This question comes up often enough that I'm tempted to crunch the numbers on it for real sometime.
My immediate thoughts run something like:
- We have some irritating debts that would be useful to pay off. - I don't honestly know if it would be more useful to pay off the mortgage or keep that liquid for the future (as we have hopes of moving in with our partners in a few years, and buying or building a house that suits us all and handles whatever size the family is at that point will not be insignificant) - We have very little in savings; this needs corrected, but I don't know to what level. - We need a second car, or, if the magic money appears after said car is acquired, will need to pay off second car. - Education/care for the whole children thing needs considered. - For that matter, one of these days I'd maybe like to get a bachelor's so I can pursue an M.Div. - My other partner is in a going-back-to-school phase as well, and I'd like to be able to help him with that more than I can as a paid-in-royalties freelance editor for a teeny press.
If I presume that that takes half of it -- I got that number reasonably, but doing something like a full undergrad college investment fund for multiple offspring would eat much more, or putting more into savings, or -- I'd have to think about the remainer.
(I would note that I'm not doing any of this directly into 'personal indulgences'; my thought on that is, frankly, 'If we paid off the mortgage, that'd be n hundred dollars more a month we'd be able to spend on whatever we want', which means working out how much it would cost to accumulate everything on my to-acquire booklist (including the rare OOP only available for ~$3K and the like) doesn't go into windfall-magic-money calculations -- the freed-up money would come in faster than my reading speed anyway, even if I only got some fraction of it, especially given my backlog.)
So supposing I don't do as much long-term 'immediate family support and responsibility' stuff as I could in theory do, and am left with half of it:
I can think of two pipe-dream "If I had the money" projects that I would love to try to make work. I frankly have no idea how much it would take to float either, or for that matter if either is feasable, but that's enough money to think about starting.
Project One: park this notion somewhere near the intersection of 'grocery co-op', 'soup kitchen', 'community college home ec department'. Ideally in cooperation with local farmers (I know a community farm near here sends produce to charitable organisations in the inner city). Increase access to produce, bulk grains, etc., in an area where the nearest grocery store that has such things is an hour's bus ride away; produce healthy meals for people who don't have the time to do it due to things like 'holding down two and a half jobs'; offer instruction on basic cooking techniques, crockpot cooking, etc., for people who would do more if they only had the skills.
Project two: a goddamn religious foundation for my religion that's actually worth shit. The explanation of which is a whole other rant, but. If nothing else, at least that might be the resources to start to build something worth having as a semi-private location/foundation. (I know of a couple of groups doing this, one a working farm, one an intentional community/religious retreat space.)
Somewhere in there, that's what I'd do with a million dollars.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2008-04-28 06:00 am (UTC)My immediate thoughts run something like:
- We have some irritating debts that would be useful to pay off.
- I don't honestly know if it would be more useful to pay off the mortgage or keep that liquid for the future (as we have hopes of moving in with our partners in a few years, and buying or building a house that suits us all and handles whatever size the family is at that point will not be insignificant)
- We have very little in savings; this needs corrected, but I don't know to what level.
- We need a second car, or, if the magic money appears after said car is acquired, will need to pay off second car.
- Education/care for the whole children thing needs considered.
- For that matter, one of these days I'd maybe like to get a bachelor's so I can pursue an M.Div.
- My other partner is in a going-back-to-school phase as well, and I'd like to be able to help him with that more than I can as a paid-in-royalties freelance editor for a teeny press.
If I presume that that takes half of it -- I got that number reasonably, but doing something like a full undergrad college investment fund for multiple offspring would eat much more, or putting more into savings, or -- I'd have to think about the remainer.
(I would note that I'm not doing any of this directly into 'personal indulgences'; my thought on that is, frankly, 'If we paid off the mortgage, that'd be n hundred dollars more a month we'd be able to spend on whatever we want', which means working out how much it would cost to accumulate everything on my to-acquire booklist (including the rare OOP only available for ~$3K and the like) doesn't go into windfall-magic-money calculations -- the freed-up money would come in faster than my reading speed anyway, even if I only got some fraction of it, especially given my backlog.)
So supposing I don't do as much long-term 'immediate family support and responsibility' stuff as I could in theory do, and am left with half of it:
I can think of two pipe-dream "If I had the money" projects that I would love to try to make work. I frankly have no idea how much it would take to float either, or for that matter if either is feasable, but that's enough money to think about starting.
Project One: park this notion somewhere near the intersection of 'grocery co-op', 'soup kitchen', 'community college home ec department'. Ideally in cooperation with local farmers (I know a community farm near here sends produce to charitable organisations in the inner city). Increase access to produce, bulk grains, etc., in an area where the nearest grocery store that has such things is an hour's bus ride away; produce healthy meals for people who don't have the time to do it due to things like 'holding down two and a half jobs'; offer instruction on basic cooking techniques, crockpot cooking, etc., for people who would do more if they only had the skills.
Project two: a goddamn religious foundation for my religion that's actually worth shit. The explanation of which is a whole other rant, but. If nothing else, at least that might be the resources to start to build something worth having as a semi-private location/foundation. (I know of a couple of groups doing this, one a working farm, one an intentional community/religious retreat space.)
Somewhere in there, that's what I'd do with a million dollars.