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I did get my (unexpected) tax refund recently. I’m glad that there was a little bit of time before finding out that I was going to be getting a refund and actually receiving it. That gave me time to contemplate what I most wanted to do with the money. Weighing your options without making an impulsive decision is probably one of the best things to do with a windfall. Time allows you to think things through and (hopefully) do something that’s in your best interest.

One commenter suggested that I should handle my refund the same way I handle my usual income, which was an interesting idea. After all, why should a windfall be viewed in a special light? Money is money, and my situation hasn’t changed otherwise. I guess the only difference for me was that my usual income is usually all accounted for, and this wasn’t. Maybe it would have been different if I was talking about a windfall the size of powerball winnings, but I wasn’t.

So what did I do? I invested a very small portion, which was a little bit of fun. That “investment” was really more like a gamble on a stock with almost no history. (Which is NOT the kind of stock that I normally choose.) In fact so far it’s down something like 6%, so hm, maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. Oh well, we’ll see what happens.

I then put the rest of the refund into a high-yield savings account. I feel good about this because it gave me a painless boost toward reaching my savings goal for the year. I feel more comfortable knowing that my emergency fund is closer to where I’d like it to be.

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