I inherited $250,000 from my grandmother when she died – here’s how I blew through it all and ended up living in a rental

A woman who inherited $250,000 from her late grandmother tells how she quit her job, blew the money and now lives in a rental home.

Sarah Faith Jacobson, a 40-year-old business consultant from Texas, said that after receiving the large sum, she had no idea what to do with it and “regrets” how she spent it.

Her grandparents were successful real estate investors in the Bay Area in the 1970s. After her grandmother died in 2020, Jacobson inherited $175,000 from her life insurance policy and another $75,000 from her will.

She soon hired a financial advisor to help her create a plan for her finances, but after paying her $5,000 up front for her help, Jacobson “ignored” her and decided to follow her “champagne-taste-for-beer budget” instead.

“I took a road trip to the places I wanted to move to and spent most of my inheritance on that trip,” Jacobson said. Company insider.

‘I had quit my job and had no source of income. I was living off the money from the inheritance.’

She received the $175,000 in one lump sum and the $75,000 in multiple payments spread over a few months.

Jacobson admitted she quickly learned she was “very afraid of money” after her grandmother’s trustee transferred the life insurance money into her account.

When Jacobson was young, she never really learned how to handle money, other than how to balance a checkbook.

She attended college and graduated in 2007 debt-free, after her family paid for her bachelor’s degree in women’s studies.

Jacobson then went to work as a lactation consultant and counselor in Colorado. Although the pay wasn’t good, her family helped her with rent.

When the large sum of money was deposited into her account, Jacobson felt relief, fear and doubt.

Jacobson admitted that after her grandmother’s trustee transferred the money from the life insurance policy into her account, she quickly found herself “having a lot of anxiety around money.”

“It was a relief to see that, because I didn’t have much money at the time. But it quickly turned into feelings of not being good enough, or not being worthy of having money,” she recalls.

Still, she set out to explore the region, packing up her Subaru Crosstrek and heading to Denver, Colorado Springs, Santa Fe and New Mexico, before settling in Austin.

Jacobson said she spends a large portion of her money on food, gas, hotel rooms and Airbnbs while traveling.

She also spent money on “fancy dinners,” a $2,000 diamond ring and $5,000 worth of health equipment that she still owns. It’s unclear what kind of equipment it is.

When she ran out of money, Jacobson decided to contact the financial advisor she had initially failed.

She soon hired a financial advisor to help her create a plan for her money, but after paying her $5,000 up front for her help, Jacobson “ignored” her

“I had already spent most of my money by then, but we met and she was understanding and sympathetic. She agreed to work together because I had already paid the $5,000 up front,” Jacobson said.

Together they made a plan to get Jacobson back on track financially and professionally.

After a ‘moment of introspection’ in 2022 and some ‘healing work’, Jacobson got a job in elderly care and did some side jobs on the side.

Now she lives in a rental apartment in San Antonio and has started from scratch, planning to save her money to invest in real estate someday.

“I am passionate about my leadership work in business,” she said.

“I am in a better position now and if I were to receive a large sum of money again, I could hold on to it and use it wisely.”