We all play this game. Imagine what we would do if we won the lottery. I play this game every once in a while just to keep my hand in it (the imagining part, that is. Not necessarily the buying a ticket part.)
If I won the lottery today, here's what I'd do in exactly this order:
1. Pay off my student loans and all of my debt.
2. Place a percentage in trust for each of my siblings.
3. Buy my parents a fully finished house.
4. Make an offer to the current owners on my friend Lea's former house in Inverness, California.
5. Establish a scholarship program in the Religious Studies Department at George Mason University and fund the development of a Religion in America center at the Graduate Theological Union.
6. Quit my awful job and take a low paying job doing whatever I want or enjoy or that would give back to society.
7. Establish a foundation and make grants to non-profits that focus on environmental, preservation, literacy, women's empowerment, and human rights issues.
8. Place the remainder of the money in stocks and high yield bonds and live off the earnings and interest.
If you won the lottery today, what would you do with the money?
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8 comments:
1. Ensure that my parents and grandmother were completely taken care of for whatever time they have left.
2. Put half the total in trust for Olivia. A sum to be paid after she gradutaes from college and has supported herself for three years. An additional sum to be paid to her at age thirty, and an additional sum to be paid similarly and equally to her children.
3. Buy new carpets and build an extention at my church.
4. Buy two new (American made) cars. Hybrids.
5. Buy two small houses... one in Williamsburg, Va., and one in Orlando, Fl.
6. Stash whatever is left for our retirement.
We live fairly simply. I might even use some of it for tuition at the seminary, if I ever decide to make that leap.
My list would be similar, but with a few indulgences:
1 - zero debt for ma and pa, including their mortgage
2 - buy ma and pa a huge truck, 5th wheeler trailer, and sign them up for a gas debit card.
3 - small % in savings for siblings (we don't get along)
4 - establish a scholarship program at my alma mater in English/Literature (Westminster of SLC, Utah)
5 - keep my day job to bug the hell out of everyone
6 - Non-profit foundation(s) for literacy, environmental, alternative energy, preservation, AIDS, and human rights issues.
7 - live well below my means, but I would buy a Victorian house in the Bay area. And a Toyota Yaris (hatchback - 40mpg, baby).
8 - perhaps quit the day job and start a publishing company.
Gunfighter: Good list. Very generous.
Sideon: Also a good list. If you start that publishing company, please call me. I'm looking for work as a managing editor or publisher and I want to get back to CA ASAP.
I'd design and have built my (small) dream home complete with cool fixtures like granite sinks and a big studio with good ventilation.
I'd give a home and money to my mom to live comfortably for the rest of her days so she didn't feel the need to live with some married guy who's been paying his wife's house payment for 30 years during separation.
I'd still work, only it'd be doing art like I want to.
Set up trusts for my kids much like GF said.
I'd obviously buy some tix and come visit you in DC or wherever!! Duh.
I'd visit other friends from around the world too.
My list:
Pay off our mortgage and Mike's student loans.
Make sure my parents and Mike's mom have any resources, support, or care they need as they get older.
Remodel the Pepto Pink kitchen and fix all the half-assed home improvement projects done by previous owners.
Buy a getaway cottage in Sedona and a historic bungalow in Pasadena.
Set up scholarships at Pasadena City College, BYU, Ohio State, and Claremont Graduate School for single moms/older re-entry women students who need financial support or for students doing work in gender/feminism/Mormon Studies.
Take art classes and learn to make stained glass windows.
Travel and take cooking classes everywhere I went.
Save what's left.
1. Start a business like Grameen bank and employ lots of interesting people. They can do whatever they want - as long as they show up for fika and talk to me, I'm getting my money's worth.
2. Pay off debts.
3. Buy my husband a small house in Spain. Apparently he's planning to go there when he retires, never asked me though. Maybe if I buy the house I can at least be allowed to visit.
4. Pay for driver licenses and university for my kids. Maybe even apartments. But I'd better leave them something to dream about.
5. Constantly ask my neighbour what she needs for her next charity trip.
6. Go hiking in the alps every other month and invite a new friend every time to join me. (The kind of hike where they have a car to take you luggage between the guesthouses, of course.)
7. Pay for therapy to be able to travel and go through with #6.
SML: Okay, I'm going to amend my list. If won the lottery, I'd give you the money to build yourself the studio of your dreams. And you're always welcome here, or wherever.
ME: Fabulous list! I had no idea you wanted to learn how to make stain glass. I know someone who can teach you. If you want to make a trip out here, I can set you up!
Genilimaa: Excellent list! Can I go with you to the Alps? I've only been when I lived in Austria and I lived it, though, I never hiked. I think I'd need therapy for that, too!
Stained glass has been a back burner wish for a while now. Hope I can make it to DC and work with your connection.
I also want to start a fund so women getting divorced from lawyer-husbands can hire a decent lawyer themselves and not get screwed by the settlement.
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