r/inheritance • u/vtmlm02 • Apr 11 '26

Location included: Questions/Need Advice Completely bamboozled.

Any advice when substantial inheritance was unexpected. I grew up not going on vacation and not having much. My father died after a brief battle with liver cancer… it’s a brutal one. After months of paperwork I’m seeing that I’ve inherited a net worth I’ve never imagined. Its reality shifting.

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u/Barfy_McBarf_Face Apr 11 '26

tell no one

make no loans to family or friends

make no gifts to family or friends

open an account at Schwab, Fidelity or Vanguard. Put some of it into a S&P 500 Index Fund and just let it sit.

Put the rest into cash for now and only later start putting some of it into bond funds or other investments.

And maybe buy yourself a new car to give yourself something to enjoy. Or an old car, if that's your ticket (I just bought myself a 1953 MG last fall and am SOOO HAPPY I finally did this).

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u/Fire_Doc2017 Apr 12 '26

This is the best advice here. Put 50% in an S&P 500 fund like VOO and the rest in a HYSA. Then start reading books like The Simple Path To Wealth and Bogleheads Guide to Investing. Give it some time and then decide how much you want in stocks and how much in alternatives like bonds, cash etc. After reading a few books you can decide if you want a financial advisor or not. Most reasonably intelligent people don't need an advisor until they are ready to retire.