Posted by DebtKid :: March 18, 2008 @ 12:49 pm
If you had an extra $10,000 right now...what would you do with it?
It's an interesting question that I love posing to groups in various amounts ($1,000 to $100 million). With my family members the answer is often vacation-related (we like to work), with friends it's often a new TV. From the more financially savvy, "I'd invest it" or “I’d pay off my credit card debt” are the responses I tend to receive.
Leave your response…and win a $100 bonus in your Lending Club account!
I’d like to give a little extra incentive to answer the question. Leave a comment explaining what you would with $10,000 and why. Lending Club will award a $100 bonus for every fifth response to this post, up to and including the 20th comment received. The money will be deposited into the responders’ Lending Club accounts based on the email address supplied when submitting the comment.
If you don't have a Lending Club account yet, sign-up here and then leave your answer in a comment below. Open to US residents only, 18 years of age or older. The contest will be closed when 20 comments have been received, or by March 25, 2008, whichever comes first.
What would I do with $10,000?
I'd invest it in loans at Lending Club, of course : )
So, what would you do with $10,000?
We will publish all comments once we have 20 or more comments.
66 Comments
Wow, $10,000 doesn't go very far doesn't it. I was thinking about all kind of things like paying off debt, contributing to Roth IRAs, increasing my position in peer-to-peer lending, etc. Then I realize $10,000 doesn't even cover my entire debt (not including mortgage) right now. So I guess the short answer is to pay off debt (personal loans from family).
I would take my wife on a nice beach vacation away from all this cold. This "maine winter is getting old"
I would use it to help knock out the rest of my car loan.
With a upcoming wedding 10k could be used for a lot of things. Paying for any of the wedding things, the honeymoon, a car for my fiancee, getting a new apartment squared away. Let's be honest starting a life right out of college and getting married is not the easiest thing to do. Oh yea there is also that 40K of school loans that we have...hmmm where to start.
With $10,000 I'd be able to get completely out of debt and put a nice chunk in an emergency fund.
Well, realistically I would end up paying the IRS a bunch of money if I had an extra 10K. Although, I'd really love an Xbox360 too....sigh.
It would go completely to my emergency fund. I've knocked off the current debt, aside from my home loan, and 10k against that wouldn't go very far.
I'd knock out the last 2500 of my student debt and then pay to have my mom's house repainted and some landscaping done. I went to visit last week and about cried. I know she has other priorities right now (retirement and medical bills), but no one wants to see the house they grew up in looking neglected.
I would be happy just to get 1 of the $100's for a coment!!
If I got $10,000 I wasn't expecting?! Please... I'd invest it in LendingClub.com of course and watch it grow while helping other people get reasonable rates from peers like you, like me.
-Jeff
[...] Link… Good luck! [...]
I would invest it in P2P lending since I think it delivers the max returns with manageable risk to an investment newbie.
$7000 would go to buying a Piaggio MP3. (It will save on gas money!)
$1000 back into LC
$1000 to HSBC savings
$1000 to common stocks.
Sorry guys, I have no major debt.
What if nobody posts after me because they know they will not get the prize....
I would give it to my child and together we would invest in the Lending Club so he could see how money grows.
This will be his kitty for his future. Maybe oneday it will become a few million dollars for him when he needs it.
Pay off the rest of my loan for my startup company and then take the rest - $200 and invest in marketing. The last $200 is for a long overdue night out with the wife.
I'd fully fund mine and my wife's Roth IRA's for the 2007 year and take reduce my 2007 taxes.
Oh, and it looks like comments are moderated, so you don't really know what comment number we are on. Might as well post your comment and take the chance.
I would put it all on my mortgage. By doing so I would save more money on interest and payments then I would if I invested it at Lending Club.
Though believe me when I say I would be tempted to put it all in Lending Club!!
You're right. It's not fair that I have to post after you so I'll make some recommendations in my next few posts.
#1: I would recommend that someone pay down their credit cards and the remainder balance (shame if you have more than $10k!!) should go towards their emergency fund.
#2: Invest it in a Roth IRA. You might pay a bit of a tax on the investment but over the long term at 8-15% it will grow tax free and be worth much more and thus a bigger gift from whoever gave you the $10,000 to start with!
#3: Refuse it. Yes, if you are THAT bad at handling money sometimes it's best to never of had it at all. Just flat out refuse it.
#4: Donate it. Yup, give it to your favorite charity. Your heart will just melt with joy and really... what's better than that!?
