Win the Lottery

What would you do if you hit big in the Lottery?

I don’t usually spend time imagining "what if", but last weekend I ate a meal alone in a restaurant and found my mind wandering.

If I won big in the Lottery I would immediately do these things:

* Tell no one and lock the wining ticket in a bank safety deposit box.
* Immediately hire a lawyer, arrange for a leave of absence at work and move the family into a nearby-furnished apartment.
* Reach agreement with my wife to divide the money into three portions; a one-half share for the family and two one-quarter shares for her and me to own and manage separately.

After doing the above I would allow time for the family to make the emotional transition. I have heard past Lottery winners proclaim that they would continue in their jobs and not change their lives significantly. Then I seldom heard about them again. I suspect that most of them did eventually quit their jobs and found that their lives underwent significant and inevitable change.

I don’t know just what direction my life would take. I have never been rich. But, in general, these are things I would like to see happen:

* Take care of any medical or financial emergencies facing members of our respective families.
* Arrange the best possible education for our children.
* Invest the greatest part of our wealth in a way that preserves it throughout our expected lifetimes.
* Travel at least twice a year to exotic places in which we can spend weeks in leisurely exploration.
* Hire the best medical, nutritional and fitness professionals to improve and maintain our health.
* Establish an independently managed trust fund to provide loans and grants to relatives for education, medical emergencies and other important life issues.
* Buy a Prevost custom motor coach so we can travel comfortably throughout North America.

What remain are personal wishes I would like to fulfill.

* Return to college and work on a graduate degree in Philosophy.
* Hike the Appalachian Trail from end to end.
* Gather my siblings for a family reunion at a resort where we can be pampered and fed well.
* Travel to Sweden, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and England to visit the lands of my ancestors.
* Purchase the house in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota where I spent summers with my grandparents.
* Establish and fund a recovery clubhouse in Harrisburg, PA where 12-Step meetings and recovery oriented social gatherings can be held.

That is as far as my imagination can carry me. There are few material things I want. Every time we packed to move I found myself wishing I didn’t possess most of the things I already own. But I really do want to purchase the Prevost motor coach; always have, always will. In fact, I would give up a house for the Prevost and be willing to live on the road.

What I want most in life is peace of mind, with occasional periods of joy and happiness, and the courage and faith to endure the inevitable bad times. If I had a life like that, I wouldn’t need to win the Lottery.