<prompt> Human: I lost my husband a couple of weeks ago in a car accident. His place of employment finally got me to come in and talk to them about life insurance benefits and in my grief, I dont think I really understood all the papers laid out in front of me, much less what to do with the information. Ill cut to the chase. The amount of insurance I am receiving is 427,000. I was told this is taxable. He had a 401k savings plan and the balance coming to me from it is 22,732. I understand this is also taxable. The lady with the benefits department also said I should go to the clerk or court office here and apply for a years widows allowance. Im working on getting the paperwork I need for that. Heres the link with that information: We had no children. Im totally alone now and quite frankly, this money is not going to bring my husband back. The very select few people that know of it have given me varied advice, like pay off my student loans, pay off his debts if he had any, I cant find any evidence he did, buy a small house for myself, and so on. So heres my questions: A How much in taxes can I expect to pay? B I dont want to blow through this. I honestly dont want to touch it unless its for necessities. How can I invest this so it will grow?  <response>: Sorry that youve been through this trauma. Thats terrible. To echo the others: life insurance is usually not taxable. I got life insurance checks when my father died, and only a small portion of the amount was taxable. Basically the life insurance payout accumulated interest in the period between my dads death and the time they actually cut the check a few weeks later. In my case the interest was something like 20 from one policy and 30 from another policy, both for which they sent a 1099 form at the end of the tax year. My advice is that you dont do anything with this money for a while. Youve been through a lot, losing your spouse is devastating and youll need some time to recover even a little bit. So dont feel rushed to do anything, despite all the advice youve heard. Just park the money in a savings account or maybe a CD for at least 6 months. Try to forget about it until you recover your emotional equilibrium, then you can learn about investing and decide whats the best use of the money. Dont do anything because someone tells you its great; do it because you understand it. As a surviving spouse, you have the option of rolling the 401k account to an IRA to avoid paying taxes right now. But talk to a pro. 