Travel is great! But nothing beats having no debt. I wouldn't exchange a trip for the feeling I had when I made my last mortgage payment. Not sure about your financial situation, but i would pay all debt before having fun with a large sum of money. I know it's not sexy but I was walking 5 inches taller when the bank stopped owning my ass...

A close friend of mine with a nascent gambling problem inherited a six-figure sum from his grandfather when he was in his early 20s. He blew through all of it over the course of about three years.

I had an employee who was broke. He said he had a $10,000 insurance settlement once and blew it all on a weekend in Vegas and cane home broke again. I asked why he did that.

His answer- I figured I would never have $10,000 again.

Wow. I could never be that irresponsible.

I know a woman who blew $250,000. over a ten year period gambling at a local casino. Her husband had a contracting business and she was a stay at home mom but did his books. She slipped the money out of the business and gambled in the day time while he was at work. He had a heart attack and died worrying about the business paying the bills. That's when she sought help for her addiction.

I inherited a few bones from my father and bought a roof and am having much needed work done on the house. It was all part of our plan to do before his passing so feel no guilt about the money being spent. I will buy a third income property somewhere to stay afloat and continue to work part time and volunteer full time to afford my travel addiction.

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DISH is how we do it.

Wow. They apparently say people who win the lottery often wish they didn’t. Things change often for the negative. I think inheritance and big payouts can be a similar scenario.

I will have some coming in from my Dad’s estate if the IRS ever gets through the backlog. Once I know exactly what I’m getting (I already have one account but have no idea how much is in a second account), I plan to pay off everything. My brother (Executor) seems to think I will be able to pay off my house. That would be great since I just bought it five years ago so have a long way to go ( though I doubt if I will live here past the time I stop working - approx. 5 years).

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

In the early 90’s I had just graduated from University and was trying to figure out what do do with my life that wouldn’t bore me to tears. I laid down a four game parlay bet on some hockey long shots for $20 and made $6500.

I was kind of drifting through life at the time and mentioned to my mom that I might buy a car. Her response was: “why would you do that? I figured you would be off travelling by now.”. Of course she was right. I headed off to the Humane society, adopted my first dog and hitchhiked to Georgia to thru-hike the Appalachian trail. Fantastic experience. Bonded me to the greatest dog to ever live. Met some great friends who ended up employing me in California for a couple years and solidifying my chef skills. Met my ex-wife (no regrets). All that plus I got to see what I look like skinny and emaciated!

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Proud member of the MSF (Maple Syrup Mafia)

If you are otherwise in good shape financially blow at least some of it. My wife’s mom is still alive and while stable they her family never really had a whole lot extra. She sold the house when my FIL passed a couple of years ago, so we will see what’s left when the time comes. She’s been gifting my son the max allowable ever since and as that money has all gone into his college fund we benefit as well and as of last year, with grandma’s help, my wife has salted away 100k+ for that education.

My folks are both still alive thankfully. Dad is in good health for his age (75) while mom is still struggling to get her mojo back after fighting through breast cancer. When they do inevitably pass I will probably inherit a good deal of assets and cash. My folks did fairly well when they worked and are frugal as all fuck. My dad also inherited from my grandmother a section of irriigable farmland that is worth approx 3M currently.

None of this is, of course, guaranteed and our financial plans do not include counting on inheritance windfall. My wife will have an aneurysm if I don’t invest the majority of what comes my way, but I will absolutely spend a good chunk on something fun my dad would approve of. Separate issue from the original post, but I have at least two friends that are absolutely banking their financial futures on what they assume will be a sizable inheritance. I think that’s crazy, stupid and lazy.

Nothing says 'teachable moment' like a 3 day Greyhound trip through the praries though...

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Long Chile was a silly place.

My son has done that but by train a couple of times. He says BC is spectacular in the observation cars, but the prairies are a three day snooze fest. I hitch hiked across Canada at age 19 and was amazed at the vastness of the prairies. I've always said every Canadian should drive across the prairies once in their lives just to get a feel for the place. All those jokes about watching your dog run away for three days, etc. But you only need to do it once. Feel free to fly over it any other time.

I've never done 'the drive' but know a guy who cycled it. Took him 4 months and was the best experience of his life. He had a trailer and tent, etc and camped along the way, people took him in, he helped on farms etc for a week here or there for some cash for food.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

My dentist did that when he was young. Said it was a really long journey from the Alberta foothills until the Ontario lakehead. Did it with another young fella and his experiences were amazing. People were really good to them. Found the same thing when I hitch hiked many years ago. No cell phones or other electronic thingies back in our day which made it even more of an adventure.