My title is awful, but I just couldn’t think of anything better. The Sheconomist and I were driving home the other day and we passed one of those billboards that showed the current value of the local lottery. I can’t remember how much it was, but it was north of $100 million.
We like to play games pretending we won the money and what we would spend it on. We have lots of great ideas: 3 houses, 2 cars each, more dogs, new clothes, charitable donations, zero interest student loans to kids who need it, big TVs, fancy trips, and lots of presents for the people we love.
Blah blah blah, we’d all do that or something like it. But then we started thinking about some other simple upgrades we would make that we just aren’t doing now because we’re cheap. Things we could probably afford, but just don’t think we should spend the money on.
The Sheconomist mentioned buying jeans that cost more than $100 but allegedly feel great and fit even better. Normally I would choke thinking about spending so much money on jeans, but for some reason I didn’t. I said let’s go ahead and get those jeans. She’s wanted them for a long time, hardly ever buys any clothes, and if she gets as much use out of them as she has with shoes, then it’s not a bad investment. This is of course so long as the purchase doesn’t turn into a full on lifestyle upgrade.
When she asked me what I would do with $100 million, after talking about all the cars and houses, I said I’d get text messaging. I’m so cheap that I refuse to spend the money on texts. My friends are even offering to chip in to subsidize texting since they do it so much themselves. I’m starting to feel like I miss out on some stuff.
So, despite my hatred towards cell phone companies for the outrageous prices they charge on text messaging, I’m pretty sure I’m about to cave and finally get texting.
Our “millionaire” upgrades are made possible because we are in a financial position to make such small upgrades happen. It’s just in the past we were too cheap to “spoil” ourselves with such lavishness. So aside from the cars, the charity, and the houses, ask yourself what little upgrade you’d get yourself with a $100 million windfall, then go and get it.
PS, if you feel like sharing what you’d do, post it in the comments.
Photo: TW Collins
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Said,
Said,
Text messaging for the ENTIRE year is probably less than the jeans!
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