Hookers and blow.

No regrets.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Sort of, we were paper millionaires back in the day of booming internet stocks because my wife worked for Amazon fairly early on. Crash happened before she vested in her first year, so we ended up with only somewhere around $10k I think. I bought my first high end road bike, she took a NOLS trip to east Africa.

I inherited some money when my mother died. She was a child of the Depression and pretty frugal, but she was a teacher and so thought money for education was a good expense, and she thought travel was good for the mind and soul.

I spent my inheritance primarily on undergrad and law school. But I did a junior year abroad and traveled a lot then, and spent a year backpacking after college. The majority of those travel costs were financed by my inheritance. I don't regret those expenditures at all, in fact that is some of the best money I've ever spent, and I think my mother would have approved.

Experiences are superior to objects. Travelling is a great way to spend money.

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who's smarter than you're? i'm!

That seems to be the consensus, and it's certainly been true for me. The shorthand for it that I developed years ago was that I'm happiest when I have the fewest keys in my life. When backpacking, at most I might have a room key for the place I'm staying. Responsible adult life I have car keys, house keys, backup keys for my father's house, key card for the office, key card for the gym, key card for the daycare, keys for the gun safe, etc. etc.

Life gets better the fewer keys you have.

We had a couple blow-out meals this year and expectations were way up there. They were good, not amazing, and at those prices you ought to be amazed.

The very best meals have been street food.

So I get the appeal of a spree, but a question I'd ask is 'how much fun is this going to be' versus 'is this somebody else's idea of deluxe'

I have had no inheritance yet nor life insurance payouts (thank goodness).

But if I were you and you got all of David Ramsey's baby steps in I'd consider doing a 50/50 split. Half on something fun such as a dream vacation and half into savings or need such as a new roof or vehicle.

nope ....funeral costs.

IM Lake Tahoe 2013 got a large chunk of an inheritance.
That day made a lifetime of memories for me.
I know that this shit to the other forum........

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2017 Cervelo P2
2017 Cervelo S2
itraininla.com
#itraininla

I’m thinking of funding a family trip rafting the Grand Canyon. So- deluxe for me because I’m not washing the dishes or cleaning the groover at the end if we go commercial- but still camping- just somewhere really cool.

We got a small (still 5 figures, but on the lower side) unexpectedly from my husbands uncle’s estate recently and it put us over the top on the cash injection needed to start building our house, so that’s what we did. It was money in, money out, but we’ve got a foundation! Wouldn’t have anything yet without it. Half of me would rather have gone to Hawaii for a couple of months, but having OUR house will be worth it a year from now.

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Harry: "I expected the Rocky Mountains to be a little rockier than this."
Loyd: "I was thinking the same thing. That John Denver's full of shit, man."

A tiger doesn't change its stripes. If you pissed money away in the past, you'll piss this money away. If you have been frugal in the past, you will likely save most of the money.

We've had a couple of inheritances; one from the summer known as the death of the Richards when my wife and I lost an uncle each both named Richard within three weeks.

The second from a grandparent

In both instances all of it went to investments but we did spend salary on additional vacations we might not have done; Japan, Mauritius, Maldives, India and Thailand.

Nope. Put every cent away to help pay for my son's college education.

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Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.

My daughter inherited $40K from her grandmother on her mom's side. She had just graduated and was 22 at the time. She spent the next year travelling all over Europe. Came home a year later. I picked her up at the Toronto airport and she informed me she had a job lined up in Calgary and then asked if I could pay for her flight. I asked her what happened to the $40 K. to which she responded "uh dad, I kinda spent it". Needless to say, I paid for the flight to Calgary. Her grandmother was frugal all her life and would have assumed the money would be used on the down payment on a house or something. She'd be turning over in her grave.

Forget that - I would have told her to find her own way there. $40,000 and you can't save $600 of it for a flight?

Well, she's my daughter. I wasn't going to let her hitch hike.

If it makes you feel better my parents got an inheritance and blew more than it to the extent I had to loan them money to pay their mortgage while they dealt with a windfall hangover.

This is part of why I’m questioning blowing it for fun. I have always been the responsible one. That and watching my mom get dementia in her 60s - maybe I should make some family memories now as the future is not guaranteed. I know my mom would be proud of me if I blew it on something fun.

I have a male acquaintance that worked as a male model. Somehow, he ended up working for the family that owns Abercrombie and Fitch. I think he served as a steward or something. He flew with them everywhere they went on their private jet. He didn't make much money, but got to travel a lot and stay at 5 star hotels and resorts. He was telling me that he felt bad because he wasn't making a lot of money and that it wasn't much of a career. I reminded him that people work and save all of their lives so that they can travel when they retire, but he was getting to do it while he was young and could carry the memories for the rest of his life.

I spoke with a couple of years ago and he had met a girl and gotten married, and was looking for a job that didn't require travel.

Two years ago our family decided that instead of buying a lot of gifts for each other, we would take a family vacation after Christmas. We went to New Orleans. We didn't take another trip this past Christmas, but that was somewhat because of the emotional toll that hurricane Michael took on us - we just weren't up for planning another trip. But, next year and beyond we will do that.

We still talk about NOLA, but I can't remember hardly any recent discussions about the gifts we gave at Christmas other than the car I bought my wife.

Enjoy the rafting trip!

When the condo prices in Vancouver where through the roof and beyond, I sold my condo. Took wife and daughter business class flight with Lufthansa for a tour of Europe. It was fantastic. Sucked big time when we flew again in economy.

Things are a lot easier when you don't know what you are missing.

One argument in defense of my daughter is that she had a year of travel that she will likely never have again in her life. Travel is mind broadening. Wasn't a waste. She spent time in Paris and Brussels speaking French and about eight weeks in Berlin improving her German language skills. She studied languages at university before switching to fashion design (mistake IMHO, but her choice) so the trip definitely had benefits. Before she left I told her to put half of the $40 K into the bank and come home when the other $20. K is gone. But what do parents know? I'm actually surprised at my 29 yr old son. He now phones me up to ask about advice regarding lots of different stuff. He wouldn't do that ten years ago because I was an idiot and knew nothing back then. I must have learned a lot in the last ten years.

Friend of the family was on his way out a few years ago so I went to visit. He asks me to get his briefcase. He pops it open and pulls out 5 grand in hundreds with a band around it. Gives it to me and tells me to not tell anyone about this and spend it on something fun. So I bought a scott plasma on sale for 2300 and a new wetsuit and used it to set up a clownfish tank with a high end german lighting system. Quite often when I am using the bike or looking at the tank I think of him.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot