company before I acquired it and converted it. I used the van with a motorcycle rack on the back to haul my bike to most races unless I was taking a friend who also raced then I took the pickup. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralphie ★ Posted March 2, 2019 Share #19 Posted March 2, 2019 21 minutes ago, Longjohn said: five motorcycles LJ24! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Longjohn ★ Posted March 2, 2019 Share #20 Posted March 2, 2019 1 hour ago, RalphWaldoMooseworth said: LJ24! I had two dirt bikes that I raced, a 250 and a 400. I had my road bike that used all the time, and two Harley Davidson three wheel project bikes. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris... Posted March 2, 2019 Share #21 Posted March 2, 2019 Working for Canon in London. Just bought our first house. The wife was still in the Navy. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kzoo Posted March 2, 2019 Share #22 Posted March 2, 2019 At 24 I moved from PA to MI for a job that ended up being a great career move. I moved to a small city in W MI and it felt like the first three months were the longest 6 years of my life. Then I met the future WoKzoo. New job, new state, new girl all in the middle of my 24th year. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Dirtyhip Posted March 2, 2019 Popular Post Share #23 Posted March 2, 2019 9 hours ago, shootingstar said: Different definitions of financial success early in life. But good on you. I paid probably 50% of my own university education BA and MA =5 yrs. with money from summer jobs. However even back then, top rated Canadian universities still were lower tuition fees compared to today. Rest was student grants because I came from a low-income family. (Father was a cook with 6 children.) 3 of my 5 years were living and studying in a different city, so I paid for my accommodation, living expenses also. All my siblings were like me (with some obtaining part funding support via scholarships,. That is also achievement academically and financially). Actually one of them borrowed abit of money from me....and I was still only working part-time post university. I've actually forgotten to ask her to repay me. Oh well. I've stayed at her place awhile, eaten, etc. I didn't buy my own home until I was 31 yrs. I didn't travel outside of Canada for vacation until I was around 27 yrs. old. I just had no money, no sugar parents. None of us ever plan for any inheritance because we know at final stage of life, for my mother, we probably have to sell her house to cover nursing home costs, etc. The financial story seems to me slightly fishy....there's something I can't quite lay my finger on. But even if hypothetical, it's worth thinking for a young person how they should plan financially. I was a go getter. Always have been that way. Also, I have always been a saver. In my early twenties I made some good decisions, and got hooked up with a company that saw my potential and allowed me to work my way up the ladder, and they offered me stock options, which I exercised. Two years later, I closed and took on a large mortgage in the Bay Area. The loan officer was super sexist. There were some questions about me being single, and not being married to a man. They were concerned I could not handle it by myself, even though I qualified for it. I wonder if those same kind of questions would get fired onto a single male professional. I jumped through their hoops and got my house. When I wasn't tearing carpet out of the home and painting, I was enjoying life. I climbed Mt Shasta that year, It was a very difficult glacier climb and hike. 24 years old were fond memories. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shootingstar Posted March 2, 2019 Author Share #24 Posted March 2, 2019 29 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said: I was a go getter. Always have been that way. Also, I have always been a saver. In my early twenties I made some good decisions, and got hooked up with a company that saw my potential and allowed me to work my way up the ladder, and they offered me stock options, which I exercised. Two years later, I closed and took on a large mortgage in the Bay Area. The loan officer was super sexist. There were some questions about me being single, and not being married to a man. They were concerned I could not handle it by myself, even though I qualified for it. I wonder if those same kind of questions would get fired onto a single male professional. I jumped through their hoops and got my house. When I wasn't tearing carpet out of the home and painting, I was enjoying life. I climbed Mt Shasta that year, It was a very difficult glacier climb and hike. 24 years old were fond memories. While it may be that as women, when one doesn't choose to have children, the journey of being a parent and dealing with a mortgage (and sometimes also college/university education at same time) is just as tough..as climbing the mountain or biking a long touring trip. (I think of a mother breastfeeding often at night....there is a physical demand while her body is also still recovering from giving birth,etc.). It wouldn't be surprising every women has experienced a sexist direct comments/behaviour by the time she is in her early 20's. Even now. Of course, if I hadn't chosen to go to university, most likely I would have bought my first home a few years earlier. I would have travelled overseas earlier. I know kids these days go to Europe or Asia much earlier in life, meaning in elementary school age. I realize that some people look at university grads as entitled or whatever. But honest, for lower income students/grads., there's a lot of delayed self-gratification / exhaustion / stress, especially juggling school studies and family, part-time jobs / large debts. My hat tip to all the parents here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airehead Posted March 2, 2019 Share #25 Posted March 2, 2019 I was teaching in rural West Virginia and waiting tables at night. My grandmother had just passed and we learned no one could touch their trust until they were 30. It seemed quite annoying then, but was, in retrospect, a very wise move. Meet my first husband then and got my daughters. Life was good and we were happy. Thought we had 100 years ahead of us. How quickly things change. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerrySTL ★ Posted March 2, 2019 Share #26 Posted March 2, 2019 I was a Staff Sergeant in the US Air Force making OK pay. WoJSTL was a nurse so that really helped. We had one child at the time and lived in base housing. We had a little money in the back and just bought our first new car: a 1978 Honda Accord. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shootingstar Posted March 2, 2019 Author Share #27 Posted March 2, 2019 In addition to sewing my work wardrobe for my jobs, I had 2 part-time jobs- 1 @ a library on geriatric medicine and gerontology, and begin another job at medical library at hospital for adult spinal cord injured adults. The library specialized on trauma and rehab in this area of health care. Was also doing volunteer work for literary magazine on Asian-Canadian arts. Took an evening art course on Western calligraphy. Yes, I can do some of medieval scripts by hand, steel nib in inkpot. I was beginning to enjoy living in Toronto, my lst big metro city. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirtyhip Posted March 2, 2019 Share #28 Posted March 2, 2019 Side slings are fun too. Like, my ebay bling sale during the recession. Goodbye second mortgage. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onbike1939 Posted March 3, 2019 Share #29 Posted March 3, 2019 I was sashaying along international catwalks modeling figure-hugging bell-bottom trousers and Indian cotton shirts and...................................that's a lie.... I was a member of the Para's heading back to the UK from the Persian Gulf and already married at the time. A year later my daughter was born and that changed everything and made me consider the future. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Grass Posted March 3, 2019 Share #30 Posted March 3, 2019 Wow, half a lifetime ago. Married, baby girl, another on the way. Two years out of college and working for Ernst & Young in a position that gave me the knowledge and foundation that would, several years later, lead me to much bigger and better things. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dottleshead ★ Posted March 3, 2019 Share #31 Posted March 3, 2019 I was just finishing graduating from college. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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