$50,000 inheritance - What do I do?
I’m about to receive $50,000 from my late grandmothers estate (give or take), if my calculations are right. I have $4000 in credit card debt (most have gone to collections because of a health emergency that kept me from working for a long period of time, so I made poor financial decisions throughout that process and never paid my credit cards/they are all cancelled now).
I no longer have a credit card. I am working and living paycheque to paycheque. I have $25,000 in student loan debt. Three years left in my degree as I moved provinces and switched schools. I currently have $5000 to my name and am terrified to receive this money because I’ve just never imagined a world in which I wasn’t broke.
For context, I’m 25 and have been paying rent since I was 18. My only living parent is on disability and hasn’t worked for many years. He lives off of that and has no financial knowledge, nor does the rest of my family.
I’d really like to be responsible with this money but I’m completely illiterate in investing so I have no idea where to start. I would love to go to grad school but I’d also love to travel as I’ve never had the opportunity. I was planning on going on exchange next year, and now it somehow seems possible, but maybe would be more worth it to just travel europe for a month; I’m not sure. Any tips would be incredibly helpful as I feel quite embarrassed talking about this with friends. Thank you in advance!