If I Had a Hundred Million Dollars...

I’m linking up with Andrea today to share what I would do if I won the lottery… what a fun idea for a post! 

We actually don’t play the lottery regularly… we’re the people who wait until the jackpot gets massive and then we stand in line with a ton of other people to get tickets.  Therefore, our chances of actually winning one day are very slim so I don’t really entertain the thought of winning the lottery very often. 

If we did by some crazy chance win a ton of money, the first thing we would do I’m sure would be to scream and jump up and down (and faint) and then recheck the numbers fifteen times to make sure that we had actually won.  Then, we would sign the ticket, put it in a safe, and call a lawyer and a financial adviser.  I would also want to wait a while before claiming the money so as not to draw attention to ourselves while the news is still fresh.  I worry about every little thing, so I would be afraid that someone would abduct me, or worse, kidnap our kids and hold them ransom for a large sum of money.  I’ve actually always said that I don’t really even want to win the lottery just because I would be too afraid to ever leave the house again.  #Truth

After we got over the initial shock and got all of our ducks in a row with the lawyer, we would likely opt for the lump sum (isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?) and I would immediately (and very happily) quit my corporate job so I could blog full-time. 

Then it would be time to allocate the money.  The amounts that we would allocate and the things that we would do with the money would, of course, depend upon the amount of money that we won, but just for today’s sake, we’ll pretend that we won one of the massive jackpots since that’s all we buy tickets for anyway.  :o)

O N E – Donate

Like many others, the first thing that we would do is take a large portion of our winnings and donate.  The first donation would go to our church, followed by the kids’ school (and my alma mater), and then I would love to pick a couple (or a few) worthy charities to donate to.  I have always loved Children’s Miracle Network, so that one would probably be high on my list along with a couple of others.

T W O – Savings

Can anyone say college funds?!  We would definitely be putting large amounts in college funds for our kids, and we would also put a ton in savings.  This is where the financial advisor would come in to hook us up with some words of wisdom about where to keep our stash.  Haha.

T H R E E – Investments

Am I boring you yet?  Hey, I’m just being honest!  But yes, B and the financial advisor would handle this part... investments are B’s specialty.  He hearts the stock market so I bet he would love the opportunity to invest a pile of money!

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And now for the fun stuff!  I’ve always been pretty conservative with money and I’ve always been a saver rather than a spender.  Therefore, this is probably going to be pretty boring as I would not go on a major spending spree outside of the basics – a house, a car, etc.  Haha. 

F O U R – Family

My parents sacrificed so much for my brothers and me so that we could get good educations, and I would love more than anything to be able to pay them back in some way.  I would love to be able to buy my parents a new house.  It would kill me if they moved out of my childhood home, but I know a new house is one of the things that my Momma dreams about.  I would also love to be able to give them enough money so my Momma could go ahead and retire so she could finally pursue her dream of being a songwriter.  She’s really talented, y’all!  And I would discuss my Daddy’s retirement, but he just retired back in August, so he’s already living the dream!!

I would also love to spread the wealth to many of our other family members as well.  We have a few family members on B’s side of the family as well as my side of the family who could use it, and nothing would make me happier than to share with them.

F I V E – A Custom Built Home

I most definitely do not want a mansion or anything too lavish, but I would love to build another home.  I’m still in love with our floorplan, but after living in it for seven years, there is definitely some tweaking that I would do to it.  I would also love to expand it just a little bit.  Both of the kids’ bedrooms are itty bitty and so is our laundry room, so a few hundred extra square feet would be nice.  A few other things on my list:

-       More land and more trees for more privacy, but still in a neighborhood in town.  I like to feel like I’m in the middle of nowhere without actually being in the middle of nowhere.  I need the comfort of knowing that policemen, firemen, gas stations, Chipotle, and Starbucks are close... and good neighbors, too, in case I need anything if B is out of town.  ;o)

-       A two-story living room (which would also require us to change the floorplan upstairs a bit)

-       Tons more windows around the whole house

-       French doors leading out to the back porch (instead of a single door)

-       A mudroom off of the garage

-       A sink in the laundry room

-       White cabinets in the kitchen… make that white custom cabinets in the kitchen…

-       A bigger kitchen island with room for at least four café chairs

-       Custom shelving in all of our closets

-       Bigger closets in the kids’ rooms

-       Custom lighting in all of the rooms

-       Elaborate landscaping in the back yard

-       A swimming pool

S I X – A New Ride

B’s new SUV (as of about a year ago) puts mine to shame, and I often feel bummed getting in mine on Monday after riding around in his all weekend.  Haha.  His has Bluetooth and a back-up camera and satellite radio and mine has none of those things as I’ve been driving it for six years and didn’t see the need for those things back when we purchased it. 

I don’t need anything super fancy, though… no BMWs or Mercedes here!  I’ve always loved Honda Pilots and I also love Toyota 4-Runners, so I’m thinking that’s what I’d be looking for…

S E V E N – A European Vacation

I’ve never been out of the country (aside from our trip to the Bahamas) and it’s always been my dream to see Europe – London, Paris, Rome, Santorini, etc.  I’d love to pack my bags and head out for a good two or three weeks! 

E I G H T – Miscellaneous

I would love to hire someone to deep clean our house once a week, and I would also love to hire someone to do our yardwork so maybe our lawn would look a little better… I hate weeds.  Sorry, babe.  ;o)  That way, we could use all of our spare time to be with our babies.  There’s nothing I hate more than having to clean toilets on my two days off when I could be spending time with my family.  And if I blogged full time, then that would be my job, so I wouldn’t have time to clean while the kids were at school either.  ;o)

And while I’m not a huge fan of cooking at this point in my life, I think I would like it a lot more if I had more time.  Therefore, I would never want to hire a personal chef, but I would love to take some cooking lessons to hone my own skills and broaden my horizons.

Other than that, I could use a new phone as mine is old and the battery dies every two hours.  Haha.  Did I forget anything else? 

What would you do if you won the lottery?

*Linking up with Momfessionals for Show and Tell Tuesday, Our Pretty Little Girls for Tuesday Talk