<prompt> Human: Hi all,Ive recently become aware of some life insurance policy funds and other things that are coming my way, and was trying to devise a plan for what to do with the funds.Some personal stats: Im 28, live on my own, and earn 50kyear. There are no kids in the picture, and Im not planning on any. I have 13k in student loans. A quarter of it is at a 6 interest rate; the rest is at a 2 interest rate. I dont have anything in the way of an emergency fund right now. I pay off my credit card balance every month and own my car, so no consumer debt. My rent is 850 a month, and seems to be going up at least 20year. Ive been wanting to cut down on this expense some for a while, but I cant rent cheaper without significantly downsizing, moving to a less safe area, or making my commute to work awful. Where I live, it looks like a condo or small 2-3br house is running about 50-90k. . .but Im considering switching jobs to close an LDR in 3-4 years, so I likely wont be staying in the area. Thanks to said LDR, Im probably dropping 200-300 in gas every month. My cars at 130k miles, so Ive been hitting a number of major service appointments as of recent. I have a retirement plan through my employer that I think is a 403b. I contribute about 350month and am a little bit past maxing out matching contributions. Its currently got about 15k in it.Some ideas that Ive been kicking around: My mom doesnt have much in way of savings and basically lives paycheck to paycheck off social security. Id like to set aside a small cushion for her. Im seting aside about 7k for personal medical expenses and payback for friends who substantially helped me out recently. Is it worth it to buy a house even though Im not staying in the area long? I feel like If I keep renting, thats 30-40k Im tossing down the drain. I never considered the idea before since I never had the savings to put down for a down payment. Ive kinda wanted to trade my car in for a hybrid for a while. Id certainly buy used if I had to get one, but I dont know how smart this is as my current car is fully paid off and still works. Im guessing paying off my loans, setting aside an emergency fund, and investing a good portion of my remainder should happen. What would be good ratios for emergency fundinvestingpaying off loanspossibly acting on the above ideasetc.? If I invest, what the hell do I do? I couldnt tell you the difference between a Roth IRA, Money market account, or 401k etc. if I tried.A windfall like this happened to my sister a few years back and she pretty much spent it all and had nothing to show for it in less than a year. Id like to avoid doing that--please help!  <response>: If youre thinking that you wont stay in the area in a few years, I would advise NOT to buy... itll just be a huge headache and wont really be worth it.. youll have to think about property taxes, repairs, etc, mortgage interest, etc etc.. theres a cost associated with buying and its really not worth it unless you KNOW for sure that youre going to live there for a while. Renting gives you great flexibility. 