Service of Dreaming
December 16th, 2013
Categories: Charity, Dreaming, Gambling, Luck
I’ve written before about luck and the lottery; that it’s a tax on the poor and how winners often become paupers but it’s again time to dream because the Mega Millions jackpot is $550 million and may even be more as I hear ticket sales were brisk over the weekend.
After paying off bills, buying a few gifts for yourself and loved ones, and salting away enough so that you don’t have to worry about how you’d pay for rent, food, clothes and healthcare for the rest of your life, there would be plenty left over. The hardest thing would be to decide where to put the money–all in one spot or a little here and there–whether to address starvation, disease, education, the arts or causes—or to keep it all.
Do you already know where the extra would go or would you first study the subject? Would you give money to existing foundations, start a foundation of your own or keep and then spend all the winnings on houses, boats and cars? Would you keep on working?
Frank Sinatra singing “Luck be a Lady Tonight”
Tags: Charity, dreaming, luck, Mega million lottery
Getting piles of money should be treated as part fun, part very hard work. Work is needed to organize the windfall so as to continue to live well. The fun depends upon personality regarding spending. I have yet to dream about being showered by dollars, but that’s just as well. Waking up to reality could be depressing.
Jeanne,
I have spent a lot of time thinking about this. First, I probably would keep it quiet for 6 months and not do anything drastic. Would provide for my family. Travel. Probably partner with an existing foundation that was aligned with the same mission as my values. So, if the office wonders where I am in 6 months, you can probably find me on the French Riveria, sipping a chocolat au lait at a cafe.
Lucrezia,
You are right, it is depressing especially if you spend more money than you should on tickets. When I hear “the winning ticket was purchased at thus and thus store in another state” I feel a twinge. It would be worse if I heard, “at the newsstand on East 50th off Second Ave” where I often buy a ticket and it’s not my tkt.
I think it would be such fun to have extra money to give surprises and treats. Think of a friend whose pet could use surgery but she doesn’t have the $3,000+++ and already spent thousands on the beloved pal with major debt overhanging. She gets a call from the vet to tell her that her debt is gone and that the surgery can be scheduled as it, too, is paid for. And on and on. Big sigh.
Now I must remember to buy a ticket.
EAM,
I, too, have fun thinking about it!
I don’t know if I’d wait six months–in pretty short order I’d ask a financial advisor how much I should tuck away for taxes and to have a stress-free life at least where money is concerned. I have a few remodeling druthers I’d like to fulfill and might get them started.
That chocolat au lait sounds dreamy to me.
Think I’d take a finance course and learn how to manage and invest what’s left after my “perks” for winning. I also would want no publicity if I won; and if it is a requirement for receiving the windfall, I’d make sure I moved immediately.
ASK,
I wonder if the rules are different from state to state but I recall that one big winner was able to stay anonymous.
And before you move immediately maybe you change your phone number and hire an assitant to take calls and open mail. You’d be giving someone who’d appreciate a job some income. And there are wigs and dark glasses.
What a fun problem to have.
While I know, and my accountant husband keeps dinning in to me, all government run lotteries are nothing but another devious way to tax the poor to make the rich yet richer, I still buy tickets. Even though I know the odds of winning were better under the old Mafia run numbers game, I still dream of winning.
What would I do if I did win? First, I would pay off my debts, then…
In the spirit of Thomas Cahill’s “How the Irish Saved [Western] Civilization”, I would spend the rest of the money on assembling a diverse team of thinking women and men to see if there is any way now to try to save western civilization all over again.
Between accelerating demographic change and unbridled technologically enabled human greed, it is probably too late, but backing hopeless causes, worth backing, is not a bad way to spend “found” money.
Hester,
I buy a few tickets too– I can’t help it.
Everybody’s dream for what they’d do with found money is valid [unless they have nefarious uses in mind]. While I can see myself, like EAM, sipping hot chocolate in the south of France, I can’t respond to your dream for the money without knowing more about your definition of “civilization.” I have plenty of complaints about the rampant selfie attitude–just this morning a man in his 50s let the heavy glass ground floor office door slam in my face as I was struggling to close a difficult umbrella with hands otherwise full. It infuriated me. He didn’t act civilized. I doubt changing this kind of behavior is what you had in mind though.
Well, now that I HAVE NOT won— I can say;
”YES I would give it all to charity!”
But I think that once you HAVE actually won, you might re-think your ideals?!?
Just speculating here… But truly, I think most people would want to keep working at SOMETHING!
Even just at managing the fortune.
And I would like to think that most would give PART away…. and re-invest some, and SPEND a bit on things they always wanted… WHy Not?!?
I can’t imagine having nothing to do but wait for the 6 o’clock news every day. But I have work I love to do. If I had a horrible boss or did hateful work for ungrateful people, staring at the wall might seem like a treat for a while.
I’m not much of a hobby person.
I have friends who have retired and they love it. They have enough money to travel, go out to dinner and theatre, to concerts, buy what they need and gifts as well, invite friends over for dinner, they enjoy going to the gym. All that helps.
I love collaborating on projects–I’d miss that.