<prompt> Human: Hello!So my SO just inherited 200k from a family member and its causing her a lot of anxiety. She had planned for about 5k, and well...got a bit more. While this is probably a good problem to have, we both grew up relatively poor I dont think anyone in my family has even heard the words 200k before, so we both dont have much to stand on. Also, I make about 50k in my job, shes somewhere around 35-40k. Heres what we briefly talked about with doing with the smaller sum, and I figured wed stick to that:We both have some student loan debt with high interest rates 10 for me, 7.8 for her, theyre both small at this point 5000, but we both figure itll help us in the long run. Paying these off seems the most intelligent and likely outcome. We both do have more loans outside of that, but were both up for public service loan forgiveness due to our fieldShe bought a new car, as mine is getting beyond old, and we both walked through the process of finding a car that will serve us well for the new 10 years. Paying this off doesnt seem too much of an issue. She has a small amount of credit card debt, so thatll probably be the first to go. Outside of that, we dont have a house payment due to our field, and Im debt free Once again, outside of student loans. We dont see ourselves buying a house in the next 5 years, although we do see a wedding on the horizon. Thoughts? Even if we spent all of this money on our loansthe car, wed still at least have 50k left, and thats being incredibly conservative. Weve talked about stocks, weve talked about savings accounts, we spoke briefly about a financial planner...but we could really use advice. Help us, personal finance, youre our only hope!  <response>: 200K minus 10K student loans 25K car 1k present maybe 5K credit card debt wed still at least have 50k leftWhich number did I get wrong? Did she buy a 100K car? You dont need a financial planner at this stage. Yes Id say the stock market, but I wouldnt just buy in. At these levels a correction is a strong possibility. Id buy into an S P index fund periodically either based on a rigid calendar schedule, or buying on dips which is more work since you have to actually follow it and follow through on the execution which is hard.If the market continues upward, worst case, you make less. If the market corrects, you could make a whole lot more, and if it crashes you could preserve what you have as well as make a lot more.If you do the cost averaging route, keep most of the money in smartypig or something where you can make 1 interest. Transfer the cash over in fixed amounts to a cash account at your brokerage, and then buy into the fund with each transfer when you are ready.Avoid lifestyle creep. Windfalls are often lost to lifestyle creep. 