Money - My American Life

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/113/windfall

There are a lot of people out there that think that money would ruin them. I am one of those people. A massive amount of money, anything over a million dollars, would really start to mess with me. However, I could honestly say that I magically fell into the windfall of anything in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, I could use in a heart beat.

That's the worst part about money right now. I have it, but I'm in debt up to my ears thanks to college and trying to own a home. The worst part about all of that would be the fact of if I did get that much money, it would only be to pay off debts. No more house payments, no more student loans, and no more credit card payments. I'm sure I'd also take Alicia out on vacation of Sweden for a week or two just to enjoy the money, but the strong majority of that money would be spent on paying everything off. If it was closer to the bigger numbers I might think about buying a new car that can start in the morning without a very intricate ritual of key shaking and fiddling with the knobs of my ac, but that'd only be a bigger check.

As much as I'd like to think that the money would ruin me, it'd need to be a lot of money before anything would be ruined. I'd still want to teach, I'd still want to write, and there's not a chance in the world that I'd want to move or buy anything elaborate, so I'd stay where I am with what I have.

Let's assume that I got a huge windfall from a place that I wouldn't expect (because I don't gamble, I don't play the lotto, and there's no money in any near-dead relatives) and what would happen from that. Alicia would quit her job (wow big change), we'd go on a vacation to the two places we want to visit (or maybe even three) of Hawaii, Sweden, (and then maybe New York/DC). After that splurge, I don't know what else we would do. Maybe we would do some remodeling of our house that we've been looking into, but for the most part I'd be a strong supporter of just throwing the money into the bank and keep living my life.

As much as I complain about my life, I don't want it to change by much. I like my job, I like my house, I like what I do. It'd be nice to have a bit more financial freedom during those vacation days to do what I want, but other than that, money hopefully won't change me (assuming that I write the next great American novel and make millions).