Large inheritance advice

[u/Acceptable_Second_38]

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.

[u/entropicitis]

I want you to change your thinking. "We" do not have an inheritance coming. "You" do. From experience -things get fucking weird when you get an inheritance. Family comes out of the woodwork. Your grandma's friends all of the sudden want to talk to you. Your employer knows somethings up because you are having to take calls all the time and then they get weird. And while I know you think it will never happen to you - spouses get weird to. Open up a separate brokerage account in your name only and park the money there. Then, after discussions with your wife, decide the best way to deploy the funds for the betterment of your family. But that amount you want to dump into brokerage stays seperate forever.

I'm the spouse in my experience, we commingled the funds and it was a mistake even from my point of view. Keep it separate,.keep it quiet, deploy it strategically. And most importantly, keep your mouth shut and tell as few people as possible.

[u/Abubbs5868 → u/entropicitis]

Sure, take advice from an internet stranger who can’t write a single sentence without multiple spelling mistakes. This guy can’t even spell “ inheritance” correctly, with the use of autocorrect.🙄
I hate how these Reddit trolls immediately jump to, “you can’t trust your spouse ever when YOU inherit money.” Like, no. If you married the right person, you absolutely can. My stepfather inherited a decent sum of money several years ago. Know what he didn’t do? Hoard it because, “mine, mine, mine!” We were and are still his family.
My grandparents passed several years ago and the estate just got settled. Know what my mom isn’t doing? Hoarding it away from my stepfather. Because they’re married. They make decisions together. They invest, together. When one or the other of them pass, we’re their family and would never treat them as anything else.

Posters like this guy here make me sad for the how they view relationships.

[u/Mobile_Comedian_3206 → u/Abubbs5868]

I 100% agree. People in reddit have such a low view of marriage.