Winning the Lottery.....

I can spend days contemplating the dispersal and management of the vast fortune I will win with my 1$ lottery ticket.

Right now, February 16, 2006 the Powerball Lottery is up to 365 million dollars. Say it out loud. Three hundred and sixty-five million dollars.

I even do math when I calculate the vastness of my winnings. Even if you take a half-payment, and pay the horrific 30 percent taxes you still end up with 119,000,000.00. Approximately.

What would one really do with THAT much money? Of course, all the usuals. Pay off bills, make home improvements. Quit working, unless one is in a field one doesn't do only for money.

I have this fantasy of sending a letter to all my friends and relatives, stating we will pay all their bills up to some certain amount. All done through lawyers, so we don't know how much they owe. All done with the agreement that they won't ask for more money down the road. But I remember younger, leaner days when it would have been so great just to pay off the bills, and start fresh.

Of course, an amount of money to the close family - parents, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews.

Yes, there are a few things I would buy for fun. Guitars - my T5, Luna Moth and Martin EC. The four or five tarot decks that are out of my price range. Some kind of fun car. But, including the new car, I bet it wouldn't be over 75,00 dollars. (And the car would be a good chunk of that. I'm a car girl.)

For The Saint, he has stated he would immediately rent a warehouse to begin housing his car and motorcycle collection and restoration projects. Buy a fun car.

Eventually we would build our dream house. Our dream house is actually not so extravagant - enough land so even if the area started to be developed we wouldn't have to see it. Well-made, not cheapo. Enough storage.

My most extravagant purchases might be a condo in New Orleans (yes, even post-Katrina) and a small house on the ocean; probably the Oregon Coast.

More interesting is the experiences that kind of money could give. No longer working 9-5 and spending as much time together as we want. Actually having the time to accomplish what can now only be squeezed in between 50 hour work weeks (including commute) and 15-20 hours of home maintenance. Traveling. Helping interesting new businesses get started. Being able to give enough money to a charity to actually help.

Winning the lottery would be cool. The only people who don't think money matters have never been poor. But - it's true that it isn't EVERYTHING. Figuring out how to accomplish what you want without winning the lottery - now that would be a challenge.

I'm still going to keep my 1$ lottery ticket and my dreams. But, maybe it's time to start thinking about how to slice a little more time out of a busy day to work on other things.