Windfall meme
Feb. 18th, 2013 09:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
resonantWindfall Meme, spotted @ gatewaygirl: what I would do if $N dropped into my lap in some legal non-taxable (or post-tax) way?
$10: It would just go into the cash already in my wallet. Unless that's against the rules? Let's say it's against the rules. In that case, some midday when I wasn't working I'd use it for pho and Vietnamese iced coffee.
$100: This would buy a 90-minute massage in Corntown. Those of you who live in big cities may commence envying me now.
$1000: It's not quite enough for a new MacBook Air, but it's not too far off; I'll bet our income-tax refund will be big enough that I'd feel comfortable using it to make up the difference.
$10,000: This would allow me to quit my job in May instead of August, giving me a lot more time to job-hunt in New Town and arrange the move. Or, alternately, I could work right up to August, move to New Town and get our possessions settled and the kidlet well-established in school, and then start job-hunting.
$100,000: This was the hardest one!
If I already had a full-time job that would support the family until the spouse is done with school, then I'd be thinking thoughts of vacations (both the family fun kind and the solitary writing kind), and of luxuries that have always been out of my price range (it's always been a dream of mine, for instance, to have custom-made shoes for my oddly shaped feet). But our situation right now is so uncertain that I don't really think I could spend it on frivolities.
So I think I'd probably do one of the $10,000 job-quitting options above (including paying for our health insurance until we could get it through my work) and sock away most of the rest to pay moving expenses and bills.
I probably would buy the MacBook Air, though. Possibly also the massage and the pho.
$1,000,000: Enough into the kidlet's college fund to pay for whatever bachelor's degree they wanted. A big chunk donated to my poor church and another to Habitat. Beyond that ... wonder if that's enough to build a net-zero house once we figure out where we want to live?
This was extremely interesting -- especially discovering that none of these windfalls are large enough to make me substantially change my vaguely imagined ten-year plan. I continue to think: find a new career for me, get the spouse established in his new career, pay the kidlet through college, and even a million dollars doesn't do much to that plan except take away fear and uncertainty.
Security looms very large in my mind right now. A year from now, if all goes well, I'll be working full-time at a career that's a little more lucrative and interesting than being a church secretary. At that point, I'm willing to bet my answers will be completely different.
gatewaygirl: what I would do if $N dropped into my lap in some legal non-taxable (or post-tax) way?$10: It would just go into the cash already in my wallet. Unless that's against the rules? Let's say it's against the rules. In that case, some midday when I wasn't working I'd use it for pho and Vietnamese iced coffee.
$100: This would buy a 90-minute massage in Corntown. Those of you who live in big cities may commence envying me now.
$1000: It's not quite enough for a new MacBook Air, but it's not too far off; I'll bet our income-tax refund will be big enough that I'd feel comfortable using it to make up the difference.
$10,000: This would allow me to quit my job in May instead of August, giving me a lot more time to job-hunt in New Town and arrange the move. Or, alternately, I could work right up to August, move to New Town and get our possessions settled and the kidlet well-established in school, and then start job-hunting.
$100,000: This was the hardest one!
If I already had a full-time job that would support the family until the spouse is done with school, then I'd be thinking thoughts of vacations (both the family fun kind and the solitary writing kind), and of luxuries that have always been out of my price range (it's always been a dream of mine, for instance, to have custom-made shoes for my oddly shaped feet). But our situation right now is so uncertain that I don't really think I could spend it on frivolities.
So I think I'd probably do one of the $10,000 job-quitting options above (including paying for our health insurance until we could get it through my work) and sock away most of the rest to pay moving expenses and bills.
I probably would buy the MacBook Air, though. Possibly also the massage and the pho.
$1,000,000: Enough into the kidlet's college fund to pay for whatever bachelor's degree they wanted. A big chunk donated to my poor church and another to Habitat. Beyond that ... wonder if that's enough to build a net-zero house once we figure out where we want to live?
This was extremely interesting -- especially discovering that none of these windfalls are large enough to make me substantially change my vaguely imagined ten-year plan. I continue to think: find a new career for me, get the spouse established in his new career, pay the kidlet through college, and even a million dollars doesn't do much to that plan except take away fear and uncertainty.
Security looms very large in my mind right now. A year from now, if all goes well, I'll be working full-time at a career that's a little more lucrative and interesting than being a church secretary. At that point, I'm willing to bet my answers will be completely different.