<prompt> Human: Greetings PF my mother recently died in her sleep due to a stroke... she was only 50 and needless to say it has rocked my life.My sibling and I inherited a sizable amount 6 figures and I was looking for input in how to spend it. My own plan is to buy my sibling out of the condo we inherited, set aside 10k for improvement I wish to make to the condo, 35k for approx. 10 years of utilities, HOA fees, and food... and 20k for college...All said and done that should leave me with about 30k leftovers. Previously Ive lived paycheck to paycheck pulling in about 1.5k a month with the majority of that going to rent and bills. My ultimate plan can be summarized by words like sustainable long term and As little debt as humanly possible... I hate debt and have very little in the way of material desires. What would be the best way to set this money aside and see it grow? I have a checking account that if I shoved the leftovers and bill money into would accumulate 2.8 a year... which seems like an easy and elegant solution. Is there a better way to go about this? Previously I had so little money that savings were essentially unthinkable. Any advice would be grand, thank you!Assistant: Id be a whole lot more focused on saving it, not spending it. Id think a whole lot about the condo and whether it really is the best housing choice for you I dont know the answer to that. It may well be that keeping a much more modest apartment makes more sense for your financial situation than sinking this money into a condo with HOA fees, improvements and other associated expenses. You dont give much of a financial picture, so its hard to tell, but bringing in 1.5K a month is very little income.Personally, I wouldnt inflate my lifestyle in your situation. Id maybe use some for college, assuming that I was doing it the most cost effective way I could and that it was for a degree that would be very marketable. With the remainder, Id max out retirement accounts once I started working, keeping about six months in an emergency fund.You should probably spend some time reading the prime directive and some of the other files in the sidebar.Human: Well if I purchase the condo it will cost me the equiv. of about 6 years of renting an apt. The advantage would be that rent from that point would only be about 3500 dollars a year to cover HOA fees and utilities and taxes. Plus its near the college I plan on attending in an expanding area of the city. With a small amount in renovations Ill have an excellent place to live and could eventually sell the condo for approx double my initial investment. A modest apartment rental would run me approx 10 grand a year with utilities and I would never be able to sell it. I will consider what youve said though as it would boost my initial inheritance by about 30... but I honestly dread bills enough that not having monthly rent or more accurately having my monthly expenses enormously lessened would very much help my anxiety. I will check out the prime directives and stuff thanks for your comment!Assistant: OK, just understand that there are many additional costs associated with owning a home as compared to renting. Rent represents the maximum you will be paying, while the mortgage is the minimum. Make sure you have the property tax amount correct. You will be paying homeowners insurance, which is significantly more expensive than renters insurance as the former covers and expensive structure and the latter does not. You will need to maintain the condo yourself instead of a landlord maintaining it. Stuff breaks and needs replacing. Plumbing goes bad. Appliances die, etc. Thats going to be your problem. Make very sure you look at the financial management of the HOA carefully. You could be hit up with major assessments if theres a problem. Also understand that housing markets can be very cyclical.Im not opposed to home ownership, quite the contrary. But for someone bringing in as little income as you are, it is very easy to get in over your head.Human: I very much appreciate your advice to err on the side of caution. There is no mortgage however and I dont plan on purchasing insurance. It is not required ever since the mortgage was payed off. My sole objective is to get my annual expenses as close as possible to zero, while still staying alive. My mother rented our apartment out and all the appliances are fairly new, though I admit that is an expense I had not really considered very much. The lawn and stuff are all cared for by the HOA, the air conditioning and plumbing and innards were updated 5 years ago when she started renting it out. By my calculations including hoa fees, electric and internet and taxes it should run about 3.5-4k per year outside of random catastrophe... ideally my aim is to have enough money in an account that the annual interest can maybe half the ultimate cost... Im sure there are things Im not considering... and thanks for reminding me of that... Ive lived off very little for a long time so I really just want to keep living frugally but not have to worry that my world could fall apart if I fall ill or what have you.  <response>: HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE NEEDED!!! You have a good plan and sound like a younger me with your thought process here. I too hate debt and now own my home mortgage free. But I got flooded in 2017 hurricanes and received 100k in damage. Luckily I had both flood and homeowners insurance. Without this my net worth would have taken a 100K hit.Your instincts about insurance are correct. Pretty much every single American is over-insured. A few insurance rules I live by:1 Never insure the small stuff. Only insure events that can cost over 25k-50k. Although small stuff is technically insured, its called self insurance via cash reserves.2 Always opt for highest deductibles. The truth is dealing with insurance on small items is a pain, and more than 50 of the time the insurance companies will deny liability anyways. So in line with my view on covering the big stuff, get a huge discount on premiums by going high deductible.3 Dwelling insurance needs tweaked. The status quo for the entire insurance industry is to over insurance your dwelling.4 Purchase umbrella insurance when you have a net worth of 250k single or 500k married.5 Purchase flood insurance. Its a value buy because the government subsidizes it. Private companies wont even sell flood insurance because its too high of a risk for them, thats how you know its good for consumers. I know a guy who lost his real estate business because a river flooded in PA and took out his multiplex rentals. It sent him into bankruptcy.6 If you drive a cheap vehicle and have cash on hand, only purchase liability. With vehicle insurance you are covering against major accidents. Dont even insurance against fender benders, keep those deductibles high. 