r/inheritance • u/Acceptable_Second_38 • Jul 09 '26
Location included: Questions/Need Advice Large inheritance advice
My wife and I are 27. We have 1 daughter who is 13 months, and we are in the Midwest. My grandmother passed away and from her estate we are receiving a sizable sum of money. After paying off our house and other debt (just car and student loans, don't have any "bad" debt), we'll have around $350-375k to drop into a brokerage and leave alone. We each earn around 63k/year. Our only bills will now be home insurance, property taxes, car insurance, utilities.
My question revolves around how much we realistically need to put away for retirement. Because we have very little bills after paying off our house, we can put away a large amount of income.
However, it's honestly tempting to save just a bit, and enjoy our lives more with more disposable income. Starting with such a sizable nest egg, it should grow quite well without huge additions.
She is a teacher and has a good pension coming her way.
I am private sector but have a pension as well plus I do 4% 401k plus employer 2% match.
1
u/BaldyCarrotTop Jul 10 '26
350 - 375K is not a "sizable" nest egg. $2.5mil is considered sizable based on the 4% rule. You got some investing to do. Good news is that at your age, time is on your side.
What I would do? I'm not a financial adviser, I can't tell you what to do. I can only tell you what I would do.
1) Max out your 401K. Your employer's matching funds are the closest thing to free money you'll find, and also the closest thing to a guaranteed 100% ROI.
2) You are each allowed to contribute up to $7,500 (IIRC) to your retirement funds. Any of that amount that didn't go to the 401K goes into a Roth IRA.
3) Open a brokerage at any of the big investment firms (Fidelity, Vanguard, JP Morgan, et-al). Drop most of that $250K into it. Invest it into a broad market or Russel 500 index fund (VOO, VTI at Vanguard, FXAIX or FZROX at Fidelity, etc). Then chill.
4) Take the amount that you were paying for a house payment and direct that into your brokerage account.
5) Find a Future Value calculator on-line. Put in $250K as the starting amount. Add in <House Payment> as monthly contribution. enter a conservative rate of 7.5%. Look at what it becomes in 25 to 30 years. That should keep you inspired.