20 years ago, we gave a family member $100K to help them buy a business, with the promise of money back out when they sold the business someday. Over the years we have received $15-30K/year and it looks like we are going to be getting $5M soon. We are not owners on paper, do not have any responsibility for the company. We are assuming we will have to pay 40% in taxes, but that's all we have assumed. Will we have to pay more? Although we had plans for building our retirement, we really didn't think about this day because we thought it wasn't coming for awhile. The only real plan we had was to take 3% each year for our expenses, starting sometime.
We're 54 and 55. We both work and gross 250K/year. We have no debt besides our primary house and investment property mortgage of 600K combined. We've saved for the kid's college tuition in a 529 and we both have 401Ks and a few other accounts. Our current NW is $1.6M. The only decisions we've made is that I will likely leave my job, that I don't really have a passion for anymore, to spend time with our teenager and aging parents and Mr. Rivertop will keep working because he likes the social aspects of working and is on the cutting edge of his field. That will keep us in healthcare - yay. I may do some consulting at some point.
We feel like we should be calling someone and making plans for this money, and we're also afraid to tell anyone. But I think we probably should - we're just not sure who. Tax accountant? CFA? We want to make sure we don't make any mistakes. Yeah, paralyzed feels like the right word today.