WSOP Windfall... What is a boy to do?!?!

[J.A.Sucker]

Don't buy a hybrid. They are bad for the environment and you'll never recoup the gas savings. Unless you can get one of those sweet HOV OK lane stickers, you're not doing anyone any favors.

As for investment, there was some great advice in this thread; it's really pretty easy.

1. File as a pro and max out the SEP IRA (44K). Take this right off the top and lock it up for 30 years.

2. Buy a house/condo. This really is the best thing to do. Get it for somewhere you want to live and you won't ever have to worry about markets going up or down in the short-term - you have to live somewhere. Throwing away rent is a bad deal in most situations.

There's two possible ways to play out the house thing, depending on what you want to do and where you live. First, you can decide to carry a mortgage and keep your interest high and take the deductions with it. You also get maximum leverage off your money, which is where real estate blows away most other investments. Again, if things go bad, you don't have to move. You can also borrow against your principal - so you always have time on your side. If this is the case, get an interest-only loan, put down 20-30% and pay off the principal on the front-end. If you decide to sell the place in a few years, fine. If not, you'll ownt the place free and clear before most would ever dream of it. The beauty of interest-only is that when things are good (you make another score, let's say), you can dump a huge chunk into the mortgage and get the principal way down. If money is tight, then you have a smaller payment to make until things turn around. This is huge for a gambler. Just make sure the loan has NO EARLY-PAYOFF PENALTIES.

The second school of thought is that you're a gambler and getting some sort of stability is really important, because you never know when things are gonna go bad. There's wisdom in this, too. If this is the case, you want to figure out how to own your first house free and clear as quickly as possible. Once you have that locked up, then you're pretty much done and can never get hurt too bad since you'd have a really small nut and also a source of money to borrow against if things get really bad. While better investments can be made, this security is well worth it for many. It's up to you.

3. Make sure you have a good bankroll in cash. You keep this in a high-yield savings account. It sounds like you already have this covered, but you need to think about how big you want to play. Most people play too big and invest too little, so it sounds like you're on target here.

4. Lock up the remainder of your liquid money (if any) in some sort of index fund, like limon said. Keep the vig low and yield decent and you'll be rich before you know it.

5. When the time gets right, take money and get into the rental market. Become a slum-lord. This is the stone-cold nuts and what I'm striving for.