partner's bonus

tard

hi all,
My wife has been given a 25K bonus what is the best thing to do with it?
Both 59
we have no mortgage
15k credit card debt
2k savings
any help apricated
Tard

 

njkmr

Personally I would clear the credit card.
Boring, but will save you money if your paying interest each month.

Wonka_2

Presumably anything that you can do to minimise tax liability depending on current tax status

Pension ?

enthusiasticsaver

What is your tax status? £2k is not a lot in savings so I would keep some in savings and reduce or clear that credit card liability. Check your pension status. 

Flugelhorn

pay the credit card and put the rest in savings - nice not to owe anything 

Rodders53

Pay off CC debt.

Your wife should treat herself with some of that well earned bonus, and save most of the rest.  You need a good few months of salary (is it meant to be 12, ideally?) as an emergency fund.

Then try to spend within your means so as to not build up a fifteen thousand pound debt again!

Do check out both you and her state pension forecasts.

sourcrates

A week in Vegas, take me with you....

Rob5342

If you transfer it to me I can invest it for you

2k savings vs 15k debt needs addressing, id clear the debt and save the rest, possibly with a small treat of a few hundred pounds. You need to be very careful that you don't carry on the as you were before and build up £15k of debt again, it's easy to think "ooh money, treat, treat, treat" and end up back where you were 

Ferro

If a basic rate taxpayer, even with the bonus, the net would be £17000. 

If all at HR tax net would be £14500. 

The reality is somewhere in between. 

RAS

tard said:

hi all,
My wife has been given a 25K bonus what is the best thing to do with it?
Both 59
we have no mortgage
15k credit card debt
2k savings
any help apricated
Tard

 

What does your wife want to do?

EssexHebridean

The use of the onus isn’t the most significant question. 

Are you fully aware how the debt accrued?
Are you now living to a proper, well structured household budget, and the card debt is consistently falling month-on-month?
Are you still actively using credit cards which are not cleared in full each month?

if the answer to the first two questions are “no” then the risk is that you will use the bonus to clear the debt, but then end up back in the same situation before all that long. The key thing here is to ensure that the causes of the debt are tackled, and that, going forwards, cards are always cleared in full. (Except in the case of a 0% purchase card being used to make a planned and already-saved for large purchase)