<prompt> Human: This is what I know, or what Ive been told at least...parents divorced, dad had about 110,000 in his 401Kretirement plan thingmother got a QDRO and came out with 52,000 and changeshes now allowed to take the money outif she takes the money out or I guess liquidates it, she has to pay 20 in federal taxes, so shell end up with 42,000She wants to buy a house. Its all she talks about. She earns less than 25,000 per year in a sales job at a mall on weekends and is 54 years old. I really dont know what she should do. Her mother tells her to invest it into index funds with some financial advisor, but I didnt like how he was pitching everything when we went to talk to the guy. I dont want her to waste this. Its all she talked about for like 7 years while they were divorcing. She knows nothing about personal finance. Her mother just gave her 20,000 to pay off all of her debts, so she has no debt at this point.EDIT: So far, were leaning more towards directly rolling it over to a Vanguard Traditional IRA, but any other advice is great. She wants to do the 10,000 no-penalty first-time homeowner thing.Assistant: Theres no way she can afford a house.Human: She talks about putting like 20,000 of this money down on an 80,000 house or something like that. She hates the idea of renting.EDIT: Im sorry. She says 50,000 home now.  <response>: Just make sure she knows about the additional costs associated with an 80,000 house. Property tax could still be pretty high depending on where the place is located. 