My Financial Recovery

Lesson Learned The Hard Way #1: Large Sums Of Money

Posted on: April 28, 2009 by Matt 4 Comments

Originally uploaded by Gnerk

Shortly after my 18th birthday my mother passed away. I had plans to head off to college about a month later and intended to go just to get away from all the old memories lingering around where I grew up.  I had very little in my bank account and all of it was probably going to be needed for books and other expenses related to college.

Later that semester I received notification that I was due to inherit my share from my mother’s estate which amounted to about $11,000. To date this was easily the largest sum of money I have received in one lump sum. I had no idea what to do with the money and was still grief stricken and in shock from the loss of my mother (I really had trouble coping with her death).  I did what most college boys probably would have done: deposited the money in my checking account and spent frivolously.  Of course the nice lady at the bank attempted to give me some advise but I wanted nothing to do with saving money or planning long term.  I more or less told her to just give me the money and shut up.

For the most part I do not remember what I spent the money on.  From what I can recollect now I can recall buying:

• Lots and lots of booze on a regular basis: I developed an even bigger drinking problem in college that I carried with me until a little over a year ago.  At this point in my life I have come to realize and accept that I am an alcoholic and can not drink.  I have been sober now for about 16 months.
• A PlayStation2 that I had to have: I was a guy and in college – of course I needed the newest video game console.
• A beat up car from my girlfriend’s (at the time) brother: This was  my first car.  I did not get my license until I was 19.  It was a little beat up but ran well and I managed to get quite a bit of mileage out of it.

Needless to say – I spent every last dime within a year or so. I do not regret spending it but do think that I made some poor choices.  I suppose that if I had to start all over again today I would probably look to start out by:

• Learning how to manage money: Not just large sums but also general personal finance.  I was fairly clueless, nobody had taught me anything about money management and I had not taken the initiative to learn on my own.
• Parking the money in a CD where it is locked for 3 to 6 months: Actually – I probably would have opened a few of them that would mature at different lengths of time.  Maybe break it into quarters and put 25% in each 3, 6, 9 and 12 months.  I was in no emotional state to make any financial decisions and knew little to nothing about handling money.
• If I needed money, get a job: I had limited to no income the first three years of college.  I cited having to focus on my studies as the reason for not working but the real reason was I was too busy drinking and generally slacking off.  I could have easily worked a part time job.

I do not regret spending the money or wish to change the past but do try to learn from my mistakes.  In this case I learned that having a large sum of money float into your life requires that you press a pause button and do some planning and possibly some healing.  When the inheritance arrived in my hand I was still grieving (at a point where I maybe should have put college off a semester or two) and was not clear headed.  Parking the money and forgetting it existed would have given me some time to work on healing myself.  Once I was in a better place emotionally I could have moved forward with learning how to manage money and planning.  My lesson did not have to be learned the hard way – I could have listened to the nice folks at the bank but I chose not to.   So I guess there is also a general life lesson here as well: Listen to the advise of people who specialize in a field you know little or nothing about.