I drove from Fairfield to Dayton the other day. Earlier that day I had bought a lottery ticket on a whim. On my drive to Dayton I had convinced myself that I in fact was going to win the lottery. Not only was I going to win the lottery I wasn't going to keep any of it for myself. Well maybe a little but that was only if I accomplished my first couple goals.
In my present financial situation I am okay. I'm not great but doing just fine, thank you. I'm not much of one for money. Money gets me things I need like food and so forth. I keep a stable job to maintain the lifestyle I am use to. Still beyond that I couldn't fathom having more than I've got.
For some reason I thought the ticket I had bought would only have about a $700,000 jackpot. I planned the future for the money that deep down I knew I would never have but on the surface felt was rightfully mine.
So these are things I would spend my winnings on:
1. I would give $200,000 to my parents. You may say, "Oh she is a great daughter, blah blah blah." I won't deny that but that isn't for this reason. I would actually give my parents $200,000 because they are such great parents. They paid for not just my whole college education but my two sisters as well. I have a debt free start into being an adult and it is all because of them. Really $200,000 is the least I could do.
2. In this whole plan the only people that would know I won would be my lawyer and my parents. Beyond that no one. Not even my sisters although they might catch on. In the technical sense I thought of giving them $100,000 each. However this wouldn't be in cold hard cash. It would be in the "Laura is going to have fun with this" way. Right away $50,000 would be put towards both of their respective mortgages. Next I would pay off all of their cars. The remainder, I'm thinking is about $40,000 for both of them, I would hold on to for a year. Maybe once a month I would transfer $500 into their checking accounts just to mess with them, or pay their energy bills. Still I would hold onto the $40,000 and wait until one of them spoke up about, "Oh, we need a new dishwasher or a new dryer" Then I would strike. One day for the both of them it would be like Christmas Armageddon. Movers will start pounding on their door from 8am to 8pm the crescendo being new economical cars or maybe a family vacation. I haven't decided yet. Of coarse during this process I will have to keep up the image that it is happening to me as well. Just to keep them from guessing.
3. One of my dreams is to pick up a phone book, if they still exist at this point, open it at random and point. Then call the person I am pointing at, to make sure they are still alive, and ask them if they want $1,000. I realize a lot of people will probably hang up thinking I am a telemarketer but that is the joy for me. If I have to call 25 people to get to one person who will agree to me giving them $1,000 that is 25 people who will never fully comprehend or even remember the opportunity they missed out on.
4. I would buy 4 season tickets for the Diamond Seats at GABP. I would just explain them away as a prize I won through a radio station or something. I of coarse would attend every game and my dad would have an open invite but from there on out I'd make sure every game had a rotating cast of characters.
5. With the remainder I would buy a house and do my best to finish a novel before the money ran out.
Coming up with this hypothetical list took me 30 minutes and it really wasn't tough. What was tough was letting go of the dream as I got out of the car. I know that me being able to do this will never happen. I already checked the numbers and I didn't even get one right. Still this is a nice dream.
