Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Dreaming of Riches

When the Mega Millions was approaching $1 billion last Friday, Hubs and I were having fun thinking of what we would do with all that money.  (Shocker, we didn't win.)   My last thought before we went back to our regularly scheduled Friday night, was that I would take a portion of the money and open my own publishing house.

Then I could publish all the people who write good books but can't even get a nod from the traditional publishers.  And pay them better than the traditional publishers pay authors.  And drive the Big 5 out of business. 

Bwa ha ha.

I mean, what else do you do with almost a billion dollars?  Buy a new house?  Nah.  We like this one.  We'd fix it up.  Do the remodeling we've been dreaming about.  And we'd buy more land, of course.  There's this piece of property that fronts a creek I like to fish on.  Buy that, throw a little cabin on it for bathrooms, munchies, and naps.  A getaway ten minutes from home.

Traveling would be a lot easier. Buy a plane?  Nah.  I have no interest in owning a plane.  We'd charter flights. Pop up to see Mom.  Pop down to see Mom-in-law.  Fly people in to see us.

Give money to our friends and family?  Probably, but then they'd have to deal with taxes and crap.  Move Mom into a nicer place and pay the rent on it for the rest of her life, of course.  But giving everyone I know and love loads of moolah?  Not so sure about that.  More often than not, money ruins people. 

We're simple folk.  We don't want or need much.  We have pretty much everything we need or want already.  Having some more money so we never have to worry about it again would be awesome, though.  And having enough so our loved ones never have to worry about it again would be even better. 

I'm not buying tickets for the next drawing.  Over a billion?  That's way too much.  I mean, the $868M it was when I bought the last ticket was too much.  This is why I play the smaller game 'Show Me Cash'.  The biggest it's gotten as far as I can remember was like $500K.  I could work with that.

Sorry about not being able to open the publishing house, though.  That would've been cool.

What would you do it you won a billion dollars?  Did you buy tickets for tonight's drawing?

1 comment:

  1. First, I'd hire an attorney and financial advisor. Then, with the funds secured, I'd do several things. First up, buy land and build a compound with separate residences for the family and in-laws. That's only 4 but we like the idea of "forting up." Nothing would be terribly fancy, just comfortable, new, and designed for the way we actually live.

    Then we'd set up our Just Because foundation, in order to anonymously donate money when stuff catches our eye. A high school marching band gets their instruments destroyed in a bus fire? We write a check. A little league team needs fund to get to the next level tournament? We write a check. A veteran needs a new roof? We write a check. Just the little things we see on the news and think, "We'd like to do that just because..."

    Yes, a publishing house is on the list. For the same reasons adn with the same results.

    Along the way, we'd set up some educational trust funds for the children of friends, an endowment at Baseball Boy's school, and pay off family debts and student loans. Oh, and I'd hire a marketing guru and an author's assistant to do my marketing!

    I don't think any of us would actually stop working. Lawyer Guy would probably do pro bono work though, rather than trying to hustle paying clients. I'm not sure about Only. I think she enjoys her job and even with all the art/crafts stuff she does, she might be bored. Me? I'd keep writing because I can't not write.

    So that's what I'd do. :) And I already have my ticket. Dreaming gets me through the BS of regular life. ;)