#5: Finally, you could gamble it away. I don't recommend this route, but its a risk that some might be willing to take. After all, if you have a good night you could be a millionaire! Put all $10k on black and let it ride!
an engagement ring....Actually it would only go towards one as a hefty down payment. Those things are friggin' expensive!
1. Pay off medical debt ($8500)
2. Pay down student loan ($9000)
Focus on building savings.
I would put $5000 into my online savings account. Put $2500 into stocks and put $2500 into lendingclub. I have almost no expenses or debt at this time, so investments is where it would go.
I would invest it, hopefully with better results than I have had in the past! Some would go into LC, and the rest into a solid, blended mutual fund.
$10,000 would be added to stock market. Good time to buy some bargains. Or may decide to payoff the rest of my student loans (interest rate of 4.5%).
Is that $10k pre-tax or $10k post-tax ? That's not an insignificant difference.
For me, it's a question of maximizing the long term benefit of the money. Letting it sit in cash exposes it to loss of value due to inflation. Putting it all in the stock market exposes it to near or even intermediate term significant volatility. So, I'd take one of four paths.
(1) Pay off existing debt - always first.
(2) Home improvement - do something that adds long term value to your home. The value stored in your home should help keep pace with inflation while getting some enjoyment out of the money in the interim.
(3) Emergency fund - I already have entirely funded my 9-month emergency fund. Should a severe economic downturn hit and I lose my job, I've 'squirreled' away enough to carry me and my family for 9-months (at current cost of living).
(4) Allocate the money across existing investments. To help reduce volatility, put part of the money in a CD, part in a good mutual fund, and part in lower-risk, higher yield investment such as a Lending Club Lender's Account.
Given that I've taken care of 1-3 pretty well, any extra money goes into option (4) for me.
I would put it in to capital improvements in my house. I have 5 kids and live in a 900 sq. foot ranch. We need to fix it up marginally so we can move!
What would I do with 10,000 dollars (besides investing it in loans on lending club)? I use the money to help fund my current education expenses, including all the field work costs that I have to cover for myself. With the rest of the money that I didn't use for field work (collecting plants from around the US) I would set it aside for doing home improvements.
That would take care of the rest of my credit card debt!!! Oh a girl can dream
Just like DebtKid, I would invest in loans at Lending Club. I would do that because my retirement savings are in a good place, I have a healthy emergency fund, no debt, and like the risk/reward profile of a balanced portfolio of p2p loans.
If I won $10,000 I would split it between two things.
1. I owe my previous employer some money for grad school, so I'd put half of it towards repaying that.
2. When I finish my master's degree, I want to go on a giant road trip! I want to drive down the west coast, visiting friends along the way, then drive all the way down to Cabo and hang out and surf there for awhile. Then, drive back to the states and visit my mom in Arizona. If I am not out of money yet, keep driving east all the way to Charleston.
Well, since I have a loan in funding.... I'd wait until it's funded, and then make a pre-payment of $10,000! (Forcing all my lenders to find ANOTHER loan to fund with the extra proceeds....)
If you hit me with this question a year from now, my answer would be to pay off my loan, and invest the rest at LendingClub.... You just have to pay off the high-rate debt first.
I would invest in loans at Lending Club as well with $10,000. Everytime I look at the site(6-10 times per day) I read a person's reason for the loan and want to help them out. I know I have limited funds to lend. I will also use the money to invest in a Brownstone. I love visiting my relatives who reside in Brooklyn, NY. They live in a Brownstone that has a new owner and they are now paying a higher rent. I will use the money to help them buy their own Brownstone. Of course I would save some of the money. Finally, I would travel. I'm currently looking at going to Italy in 2009 through a local College EF Tour trip. I have no debt and want to continue to diversify my money.
I'd probably take a grand of that and put it towards some equipment I've been meaning to buy to help in my volunteer work. The remainder would probably get saved or invested, or used to pay down debts that I may be incurring soon. (I'm about out of college, so I'm expecting to take some bigger hits as I get settled into the real world.)
I'm assuming this is 10k after taxes. I would:
Take ~5k and use it and other monies I have to pay off my car loan
Add 1K to the emergency fund
Use 3K for my 2008 Roth IRA
And invest the last 1k in lending club
I'm saving up for a down payment on a new house, so it'd probably go into my emergency fund/down payment fund.
too easy.
I'd spend it actively promoting LendingClub's referral program.
