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

[Kneel B4 Zod]

congrats man

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if you dont own a home/condo BUY NOW.

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and don't listen to blanket advice like this.

[NicksDad1970]

The paying off debts makes a lot of sense. But depending on your situation I don't know that buying a condo or a house makes sense.

The housing market is dead right now. If you go buy a 125k condo way off the strip in Vegas there's nothing saying you will be able to sell it with ease for the same price 2 or 3 years from now. (You never know when you might need to sell)

Now if you did some research and found a decent duplex that's for sale and been occupied for a while you could buy one of those and keep the renters. There are also companies out there that will do everything involving the renters for a %.

I'm also one of those people that's had a house on the market for 9 months so I'm a little bitter towards the market right now.

Either way good luck and maybe a month from now you'll be asking us how you should invest your 2 million. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[El Diablo]

All,

Jurollo's AIM away message: "test driving some cars"

Awesome.

[Jurollo]

Haha el D. The cars/student loan payoff/gifts for parents are why I am down to $200k really quick. I am totally debt free, no student loans, no car loans, no credit debt. I have enough for my bankroll to last for a while and have no desire to start playing the live circuit. The idea of even making $1k/month on interest is pretty sweet to me as it could pay off a small mortgage. I am going to probably talk to a financial adviser tomorrow. Any more opinions would be awesome.

[gumpzilla]

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Haha el D. The cars/student loan payoff/gifts for parents are why I am down to $200k really quick.

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Have you already taken taxes into account, too?

[Jurollo]

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Haha el D. The cars/student loan payoff/gifts for parents are why I am down to $200k really quick.

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Have you already taken taxes into account, too?

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Yes. I dont want to get into specific details of it, but the way we worked out the deal ensured everyone the same amount post taxes, as Harrah's wouldnt get involved in facilitating the deal, hence I got a chunk from 1st place.

[turnipmonster]

congrats on the win! the thing about a money market account is it's a great place to keep money while you are learning about investing, it's not a great long term solution. inflation and taxes will cut into that 5% over time giving you a real return of much less.

a thing to keep in mind regarding financial advisors is they're good for some people, but might not be the best way for you to go if you are interested in learning more about this stuff. I have gotten some truly horrid recommendations from financial advisors, and had one who would do anything in his power to keep me from investing in an index fund through him. be careful with financial advisors is all I'm saying.

if you're interested in learning about investing, head over to the finance forum and check out the reading list. I read "a random walk down wall street" first, which had a good introduction to the basic machinations of investing apart from espousing an index based philosophy (which you may or may not agree with.

also check out posts by Jeff W and TheMetetron, both have solid info. if there is a term you don't understand, just look it up on wikipedia or investopedia, both are great resources for learning about investing. when I started learning about this stuff last year I would read financial articles and look up any terms I didn't understand.

[XXXNoahXXX]

Did anything ever come of that parking lot idea?

I'd probably split the 200k between some standard savings and MMA type accounts as well as some higher risk/higher yield investments. I think its fine to even put your money into sort of a "holding pattern" of low/no risk investments while you familiarize yourself with the stock market.

[claudenm]

Justin,

Congrats!

If you don't have a budget, now might be a good time to make one.

Things to consider:

Average monthly income
monthly fixed costs(rent, bills, spending money, entertainment).

Once you have done that a financial advisor will be able to help you flesh out what your desired investment goals are.

For example, you state "$1000 in interest seems pretty nice." However, if you do your budget, you may see that that $1000 in interest, while nice is not really necessary, and your money may be better invested for the mid-long term with a target rate of double-digit returns. Perhaps you'll find a mixture of the two where 50% of the money is invested in stocks, looking for long term gains, and another portion is invested in order to derive interest income.

I wish I had some books to recommend, but I think El_D makes a good suggestion when he says start learning about the stock market. Things like 5% on a CD might not seem so attractive after you learn a bit more.

BOL,

Claude

[snowbank]

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Real estate doesn't seem like a great place to sink money right now so I am looking for alternatives.

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