what to do with large bonus

[Calvawt]

what would you do if you came across $50k in cash from a bonus, inheritance, gambling winnings, etc, assuming that all taxes are already paid?  I already max out a 403b, 457b, Roth IRA, Traditional IRA for my non-working spouse and 2 Coverdell ESA's for our kid's college each year. 

Taxable brokerage account?
Buy a rental property for cash flow (with 30% or so down)? or more if a foreclosure is found.
Move money around to for checking/savings account bonuses?  Will at least get a $400 one from Citibank to start.
Invest in beanie babies?
Some combination of all of the above?

[Metric Mouse]

Probably put half away for college fund for the little one and buy a new motorcycle with the rest.

[kudy]

Hmm... down payment for rental property? Either that or straight into taxable brokerage, probably.

[Inaya]

Down payment on a larger apartment, which would become a rental if we move back to New Mexico.

[HPstache]

I'd either try and start a small business or buy anothr rental property

[SwordGuy]

I would buy AND rehab a rental property. :)

Well, that's what I would do next year.  This year I would slap it into Vanguard 'cause I don't have time for another rehab right now. :)

[andy85]

Hmm... down payment for rental property? Either that or straight into taxable brokerage, probably.

this...as long as my emergency fund was where i wanted it.

[marty998]

Pay down debt.

I have a lot of (good) debt. But at some point it needs to be paid off, and I'd rather not have to sell investments to do it.

[lostamonkey]

I would just throw it into my brokerage account and it would probably have no effect on my everyday life

[terran]

Personally I'd toss it in a taxable account, but if you want to get into real estate and you've found a good opportunity then that sounds like a good plan too.

[RWD]

I would follow my investment policy, the same as I do with all other income.

[faramund]

This happened to me about a decade ago, and because I didn't have huge savings, I put it into a diversified range of shares (at that stage I hadn't heard of index funds - that would have been an easier way).

Now, I'm 5 years out from retiring, and I have very little interest in moving that date sooner. So now, with any bonuses we get, 20% goes into investment (which really just increases our safety margin/gives us more comfort in retirement), and 80% just gets left to splurge on whatever (usually some combination of furniture and/or travel).

So in my mind, it really depends on where you are up to financially.

[Tjat]

My bonus hasn't been quite this much the past two years, but I've been pretty good with maxing out both our Roth IRAs, sending a good chunk to the 529s, and sending the rest to Vanguard.

[Fearthebait]

Invest 40k into my index funds, 10k to start a college fund for my younger sister. I strongly feel that supporting the next generation will yield greater results than me having a bit more money during retirement.

[Money Badger]

@vawt,  Had the similar good fortune of this a couple years ago and took awhile to decide what to do...   It always seems so simple when other people run into windfalls to suggest index funds or rentals or whatever...    You already maxed the "growth" side with the retirement accounts, so I'd focus on the income side...

In the end, I did what was comfortable...   I put 10% aside to reward myself (paid cash to trade up cars just a bit to one that's paid for that I still enjoy every day) and then split the rest...   2/3rds to pay down the mortgage (gave peace of mind, improved cashflow while our kids are in college and motivated me to truly be 100% debt free).   The remaining 1/3rd went to investments for income (pays better %age wise each month than the mortgage paydown did, but is at risk of course as the market demonstrated back in January).   Once the kids are out of college, then that freed-up income becomes available for me to FIRE.

[HotPotato]

Invest in beanie babies?

Best idea, IMO.

On the serious side, DH and I were discussing investment options for his IRA and he suggested buying vintage comic books because hold their value/ continually increase, esp when a new movie is released for that hero. I brought him back to reality by saying they weren't as secure agains fire, flood, theft, animal chews, as a mutual fund.

[Calvawt]

thanks everyone.  I know we will spend a little bit, pay cash for a larger car (baby #3 is coming in January), and the rest I might just let sit in savings until we find a good rental opportunity.  I like indentured4now's point of looking at the income side.

I know my wife is building a large inventory of baby girl clothes, too...