Learning centre · Planning · 6 min · screens from October 2026

Planning for a windfall

Jordan's grandmother's estate will be settled in December, and he is inheriting $25,000. The worst thing to do with it is let it sit in chequing and slowly turn into groceries. The best thing is to decide what it is for before it arrives. A scenario is where you make that decision, and Found money is where Mintro shows you smaller amounts of spare money every month.

What you'll do

Add a windfall to a scenario as a change, months before it arrives
Split it across a debt, a goal, and investing, and see what each part achieves
Compare two different splits by their milestones
When the money arrives, give it its jobs all at once

Step 1

Decide before it arrives

The inheritance is a change in a scenario: $25,000, once, in December, split in parts that add up to the total. The split is the decision. $1,500 goes to the Visa, $6,000 goes to the Japan trip, and $17,500 goes into retirement savings, where it grows for twenty-seven years. Each part changes a milestone, and the scenario shows which one and by how much.

The estate scenario's change: $25,000 in December split across the Visa goal, the Japan goal and invest — The inheritance, as a change. The parts of the split must add up to the total, or the scenario won't save.

The inheritance, as a change. The parts of the split must add up to the total, or the scenario won't save.

new scenario: grandma's estate, $25,000 in December. $1,500 to the Visa, $6,000 to Japan, the rest invested.

Step 2

See what difference it makes

Compared with the baseline, the scenario's milestones change: net worth at retirement goes from $3,354,739 to $3,449,375, retirement itself moves earlier from March 2048 to June 2047, and the month the money runs out moves from April 2073 to December 2074. If the answer surprises you (the $17,500 invested is worth more at 63 than the Visa's interest would ever cost), that is exactly why it helps to do the arithmetic before the money arrives.

The Scenarios table: the estate scenario in the row below the baseline, with its milestones — The inheritance scenario in the row below the baseline, with the month of every milestone.

The inheritance scenario in the row below the baseline, with the month of every milestone.

Step 3

Or put all of it toward your debts

The other option is to put all of it toward your debts. Under Debts on Goals, Add a lump sum takes an amount and a month, and in that month the whole amount goes to the first debt in the list that is not paid off yet. To compare it with the split, make a second scenario with the same $25,000 in December sent to a debt, and read the two rows side by side. Neither is the right answer; one of them is what you actually want, and now you can see the difference.

Add a lump sum toward your debts: the amount, the month you pay it, and what it is — A lump sum toward the debts. In that month the whole amount goes to the first debt in the list that is not paid off yet.

A lump sum toward the debts. In that month the whole amount goes to the first debt in the list that is not paid off yet.

compare: what if the whole $25,000 went to the debts in December?

Step 4

Smaller windfalls, every month

Most windfalls are small: an envelope that ended the month with more than it needs, a target that has been higher than actual spending for three months, or a card or loan payment that finishes in the next few years. Found money spots these, names the goal each would go to (the first one not yet reached), and, where it can, says how many months sooner that goal would be reached. Take the ones you like; each button only moves or assigns money the way you could by hand.

Found money: money sitting there now, and what frees up later — Found money: the smaller windfalls, each with the goal it would help reach sooner.

Found money: the smaller windfalls, each with the goal it would help reach sooner.

what's sitting there now that could go to a goal?