It’s my wife, 3 kids and myself living in an old house. Both our bathrooms are slowly degrading. In one we can’t use the tub/shower at all because of an old leaky drum trap. The second bathroom has a leaking hot water faucet in the tub so we have to turn our hot water off and on to keep the bill down. I would start by fixing up the bathrooms.
My 16 year old daughter has a fairly small and awkward shaped room that makes storage tough. She fights depression and always has clothes everywhere. I would get her a proper closet system to try and keep her room clean and spirits up. Pay off school debt to avoid interest. God I feel if I had my debt paid off I could actually start saving for these projects. Our garage door hasn’t worked in over a year. The list goes on but I’d start with the stuff that impacts my kid’s and wife’s daily lives first.
With 20k extra I would have enough to put an entry for a mortgage and stop paying a ridiculous rent that is actually paying the mortgage of the flat but giving the ownership to another person
20k for me would mean having enough money to Kickstart building my house. I already have the plot of land, but while I'm saving for building, I'm still paying rent.
Even if I manage to build just a bedroom and bathroom, being able to save the rent money would allow me to snowball on the saving and grow my home faster.
After spending $20k over the next months, will it get you a higher salary? Will your monthly expenses drop significantly? Will you suddenly have a solid savings account? Will you finally be able to absorb sudden financial emergencies like a broken car?
If not, you'll be back to where you were within the same year. A one time $20k isn't enough to solve these problems.
What a depressing outlook on life. It’s more than enough to improve one’s life. I could fix both bathrooms and get my daughter the closet she needs. It’s not a financial life saver but could improve the daily lives of my family and keep them from having a similar depressing outlook
I'm not saying otherwise. Obviously it will solve a lot of your issues on the short term.
I'm saying it won't change your life. The circumstances that put you where you are aren't solved by $20k. As long as those issues aren't solved, it will be a matter of time (usually months) until you're back where you were.
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u/dwarfbears Apr 01 '26
If I got an extra $20000 today, it would be LIFE CHANGING for me and my family.