Budgeting advice on inheritance

krazyk

Sorry this might not be the best place to post this but there is no general discussion forum that I can see on MSE but this sounded the closest one:

To start, I'm looking for the best way to save or invest my inheritance, with mid-term goal to save for a deposit on my first house and thereafter to save for that rainy day and, well, goodies. Then we need to plan what we are going to do with my Mum's house, which we need to sale in 2-3 years time to move her into a more appropriate smaller one floor place (her current house is too big for her, who can't get upstairs as she is in a wheelchair).

My inheritance is coming from my late aunt's house in Hampshire, it has just been sold for £148k and expected to be finalised mid-January. This will be divided by two (with my brother) minus costs (for example, 10% of the sale of the sale money to go to the park owner of the mobile home). I'll probably end up with about £55-60k.

I also have a few things to buy and pay for, including a couple of quick win debts. So the end result will more likely be about £45-50k. For this level of money, there doesn't seem to be a great deal of info on savings out there. So I'm looking for any advice please?

If you want more detail I've posted separately in the relevant forums [links below]. But any advice on what to do with the inheritance would be most welcome:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/69514679#Comment_69514679
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/69514697#Comment_69514697
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/69514700#Comment_69514700
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/69514709#Comment_69514709
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/69514717#Comment_69514717

This is "part 1" of my queries, part 2 is what to do in the long term:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/69514750#Comment_69514750

One small query though, my brother owes my Mum money and will give her £5,000 when he gets his share of our inheritance. Is this too high a figure to gift to someone? What the money will pay for is refurbishment on my Mum's house (bathroom redone and conservatory floor need raising are two key issues).

jimjames

krazyk wrote: »

Sorry this might not be the best place to post this but there is no general discussion forum that I can see on MSE but this sounded the closest one:

To start, I'm looking for the best way to save or invest my inheritance, with mid-term goal to save for a deposit on my first house and thereafter to save for that rainy day and, well, goodies. Then we need to plan what we are going to do with my Mum's house, which we need to sale in 2-3 years time to move her into a more appropriate smaller one floor place (her current house is too big for her, who can't get upstairs as she is in a wheelchair).

If you need the money in a couple of years then just find the best paying accounts until then.

krazyk wrote: »

One small query though, my brother owes my Mum money and will give her £5,000 when he gets his share of our inheritance. Is this too high a figure to gift to someone?

I don't really understand the question. It's a debt that needs to be repaid not a gift so amount isn't relevant?

xylophone

If your brother owes your mother £5000, he is not making her a gift - he is repaying a loan.

With regard to your own situation, if you are going to require your £50,000 within 36 months or so then investment, as opposed to saving, would not seem to be a wise plan.

Assuming that you can get them, high interest current accounts would seem the way to go?

krazyk

jimjames,

Sure but how would the government know this? To them it just looks like my brother giving £5k to my Mum. I ask, as I don't know if you pay tax on certain amounts of money you give to people?

The debt my brother has with my Mum has grown over many years. There is no single payment for £5k but is an estimate of all the money she has lent him over the years.

krazyk

xylophone,

Thanks, yeah that seems to be the best way for such a period of time. Thanks for your reply.

Eco_Miser

krazyk wrote: »

jimjames,

Sure but how would the government know this? To them it just looks like my brother giving £5k to my Mum. I ask, as I don't know if you pay tax on certain amounts of money you give to people?

The debt my brother has with my Mum has grown over many years. There is no single payment for £5k but is an estimate of all the money she has lent him over the years.

How would the government know anyway? And when they asked about it, he would tell them the truth.

Anyway there's no tax on gifts, except that gifts within 7 years of death may be included in the inheritance tax calculations.

krazyk

Eco Miser,

Ah, the second sentence is what I was looking for. Thanks for the info.