What if I got a bonus, inheritance, or gift?
A lump sum feels like a decision about the money, but it is really a decision about the plan around it: what debt is running, how thin the reserve is, and what is coming up. The same amount can be decisive in one plan and unremarkable in another.
What shapes the best use
- The net amount you actually receive after tax and deductions, and the month it arrives.
- Debt already running, its rates, and how much of it the amount would clear.
- Whether the accessible reserve is adequate for the household before anything else happens.
- Known expenses on the horizon that the money might be needed for.
- The allocation and horizon if it is invested, and whether the amount recurs.
One amount, several destinations
Enter the same net amount in the same month in every copy of the plan, then change only where it goes: debt, reserve, investments, an upcoming expense, or a split. Anything else you alter between copies makes the difference you read back partly about that instead.
A bonus that repeats every year is a different question from an inheritance that happens once. If it recurs, model it as recurring — a single entry with “and again next year” added in your head is not the same as the plan actually carrying it, and a decade of that difference is large.
Questions worth testing
- How much of the amount is already spoken for by the next two years?
- Which debt would it clear entirely, and what does that free up each month?
- Does the reserve reach a level you are comfortable with before anything is invested?
- What does splitting it across two uses look like against putting it all in one?
How to read the result
Enter the amount you expect to be left with after any tax or deduction that applies to you — Worthifi does not calculate tax on a bonus, an inheritance or a gift, makes no claim about what is taxable or exempt, and does not know your situation. A tax adviser can. This is a planning illustration, not financial, investment or tax advice.
How it works in the app
A one-off income event adds a net amount in a single month, flowing straight through your normal savings/investments split. See where it lands, and what it compounds into by the plan's final year.
- Tap “Expect a windfall”.
- Enter the net amount and the month you'd receive it.
- Check where it's allocated, and its effect on net worth by the plan's final year.
Model this yourself