Greetings all-I'm a long time lurker, first time poster.
Situation: My wife (25 years old) and I (26) are in a very fortunate position where I will be inheriting a good chunk of money (150k) at some point in the relative short-term future from my grandparents. My grandpa has passed away and my grandma is 95. While I hope she lives for many more years, given her age and deteriorating health, I think it's prudent to begin planning for the best use of funds.
About us:
-I make 85k/yr, plus a 20% bonus target. My wife is a Pre-school teacher and makes 28k.
-We have 70k in retirement accounts right now, 20k in cash. 2015 is the first yr we will have maxed out our Roth IRAs, we contribute 15% to our 401k accounts right now.
-No debts outside of our mortgage; owe 155k on a 210k house, financed at 3% for 15 yrs.
Goals:
-Be able to have my wife stay at home when we start a family in hopefully the next 1-2 yrs.
-Be FI by the time I'm 45.
Qstn: What are your suggestions for allocating the 150k when we recvieve the inheritance? We have a comfortable lifestyle now and don't need any of it for the short term.
Options im considering: Throw all the money in a Vanguard index fund, let it grow and forget about it.
-Pay off the house and allocate my previous payment to index funds.
-A mix of the above two options.
-My wife and I've always been interested in real estate. I'm researching multi unit properties to use as rentals as a diversification play. I also think the property management function would be a good job my wife can do when she is a stay at home mom.
What are other ideas? I realize how fortunate I am to be inheriting a lot of money (to me at least) at a young age and I want to use it as wisely as possible. I will also be donating some money to some organizations that my grandparents have supported.