I have seen this "What Would You Do with One Million Dollars?" challenge around and I've been wanting to do it, because the idea is on my mind quite often (my dreams and positive thinking is soon to be revealed with this writing challenge!)
Anyway, I was nominated by the @honeydue who had been nominated by @ladyrebecca to do a fun challenge!
If I won a million dollars right now, and only had 24 hours to spend it, what would I spend it on?? There is a catch though...it cannot be Steem related!
Well let me start out by saying that I've lived the majority of my life in a fairly broke state. Paycheck to paycheck at best... and not because we have debt or extravagances, but because for our adult life, we chose to live on one income so that I could stay home with our kids. We didn't have cable, haven't had a car payment for almost two decades, no health insurance, didn't go out to eat, etc.
That one income varied a lot, but was usually well under what a typical US family lived on. Still, it was okay. Stressful, but doable. It was what we chose to do because it was just more important for me to stay home with the kids. With my own emotional/mental issues, I'm not sure how well I would have done as a working mom anyway, but that's all water under the bridge now that our kids are pretty much grown and mostly out of the house anyway.
We've also lived with extra money for a time and I can tell you, having enough is FAR better than scrimping just to get by. Not just a LITTLE bit better, but life changing, stress relieving in ways that people who haven't lived with less could ever understand. My MAIN goal with one million dollars would be to set up some security in the form of a home/land that we could all live on.
***THAT BEING SAID, If I got one million dollars right now and HAD to spend it in 24 hours, I would buy land. I know that might stretch the boundaries of spending it within 24 hours, but I'd say showing up and signing papers for cash on a property counts as spending it ;)
Very specifically right the hell now? THIS LAND right here! If that specific land wasn't available, I would spend half of that money on a piece of at least 40 acres of land (however much I could get, honestly) where we could build houses.*** A house for us and space for my kids to build houses for themselves (they can spend their own money building their homes).
Patrick and I would go for sustainable living (and I know my kids are interested in that as well), off grid houses as much as possible. We've already lived off grid on a boat, so my husband is well versed in that technology. He could buy/order a shit ton of supplies to build a sustainable home: Solar panels, wind generators, wood stove, and who knows what all we could get. I'd definitely spend whatever was left stocking up on food so that I didn't have to leave our land again any time soon! (The land linked above already has a home on it, but that could be used for either a rental property for future income or a family gathering place, whatever. I mean, if I have to spend one million dollars in 24 hours, you can bet your sweet ass that I'm going to get as much long term value as I can out of it!
We would plan on raising chickens for meat and eggs, gardening and maybe even hunting for meat.
That would be the bulk of our spending, is making it so that our living expenses are pretty much taken care of, requiring us to need very little in terms of regular income.
That would be spent and done, but because we wouldn't need to be meeting mortgage payments, that would free up other money to do other things, like investing, building a retreat cabin or two... How that would play out, I'm not 100% sure. I would probably like to build a cabin or a tiny house or two to have available for friends or people who need a break from regular life who can't afford to rent a cabin in the mountains. Being able to get a break from the daily stresses of life might not seem like much, but it can be HUGE when it's needed. I would love to be able to supply that for people.
So basically, I would invest in my home and my immediate family having a solid place to live that took the financial pressures off for a long while to come. We could all still work and make money, but it could go towards savings, helping others and maybe even doing fun things like tropical vacations.
For me, the most important part would be the long term financial stability. Knowing that I would always have a home without a big mortgage payment or rent to come up with every month. Plus... that VIEW!
And I nominate @mariannewest @trucklife-family @jaynie
(No pressure, of course, but if you have the time! It was a fun challenge to take my mind off of real life for a bit!)
Click the icons to read some of my other posts!
And some of my other more recent posts:
Weekend Freewrite: To Change Our Fate
Sunday Funnies: When Cats Get Bored, Letters from a Boat Cat
Mommy Monday: Puppet Making, Part 4 (Making Poseable Hands)
Try Something NEW Tuesday: I did a Rap Karaoke Video!
Fiction: Short Writing Challenge "A Dog's Story"
Sharing Our Steemit Work Space: My Steemit Office
