Last weekend, Dallas and I rode up to Missouri to get some moonshine because we live in a dry county which is one of those absurd places that believes alcohol is the root of all evil. While there, we thought we'd buy a few lottery tickets and some scratchers because neither are available for purchase in our puritan town and we are sinnersheathens
flawed human beings.
We won about sixty bucks on the scratchers which tickled us to no end.
"Maybe this is an omen. Maybe we will win the Powerball tonight," I said breathlessly, flushed with excitement and a near religious certainty.
Of course we didn't win a plug nickel but it was fun to play. And then we got to talking about what we would have done had we won, which revealed big differences in our financial philosophies.
Dallas chatted about custom motorcycles and refurbished classic cars. He wanted to retire our parents and gift our siblings with large sums. He dreamed of a modest but upscale home with no mortgage and lots of grazing land.
Me? Well, I was all about getting financial advice from a professional about whether to take it in one lump sum or have the winnings paid out over twenty years. I wanted to snap up lots of affordable real estate while the market was low, with an eye to generating rental income. I wanted to purchase a business or two in an effort to make the money work for us.
Even though we appear to be at opposite ends of financial theory, we compliment each other. Dallas is not afraid to spend and he makes no apologies, which I admire. I spend, for sure, but I am plagued with buyer's remorse. I research things to the point where I get overwhelmed with information and can't make a decision. Sometimes though, I am the no nonsense accountant executing a plan and Dallas is fine with that as long as it doesn't cut into his weekly car wash budget (surprised his truck still has paint). We both agree that travel is important, mortgages should be paid off early and that too much credit card debt is debilitating. All funds earned are in a joint account and we never use terms like "your money" or "my money", which works for us. Because I am a Type A freak of nature, I need to be the one that pays the bills and Dallas has absolutely no problem with that. In fact, he often thanks me for my efforts as he considers balancing a cheque book a burden.
So, who knows what would happen in the unlikely event that we won the lottery. I'd probably take the time to write a book and if it turned out to be an indulgent piece of crap, it would still make me smile to see it sitting on my bookshelf, even if I had to pay to publish it myself. I think the first thing Dallas would do is march down to the travel agent's office and book an extended stay in New Zealand.
Even though we won't be figuring lottery winnings into our retirement plan anytime soon, it's nice to dream.
3 comments:
My fave question to ask people is: What's the first thing you'd buy if you won the lottery?
Always interesting, and often already affordable.
Don't drink all the moonshine in one go!
1. Always take the cash.. not the 20 or 30 year payout. We have seen large financial institutions crumble and the annuity funds that pays out these huge annual payments may not be exempt from fraud and failure.
2. Why would you invest in anything that has a chance to fail? Power Ball money has to be viewed as a gift from God and you should use a lot of it to ease human suffering. Have fun with it and make sure that when you die you created a lot of happiness for you and as many others as possible.
Heathens made me laugh. When we were still in VA, we always went to the commissary on Sun - mostly empty, except for other non-church goers, or as we called ourselves, heathens! :-)
I think I'm probably most like you, and Michael is definately most like Dallas. We never think of ourselves as complementing each other though. ;-)
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