-t
I would save $5000 into my online savings account, $2500 in stocks and put $2500 into lendingclub. I have no debt right now so investments is the direction I would go with it.
I don't know why this is based on every fifth post. There's only one post after an hour, so if I were a lendingclub member, I would want it to be the first four posts so I wouldn't have to sit around waiting to be the fifth post. Anyway, I would put the $10,000 into a "high-interest" savings account to use for a mortgage downpayment. I want to avoid PMI if I can.
$10,000 would go to my grad school tuition to avoid (as many) loans.
I like having liquid assets. $10,000 would go into a high interest savings account. I also might make early car payments with it, because I don't like having 3-1/2 years left on my auto loan.
$5000 to fully fund my 2008 Roth IRA
$5000 to cover summer expenses
I'm on a 10 month contract, and I just raided my summer savings to fully fund my 2007 Roth IRA. I'll be able to build it back up over the next two months, but $5000 would do the same thing without pinching my budget.
I would buy a few things that made my home more energy efficient, such as better insulation and windows.
Since I already have a savings account, I would invest the rest at my Lending Club account, based on the awesome potential for return at not that much risk.
I would first make some ridiculous impulse buys, have a huge party, then use the rest to move to Puerto Rico after I graduate.
Fulfill my lifetime goal of hiking the Appalachian Trail this summer. I just graduated college and am moving on to med school next year. This might be my best opportunity to achieve this, but I need to earn some money this summer. I could spend 3000 on the trip, and have 7000 left over to add to my savings. 10,000 would be pretty sweet right about now, actually.
Id pay off my college loans and buy a new car
I just recently moved to AZ after living in England for six years and THAT is a huge financial burden, on top of that I just started working again after getting laid off for four months! I would pay off all my debts and help pay on my boyfriend's student loans, he was an AMAZING help while I was looking for a new job.
Invest in Lending Club loans. Of course.
I'd invest it. Same thing I do with all our extra money!
Assuming it's an extra $10k after tax, then I would probably use it to pay for something my wife and I are currently saving for: a bathroom remodel. We never take on additional debt beyond our mortgage, so we are waiting to give our master bath a face lift.
If I had 10k I would invest it in my sons future. By the time my sons goes to college it will be at least 5 times more then what it is now. This will help to get my sons savings jump started.
I would invest half in my Roth IRA and the other half in my sons' 529 plans (Iowa gives a tax deduction for the first $2500 per child).
I would pay off credit card debt or start a business. I'm hoping this "10k" is already after uncle sam took his part.... lol
I would purchase a viatica... the definition of a viatica is An arrangement in which someone with a terminal disease sells his or her life insurance policy at a discount from its face value for ready cash. The buyer cashes in the full amount of the policy when the original owner dies. Sounds morbid, but who knows.
I think i would put it on Black
I am in school and really pinching pennies. I've been with the same girl for quite some time now, and I would buy her the engagement ring she deserves, then use the rest for some fun for the two of us!
i would give 10,000 dollars to the arbor day foundation.org and plant 10,000 trees for the world.
With $10,000 I would be able to pay for some of my college and get a car that is more fuel efficient.
Being selfish, I would buy a Quaterback filly in Germany. Not being selfish, I would pay for a relative's propane for the winter and see that she had anything else she needed.
I would invest 2500.00 in my emergency fund. I would invest 2500.00 into lending club. I would invest 2500.00 in an etf while good quality etfs' are still cheap. (probably spy or dia or a combination of both. With the remaining 2500.00, I would pay off a large chunk of my credit card debt.
I would invest in a give back company like lending club and buy a reasonable car. I would also take a short trip and put some of it into a new home.
Right now I am in Buy/Sell and I also do eBay. In able to make money, I need to have capital/investments.. I have enough to keep the business running though. Extra $10,000 sounds tempting to spend, but I'm definitely investing it.
I'm 20 y/o. My first option is to invest it in intermediate or long term stock. I will be patiently waiting for the stock to rise, and give me a nice return.
Second option would be put the money in a bank CD. It's not huge return, but at least I know my money is safe. Say the bank gives 5% returns, that's 2500 in 5 years. Not bad for someone not doing anything, I'd say.
Third option, I would invest about $1000 for education and get into real state investing. The money I have saved, plus the extra $10,000, I would have enough to buy a house, or at least a down payment, and start renting it out.
I have no debt or loans or IOU's whatsoever. I'm very careful with that. =)
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