<prompt> Human: Hello.My mother wore the pants in the house. She knew what she was doing and basically ran the house, which included finances. She lost her life to cancer last month, and I seriously do not trust my dad with the shit ton of money that we now apparently have. What do we do with 400k? I also have 2 siblings including me that are receiving money monthly through social security, which is supposed to happen until we turn 18? I seriously have no idea what Im doing and Im just relieved as fuck to find this subreddit. We still need to pay off a mortgage that is on this house, and we have a 2nd property that is being rented. I do not have all of the details, but, what is the smartest way of going about managing half a million dollars?I also remember my dad talking about putting some money into Fidelity Investments. Could someone explain how that works?I seriously feel absolutely stupid as fuck posting this. Its just embarrassing typing all of this and realizing that I literally dont know anything. All I do is play video games and jack off to porn, and being the oldest in the family with my mom gone, I think its time for me to wake the fuck up, step up, and get my shit straight in terms of handling my own, and my familys finances.  <response>: First of all, Im sorry that you lost your mother at such a young age. The things you tell me show that she was strong and also very smart. It is a shame that she had to leave all of you at such a young age.For your father it could be one option to pay off the mortgage. He probably currently pays interest on the mortgage of somewhere between 3.5 and 6, and paying it off means one less bill every month AND no more interest leaking away. Financially very smart people could perhaps find a way to invest this money in a better way - make more money than what is lost on the interest of the mortgage. But I believe that neither you nor your father have enough financial knowledge to do that. Perhaps you at least could start reading some books about personal finance - dont do the get rich quickly ones because most of their contents is rubbish, just read the ones that explain how things work in the US, about debt, credit, budgeting, investing... Your local public library could be a good place to start . So I think paying off the mortgage is an excellent way to use some of this money. I assume that after that there will still be some money left. Given that there are three children and that you are probably all getting closer to college age, I am thinking the money could best be put in a savings account to use when you need money. For example to go to college. But in all cases, the money will be safe in a savings account make sure the account is FDIC or NCUA insured, and you can all think about how to spend it or invest it - there is no need to rush that decision. 