Live on divorce settlement?

KzOster

My ex traded me in for a younger model and divorced me 2 years ago. I've been awarded most of the proceeds of the house sale because of his refusal to pay child maintenance (becoming self employed, moving, changing jobs - anything to stop payments). I'll receive £32k.

At the moment I'm a student on tax credits going into my final year at uni to try and create a better life for my SEN kids. I manage because of things like free school meals and uniform grants. This money has got to be used wisely because my benefits are going to stop now I woud think, and rightly so.

Any tips please on how to make it go further and how it will affect my oldest one, who bases their student finance claim on my income? I wanted to use the money as a deposit on a house but I'd have to move away from family support and change the kids' schools to go to a much cheaper area I could afford. Or I could buy very cheaply and rent it out? But then I'm not sure how that would work with my own living costs. I also have the option of putting some into paying off the last of my parents' mortgage. I will likely never have an amount of money like this again and want to do the best I can for my family. If I sound stupid it's because I'm very stressed by the worry of it and don't know what to do. The kids depend on me and there's no-one else so I have to get it right.

Savvy_Sue

KzOster wrote: »

I also have the option of putting some into paying off the last of my parents' mortgage.

But why would you do this? How does it help you and your children?

onwards&upwards

Paying someone else’s mortgage won’t help your family!

The best thing is probably just to live off it, frugally and making it stretch, until either you find work that can support you or the amount drops below the level where you can claim benefits again, whichever comes first.

This site is fantastic for learning how to budget and get the most value out of every penny. Don’t spend anything without researching on here first!

You can put as much as possible into decent savings accounts to earn a little interest too, there’s a good guide to saving here on MSE.

BAFE

What is your ex doing with his share of the proceeds? Could you do something similar?

MovingForwards

I know you are bitter with what happened with your ex, time is a healer!

I wouldn't normally suggest this but how about using it to buy a shared ownership property? Less money to raise and the possibility of staircasing to own 100% as things improve with your life?

Something to think about when you have completed uni.