As the country gets richer, a lot more people are inheriting their money. Then there are the SSIAs that begin to mature in June, and the cheques and free shares that customers of Irish Nationwide and Standard Life can look forward to when these financial institutions are sold in the coming months.

If all else fails, you might get lucky with a lottery ticket or, like John Cahill from Galway (see case study), win the money in a radio competition.

Most people will want to use their windfalls to live it up a little, earmarking at least some of the money for a dream holiday or a new set of wheels. But it would be a shame to see your windfall disappear as quickly as it appeared.

If you are determined to spend your good fortune wisely, whether it is an inheritance or a bonus from your job, the first step is to sort out your financial priorities. Here are some tips to get you started:

First: pay off expensive debts.

Dull and boring, but the best use for any spare cash that comes your way is to rid yourself of expensive credit card debts, personal loans and car finance packages.

There is no point leaving money in a deposit account, where you would be lucky to earn more than 3% interest, while paying interest on your credit card of 15%-18%. So you should use any spare cash to pay off this debt, as long as you won't be hit by penalties for repaying the loan early.

Second: maximise your SSIA.

As the savings scheme enters its final year, it would be a shame not to make the most of the government's 1-for- 4 top-up while it is still available.

You will never again get a better guaranteed return for your money and, the closer you get to maturity the more valuable the top-up becomes.

This is because, while each contribution qualifies for the same 25% top-up, the wait to get your hands on the money gets shorter as the scheme comes to an end.

According to the banks, almost half of their customers are still not contributing the maximum 254 a month.

Make sure your are not one of them.

Third: tackle the mortgage.

Following two mortgage hikes in four months, it has never made better sense to get your mortgage under control.

Interest on most mortgages jumps to 4% from next month, sending the payments on a 250,000, 30-year home loan to almost 1,200 a month, an increase of about 80 a month since December.

Ploughing a 20,000 windfall into the mortgage now could save you almost 41,000 in interest and knock more than four years off the life of the mortgage.

You should also consider an offset or current account mortgage from National Irish Bank or First Active. These balance your savings against your debts so that you only pay interest on the difference.

So by leaving the 20,000 windfall in your current account you could get the same interest saving as paying the money into your mortgage. The beauty is that you are free to withdraw the money from the current account whenever you wish, something that would be a lot trickier if you had used the money to pay down the mortgage.

Fourth: top up your pension.

When your debts are under control and you are paying 254 a month into an SSIA, it is time to start thinking about a pension. Because of the generous tax and PRSI relief, a 20,000 windfall could be worth close to 38,500 when invested in a pension. It is also worth remembering that any returns the money makes while in a pension fund will be completely free of tax.

The government is also allowing us to stuff ever more money into pensions, and recent changes have lifted the contribution limit to 35% of income for people aged over 55 and 40% once you hit 60.

But there are also serious downsides. Any money you put in a pension will be tied up until you retire. Under current rules, there is no way of unlocking your pension early, no matter how badly you need the money.

The pension system is also grossly unfair because the tax breaks are rigged in favour of the rich. If you earn less than 32,000 a year, you only qualify for tax relief at the lower 20% rate. This means that a 20,000 windfall is worth 27,000 in your pension . . . 11,500 less than for somebody in the top tax bracket.

Fifth: learn to love stocks and shares. The stock market can be a minefield for novices and many have seen their money go up in smoke after picking the wrong investment.

But the biggest risk in finding the right home for a windfall is to take no risk at all.

Invest it in the stock market and you could lose heavily in the next downturn, although people who hold their nerve generally recover their losses when the market subsequently rebounds.

If you leave your windfall in a risk-free deposit account you are guaranteed to lose as the purchasing power of your money is gradually eroded by the twin evils of Dirt tax and inflation.

The benefits of investing in stocks and shares for the long term can be seen in new research from global investment bank ABN Amro. Its Global Investment Returns Yearbook shows that 1 invested in Irish shares in 1900 would be worth 13,668 today if all dividends had been reinvested. The same 1 invested in a savings account would be worth just 195 if all the interest had been reinvested.

HOW ONE MAN MADE THE MOST OF A WINDFALL

JOHN CAHILL had his hopes pinned on a 250,000 jackpot when he lined out in Lansdowne Road for Ulster Bank's 'Kick for Cash' competition during last weekend's rugby victory over Scotland.

A 38-year-old father of "ve, John had big plans for the money. It would have paid off the mortgage on the family home in the Galway suburb of Ballybane and put a new car on the road. It would also have allowed John realise his dream of visiting friends in the US and taking his sons to see Manchester United play at Old Trafford.

John's kicking skills were no match for the "erce winds and rain on the day. But while all the contestants missed the target, he did walk away with the minimum 5,000 prize that Ulster Bank guaranteed to the "nalists.

He has put the money to good use, booking a family holiday in Trabolgan Holiday Village in Cork for next summer.

"We've never been away with all of the children before so now they'll be able to go back to school in September and say they've had a great holiday, " he says.

John hasn't quite given up on the football weekend either. "If my 40th birthday was just a bit closer, I might be able to justify a trip to Old Trafford, " he says.

This was only the latest win for a man who has struck gold in several other competitions. These have resulted in concert tickets, weekends away and, in his biggest win to date, a 10,000 prize from a competition on 2FM radio in November 2004. "It was just coming up to Christmas so you could say the win was fortunate, " he says. "You could say that Santa Claus was fairly generous that year. I suppose we went a bit overboard."

Nevertheless, there was enough left over to buy household appliances and to begin an extension to the family home, a job that John hopes will be finished shortly.