<prompt> Human: Thank you for taking the time to review my post. I am about to receive approximately 25,000, and I am looking for a little validation on my plan to spend the money. Im 31 years old, and I support my stay at home wife and son. The only debt I have is my mortgage and my wifes student loans at approximately 15,000. I contribute to my companys 401k at a percentage to take full advantage of the employee match; I do not have an IRA. I treat my credit card like a debit card so my credit card is paid off every single month. I have a 6 month emergency fun in the bank. I am not concerned about paying taxes on this money as my taxes are taken care of through completely legal means. I was thinking of spending the money like this: Pay off all of the student loan debts at about 15,000 Invest about 9,000 in a robo advisor service like Motif, Betterment, or Wealthfront with the intention to use it as a future down payment for a bigger house Plan a weekend vacation 1,000. Anything I dont spend will be added to the robo advisor investmentAny advise you can give on the subject would be appreciated.  <response>: How soon you plan on using that 9k for a down payment on a home would greatly impact how Id be investing. The closer it is, the less market risk Id expose it to. If its less than 5 yrs away, the potential gain isnt worth the potential loss. 