You’ve won $5,000 – what next?

By Lucy Dean

March 08 2018
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It’s the stuff of 3:30pm daydreams; what would you do if you won a neat $5,000? Nest Egg asked five industry professionals that question.

The question: You win $5,000 in the lottery. Outside of donating to charity, what do you do with it?

Andrew Ward is the managing director of flat-fee online brokerage service and social media platform for investors, SelfWealth. This is what he’d do:

“[It] depends on how old you are, but at this point in time, I would fully invest it and I would just make sure that I'm investing with some science behind it. If you're less than 50 and less than 60, you've got time to ride it out, so I'd fully invest it.

“I'd invest – and this is where I'd get a bit biased of course – but I would be looking at the best investors on SelfWealth and seeing what they're investing in and follow suit rather than putting finger in the air, and listening to rumours.”

Alan Greenstein is the CEO of the fully-licensed marketplace lender Zagga. If he won $5,000, this is what he would do:

“$5,000 is maybe a little small a number to give a proper answer [to that question], but let's say you told me that I won $50,000 in the lottery.

“[If] you said to me: ‘Alan, would you put it in the bank, would you put in the stock market, or would you put it in an alternative product or do you go to the casino and put it all on red?’

“I think in order of priority I'd put it in an alternative product, I'd go to the casino and put it on red, then I'd put it on the stock-market and then I'd put it in the bank.”

Anna Hacker is wills and estates accredited specialist at Australian Unity Trustees. Here’s what she said:

“I would probably go on a holiday and try to take the rest of my family on a holiday.

“I must admit though, I've been trying to convince my husband to invest in cryptocurrency and so if i had money that was something that I could lose, then that could also be where I'd spend it.

“One of his friends made quite a bit of money, but they're saying, ‘The big bubble is over’. So, he's like, i don't think it's worth it, it's too risky.”

“He was in really, really early, so it's quite a substantial amount but he's still not convinced.

“I'm not going to just take $5,000 out of our home [to invest in cryptocurrency], and I'd hate to think that it was money that could've gone to the kids' school. But if it was $5,000 that landed on my lap, I'd probably be more likely to use it for that purpose.”

Trevor Folsom is the co-founder of early-stage investment group Investible. Here’s what he said:

“What would I do? In the world I'm in, I would invest in an early stage business and pick one that I felt that I was comfortable in and that I felt that I could add some value in.

“If it was my teenage son then I would encourage them to pay off any debts and create a plan that can give them the ability to build an investment portfolio once they were clear of any debt.”

Mark Chapman is the director of tax communications at H&R Block. His answer was short and sweet:

“Sadly, I’d be very frivolous and blow the lot on a nice overseas trip!”

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