31-Day Blog Challenge - Day 12: If I Won the Lottery

This is a serious topic, really; because a lot of things have to happen for your life to continue on a smart path. If I won the lottery, here’s what I would do:

1. Change all my phone numbers, make them unlisted.
2. Install even more security fixtures and cameras than I already have
3. Hire an attorney and an accountant
4. Set up a blind trust
5. Hire an investment adviser (who would NOT have power of attorney)
6. Have the attorney collect the ticket in the name of the blind trust.

Now, on to the fun stuff. Let’s say just to make it interesting, that it was a Powerball, and I’ve got a few hundred million to play with. Here’s how things would go down:

1. $5 million would go into a low-risk, moderate yield investment to provide for my old age, and my family’s day to day well-being.
2. A moderate trust would be established for the little one, not to make her a trust fund kid, but to ensure a safety net if she needed it.
3. There would be a new Traynor School of Music, Art, and Technology at my daughter’s school. Yes, with our name on the damn building. It would be world class. Their IT department would want for nothing.
4. My entire family would take the time and incur the expenses needed to bring us all to the healthiest and happiest physical and emotional states we could possibly be.
5. If we stayed in this house, it would get some SERIOUS upgrades. It would be as power self-sufficient as we could possibly make it. It would have a GREAT kitchen. It would probably just be a new house on this lot.
6. My next job would be running a world-class recording studio that I’d build. As soon as I learned enough to be a good engineer. So, I’d be apprenticing with the best until I was ready.
7. Once Abby was out of school and able to live on her own, Bonnie and I would travel the country, helping people. Those little bits of boost that can make the difference in people’s lives. Random, secret stuff. Kids that need medical attention, single moms that need home repairs, paying off layaway Secret Santas - real, “rubber-meets-the-road” help. Fun hobby!
8. The Swannanoa Gathering would never have to worry about money again.
9. Some of our friends, the ones who have been there through thick and thin, would have their loads lightened a bit too.
10. I would get one pretty kickass but not ridiculous car. Maybe an Audi R8.

Parts of winning the lottery would suck. I’m sure we would lose friends. Hangers-on and fair weather friends would come out of the woodwork needing things, but we know what’s what, and who’s who… And there is the lesson for the day. Be the friends and ones that are there through thick and thin. Not because someone might win the lottery, but because it’s what you’re supposed to do. And who knows?