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If I won the lottery
Jul. 22nd, 2010 03:45 amSomeone got me thinking. What WOULD I do if I won the lottery? Would I lose myself because I had no financial goals? What would change?
I wouldn't stop working - I LIKE my job. I like my co-workers, and my clients, and fixing things. If I needed to make more money than I do right now, I would go work at the Four Seasons. And I could, but I'd have to dress better, act like I have class, wear make-up and do massage on people who didn't really need the work. It wouldn't be fun, or feel useful. No.
I would probably buy one of the local foreclosed-on churches and have it made into a house. Chapel/workshop/party & venue space? It would be fucking rad.
I would pay off everyone's credit card debt that would let me. You can worry if you want to, or if the challenge enriches your life. If it doesn't, then scrap it.
I would buy some new shoes and work pants, an iPhone, and a food processor.
I would hire a rotating set of underemployed friends to be part-time personal assistants to the artists I know who can't keep track of their bills, where the charcoal pencils got to, or where their beige taffeta is. I know a lot of people who are good artists, but don't get much done because their skill set applies only haphazardly to the real world. Paired with people who could handle organization and one extra person with marketing skills, they could have a tiny corporate entity with everything they need to keep making my world shinier without torturing themselves trying to handle the external world that they dislike.
I would probably sink most of it into one of those organizations that does microlending, but one here in the American Southwest geared toward Native Americans and the rest of our local poor. We have a better chance of fixing problems we understand and are a part of, right?
The Make Dallas Weird plan and the rest would be largely unaffected since those are social initiatives and not susceptible to market influences as I understand such things.
So at that point I wouldn't qualify as "rich". I would still live on a budget. I would still put money aside. Most of the problems I have currently that concern money are about spending choices, which will still apply. And I'm not sure that I want to spend all that much time with anyone who gets weird about it, although I'd like to believe that most of my friends would be largely unaffected by material envy since we're all nerds. I have a few friends who are materialistic, some who are just pack rats. I'm not sure how they would handle it.
EDIT TO ADD: I don't actually play the lottery, since I agree with Robert Heinlein that it is basically a tax levied on people who don't know how to do math. I do not endorse the idea of spending money on games of pure chance.
So at that point I wouldn't qualify as "rich". I would still live on a budget. I would still put money aside. Most of the problems I have currently that concern money are about spending choices, which will still apply. And I'm not sure that I want to spend all that much time with anyone who gets weird about it, although I'd like to believe that most of my friends would be largely unaffected by material envy since we're all nerds. I have a few friends who are materialistic, some who are just pack rats. I'm not sure how they would handle it.
EDIT TO ADD: I don't actually play the lottery, since I agree with Robert Heinlein that it is basically a tax levied on people who don't know how to do math. I do not endorse the idea of spending money on games of pure chance.
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