Stunned

OH WOW. This is going to be a short post but I definitely wanted to share. I followed a link posted last week by Cash Money Life. It was one of those nifty Get $25 Just For Signing Up links. (See the one below! Even better, click on it!) I'm always skeptical when it comes to these things. But, I gave it a whirl. After all, I haven't been steered wrong by my fellow bloggers yet.

I signed up, and immediately got credited $25 to my account. Poof, just that easy. I sent out a referral link and got $10 for the referral. Poof, just that easy.

The best part about Revolution Money Exchange is that they don't charge fees to send or receive money. I've always been hesitant to accept money on PayPal because of the percentage they charge to receive payments on a business account. So far, RME has done exactly what they've said they will. It's user friendly. I think I'm going to like it there.

Surprise! Financial Windfalls

Today seems to be the day to discuss Financial Windfalls on the PF blogs. Over at We're In Debt, the King of Debt posted an interesting question about what you would do with a windfall of $500,000. And over at Get Rich Slowly, JD answers a question from a reader who wants to make sure he doesn't squander a windfall of $125,000.

I posted a response to the King of Debt's post, and as I thought about how I'd handle a $500,000 windfall, I was actually surprised by my decisions. I realize that my priorities are not really in line with conventional money wisdom. I don't necessarily want my money to work for me later. I want it to give me freedom NOW. I don't care to retire later. I want to travel while I'm young enough to enjoy it and even share those experiences with my children.

With that said, here is the way the breakdown worked out for me:
45% ($225,000) to pay off all back debt and the mortgage
24% ($120,000) directly into 529 accounts for college for the children at $20,000 per child.
23.2% ($116,000) to a high yield savings account for payment of child support for the next 8 years.
6.8% (34,000) to invest in a moderately aggressive portfolio
1% (5,000) Vacation



*Experiment #1 - Yesterday's spending
$91.55 for school lunches for the kids.