If I Won A Million Bucks (after taxes)...
Tracy and I have a deal: Whenever the lottery in Texas gets up over $100 million, we buy one ticket. We don't want our one chance to catch lighting in a bottle wasted on a measley four million. We view the $1 as an entertainment expense because we talk about what we'd do with all that money. Now, after having the discussion about four times a year since we moved to Texas, we discovered that it doesn't change too much.
But, today, I decided to play the game by myself, and I only won the $4 million beginning lotto pot.
Well, I always take the "cash now" option, which means I'm down to $2 million instead of stringing out the $4 million over 20 years. For some reason, $2 million now seems like a better deal. Bird in the hand and all that jazz.
Then, there's taxes. To make the math easier I go with 50% to cover any current and future taxes. So, today, I got a million bucks. What happens?
...I pay off my debt. I never had any college or seminary student loans or debt, but I've got some from the College of Life. It ain't much compared to others I know, but the car & the card go immediately to zero.
...I either redecorate this house to the nines or sell it and get a comparable house decorated to the nines with the money I'd get from selling this house plus whatever it'd cost me to redecorate it to the nines. Either way, you wouldn't see a lifestyle change of much significance. I'm really just talking about the hardwood floors we wanted and all the fixtures to be new and shiny and the bathrooms redone...stuff like that. A pretty luxurious study for me, studio for the Tracester. A deck out back with some good shade so we could grill out back there and full landscaping. I think the only luxury I'd really be up for is a hot tub. I've always wanted one. Tracy wants a pool so maybe we could get both combined...but I keep trying to squelch the pool. I heard that nobody uses 'em when the teenagers move out and then it becomes something that requires keeping clean. I'm guessing that comes to about $200,000 out of the winnings.
...I'd buy my wife a serious condo on the beach. I suspect it would be in the Orange Beach/Gulf Shores area, but I'd let her pick it. I'm guessing that'd take about $400,000.
...College funds for the girls. But not too much. After throwing away my undergraduate education on football and fraternity stories (all of which no one wants to hear anymore) I want my girls to have some investment in their own education after high school. I took mine seriously when I started paying for grad school so they'll have to put something into it financially. I read somewhere that some guys lived in a big city that had lots of universities and colleges and they created a "Doctorate in Learning" degree by choosing to audit specific classes at each school over a six year period to make up for the stuff they failed to learn when they were at state school football factories. Is it bad that I liked that idea? $100,000 total. They can use it to go to grad school if they want or fine arts schools or whatever, but they split that amount.
...Wedding funds. Self-explanatory. $20,000 apiece. Anything else they can pay for on their own.
...Cars for the girls. Toyota Corollas. Sensible. Reliable. Not better than Dad's. $30,000.
...I do splurge on actual lessons for the guitar and a serious guitar or two. I mean, teaching yourself with "Rock Guitar for Dummies" and a Fender Strat are okay, but I'd really like to get better, and I think you get what you pay for on stuff like that. Say $5,000.
...I'm sure I invest in a serious wish-list for Tracy's most expensive equipment for her business. That's a business I feel sure would have a nice return upon investing. $30,000.
...A bank account/investments for the first time: $100,000.
...And the rest I give to my church and our favorite missionaries and other charities that Iike. In fact, I might set up a "trust" for short-term missions for teenagers to get half their summer support while they raise the rest. Or a youth ministry intern training fund to become a "launching pad" for student ministries.
But I keep working. I think Tracy keeps working. We have the deal that we love what we do, and it isn't a drudgery for either of us to go to our jobs. So, really, our lives wouldn't change much...but we might get more committed to vacations since we have the beach place. She loves the beach. I love the beach at night and when the waves are good...redheads aren't much for sun, but I can nap between 11AM and 2PM so it should work fine.
So, if I had a million bucks, that'd be what I'd do.
Tracy and I have a deal: Whenever the lottery in Texas gets up over $100 million, we buy one ticket. We don't want our one chance to catch lighting in a bottle wasted on a measley four million. We view the $1 as an entertainment expense because we talk about what we'd do with all that money. Now, after having the discussion about four times a year since we moved to Texas, we discovered that it doesn't change too much.
But, today, I decided to play the game by myself, and I only won the $4 million beginning lotto pot.
Well, I always take the "cash now" option, which means I'm down to $2 million instead of stringing out the $4 million over 20 years. For some reason, $2 million now seems like a better deal. Bird in the hand and all that jazz.
Then, there's taxes. To make the math easier I go with 50% to cover any current and future taxes. So, today, I got a million bucks. What happens?
...I pay off my debt. I never had any college or seminary student loans or debt, but I've got some from the College of Life. It ain't much compared to others I know, but the car & the card go immediately to zero.
...I either redecorate this house to the nines or sell it and get a comparable house decorated to the nines with the money I'd get from selling this house plus whatever it'd cost me to redecorate it to the nines. Either way, you wouldn't see a lifestyle change of much significance. I'm really just talking about the hardwood floors we wanted and all the fixtures to be new and shiny and the bathrooms redone...stuff like that. A pretty luxurious study for me, studio for the Tracester. A deck out back with some good shade so we could grill out back there and full landscaping. I think the only luxury I'd really be up for is a hot tub. I've always wanted one. Tracy wants a pool so maybe we could get both combined...but I keep trying to squelch the pool. I heard that nobody uses 'em when the teenagers move out and then it becomes something that requires keeping clean. I'm guessing that comes to about $200,000 out of the winnings.
...I'd buy my wife a serious condo on the beach. I suspect it would be in the Orange Beach/Gulf Shores area, but I'd let her pick it. I'm guessing that'd take about $400,000.
...College funds for the girls. But not too much. After throwing away my undergraduate education on football and fraternity stories (all of which no one wants to hear anymore) I want my girls to have some investment in their own education after high school. I took mine seriously when I started paying for grad school so they'll have to put something into it financially. I read somewhere that some guys lived in a big city that had lots of universities and colleges and they created a "Doctorate in Learning" degree by choosing to audit specific classes at each school over a six year period to make up for the stuff they failed to learn when they were at state school football factories. Is it bad that I liked that idea? $100,000 total. They can use it to go to grad school if they want or fine arts schools or whatever, but they split that amount.
...Wedding funds. Self-explanatory. $20,000 apiece. Anything else they can pay for on their own.
...Cars for the girls. Toyota Corollas. Sensible. Reliable. Not better than Dad's. $30,000.
...I do splurge on actual lessons for the guitar and a serious guitar or two. I mean, teaching yourself with "Rock Guitar for Dummies" and a Fender Strat are okay, but I'd really like to get better, and I think you get what you pay for on stuff like that. Say $5,000.
...I'm sure I invest in a serious wish-list for Tracy's most expensive equipment for her business. That's a business I feel sure would have a nice return upon investing. $30,000.
...A bank account/investments for the first time: $100,000.
...And the rest I give to my church and our favorite missionaries and other charities that Iike. In fact, I might set up a "trust" for short-term missions for teenagers to get half their summer support while they raise the rest. Or a youth ministry intern training fund to become a "launching pad" for student ministries.
But I keep working. I think Tracy keeps working. We have the deal that we love what we do, and it isn't a drudgery for either of us to go to our jobs. So, really, our lives wouldn't change much...but we might get more committed to vacations since we have the beach place. She loves the beach. I love the beach at night and when the waves are good...redheads aren't much for sun, but I can nap between 11AM and 2PM so it should work fine.
So, if I had a million bucks, that'd be what I'd do.
.jpg){kind=avatar}
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home