In reply to grumpyoldjanner:
> (In reply to Steve2013)
>
> With house prices as they are have you considered using the money to buy 1 or 2 new flats/houses (depending on final sum) to rent out. These could be bought in your name to avoid the problem if you split up and the rent could be used to pay the mortgage on the house you are currently living in. In X years you'll have then paid of your mortgage and own 2 or 3 houses instead of the one.
This is the option I would choose.
1. Get rid of all short term debt
2. Don't pay off the mortgage, buy a number of rental properties. Don't buy them outright, put down enough deposit (say 20-30k per) to get a good rate and mortgage the rest. On this basis you could get possibly 4 or 5 rental properties. You can always sell them to recover the capital if necessary.
3. Put the remainder in a high interest contingency fund for a rainy day.
However, I would strongly suggest with these kind of funds you see at least one, preferably two financial advisors, and compare and contrast their advice.
This is a life changing amount of money and potentially could set you up for ever - don't do *anything* until you are 100% certain its the right thing to do and you have taken all advice necessary (legal, financial, whatever). If that means the cash sits in a bank account for a couple of years its still better to make the right decision later rather than a rash decision soon.
In fact I would suggest sitting on the cash for six months regardless and force yourself not to do anything with it until that period has expired.