ONE MILLIONS DOLLARS…

I know it’s been a long, long time since I have written here, but perhaps I am not yet ready to hang up thathobbitlady. I would like to see if I can start to be more active here again, to keep up with what is going on in my life.

But before I do that, I’m going to start with a “What if…?” question that Mary posed in her LJ. It’s the age-old question: “What would you do if you had a million dollars?”

Funny she should ask, because I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit lately (especially every time I check the Florida Lottery website). Anyway, if it’s only one million dollars, that IS a limitation. It’s not REALLY a whole lot of money. I mean of course it IS, if you use it wisely, but not if you use it recklessly. So here’s how I would use it (wisely):

First, I would give at least 10% to charity. I don’t know exactly which charity. I would pray about it, and wherever God led me to put the money at that time, that’s where it would go. Actually, I’ve always thought it would be nice to have a fund of money available, so that whenever I saw something that tugged at my heartstrings, some worthy cause to which I wanted to contribute, it would be easy work to make a significant difference in somebody’s life.

Next, I would buy me and Russ a nice house, nothing fancy, nothing more elaborate than we are planning to buy anyway. The only advantage now is that we would be able to buy it free and clear, no mortgage.

Then, I would also buy a nice little two bedroom condo in Tuscaloosa, relatively near the college, so that if Mary or Joey decided they wanted to go to school here, they would have a place to stay (rent-free!) Also, if either of them wanted to go to school here, whatever scholarships did not cover, I would pay. Basically, I would do anything I could to persuade them to come to school here! I think it’s a good school, and they would enjoy their time in Tuscaloosa.

And if neither of them wanted to come to school in Tuscaloosa, that little condo would become the “guest house,” so that anyone who wanted to come visit me here in Alabama would have a nice, private place to stay while they are here. Y’all c’mon down! (or “up,” as the case may be.)

Now, with the rest of the money, I would pretty much invest it so that I could live off the the dividends. I would not want to HAVE to work, if at all possible. Well, maybe a fun little part-time job, just to stay busy. I would want to spend most of my time enjoying my house, enjoying my family, enjoying my town.

And writing novels. I would have a personal office set up in my new house, where I could go every day for several hours to write. And should I publish any novels and make money from that, I would use that money to rent myself a little office somewhere in the middle of downtown, hopefully on an upper floor with a great view, where I could go every day to write more novels. And every day at lunchtime I would come down, walk around the city streets, and find a nice restaurant where I could go have a delicious and healthy salad.

So basically, when it comes right down to it, I would use that million dollars to set myself up with financial security and freedom, better access to my family, opportunities to exercise my creativity, and a really healthy and delicious salad.