It’s always nice to get a little cash. Maybe you got a bonus at work, maybe Grandma sent you a birthday present or maybe you won the lottery. Once you’ve got the money in your hands, though, you have to decide just what you’ll do with your windfall. I’d suggest sending it my way, but I think that these five tips will help you more in the long run:

1. Set up an emergency fund. Emergencies do happen, and it’s always good to have a little spare cash on hand. It can be hard to build up a rainy day fund when your paycheck barely covers your day-to-day bills, but unexpected cash can build up your fund quickly.
2. Pay down debt. Debt costs more than it’s worth in the long run. The more that you can pay now reduces the interest you’ll have to pay later — and that holds true for ‘good’ debt like student loans and mortgages.
3. Save towards a goal. Big goals, like retirement and college for your kids, take plenty of savings. Every penny you can add bring your goal a little closer. The same holds true for smaller goals, like that big-screen tv you’ve been eying.
4. Spend it. While one of the easier ways to build wealth is reducing spending, sometimes there really are things that you need to buy. It’s better to spend your windfall than put it on your credit card, at the very least. And if you get good value for your money, spending it is a perfectly respectable plan.
5. Use it to earn more. If you’ve got a windfall that you don’t need for anything else, consider putting it to work for you. If you have your own business, you might be able to invest in some new equipment. You might also be able to invest it in other companies through stocks and other earning instruments.

Out of these suggestions, I’d like to recommend my personal approach. Any time I have a bit of a windfall, I like to handle it in the following manner: I set aside 10 percent as ‘fun money.’ Depending on how much I have, it may not be enough for much more than a paperback at the local bookstore, but I do feel it’s important to reward myself for my hard work. I might also put my fun money towards a bigger purchase — it may go into a savings account earmarked for a vacation, for instance.

I know that many people will set aside 10 percent for some sort of charity. While I don’t always do so, I think it’s a decision worth considering. I would also recommend setting aside enough to cover taxes. Whether or not you think the IRS should get a chunk of your windfall, the IRS is the one that gets to decide — and they always decide in their favor.

This pie does start feeling like it’s been sliced kind of thin at this point. I always decide on one — and only one — place to put the rest of the money. I might put it in my emergency fund, I might put it towards my student loans. But I don’t try to divide it up into little chunks for each of my goals.