Friday, October 14, 2005

Winning the Lottery - A Tale of Dreaming a Dream of Dreams

Steakbellie has recently done a couple of really good and succint articles on winning the lottery. I really enjoyed his analysis about what happens when his friend talks about winning the lottery with his wife and how it inevitably ends up in a disagreement about what you will do with "fake" money. That just sounds so human.

Buying lottery tickets to me is an interesting concept as I don't buy them regularly. I usually buy them only when there is a pretty big jackpot. It just makes me feel as though my donation was more worth it. Mega Millions just reached $77 million... so I will probably give it a shot...this week.

Steakbellie discussed some of his plans for the money if he were to ever hit the lotto... and I think they are all admirable and fun.

I decided to think and write about osme of the things that I would do if it were me who won the lottery.

1. Debt -- The obvious and most responsible thing that I would do would be to pay off all debt that muh wife and i have incurred. It is limited so that is good. I might even consider paying off the debt of others that I know were financially responsible.

2. Responsibile Spending -- I would then put the money into an account to earn interest and probably live off the interest in terms of spending cash. I read about too many people that win the lottery and then lose all their money. Insane... be mature about it!

3. Job -- I would quit. I would not leave right awy but if I won enough money so that I never had to work again if I did it right, I would quit... and in a heart beat. I would be fair to my employer...but come on... I would stop working and do what I want...

4. Travel -- We would buy a pretty big SUV and just drive the United States for a year or more staying where ever our car would end up and going places we wanted to go. It wouldn't be hard... and it would be fun. Once we used up the United States, I could really see myself as being a permanent guest on some of these cruises around the world.

5. Being A Good Friend -- I think that the purchase of some remote property and opening it up for use by friends is another fun idea... thanks Steakbellie.

6. Lame... yeah... all of these are lame ideas... but I have a feeling that I would do a lot more fun stuff...

You got any good ideas?

3 comments:

mickeyg said...

Jack and I have discussed it, and besides the pay off debt, help family and throw a huge party we would also quit our jobs and just spend days food shopping, cooking and eating (with some excercise in between). Monday would be cheese day and we would find all the great artisian cheese shops, Tuesday we would go on the hunt for good pastas etc. And friends would always be welcome!

steakbellie said...

thats f'ing awsome...cheese day....


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ArtieLange said...

I'd gamble a lot and buy some really expensive cheeses to eat and sit on.