Wishing upon a star
I saw a shooting star on my way into work this morning. A nice, 2 to 3 second long display before it burned up in the atmosphere. I admired it, and then wished to be happy. I guess I meant that more in essence of continuing to be happy. Life is great right now (even though I had woken up quite light-headed that lasted until I managed to get out into the car and drive to work). I like being happy, so let me stay happy.
Upon further reflection during my 45 minute to hour long commute, I realized "hmm... why didn't I wish to win the lottery? I did buy a ticket last night and the radio is all abuzz over the half-a-billion dollar jackpot". I thought, and rationalized that a) I am likely NOT going to win the lottery, b) and if I even had a remote chance of doing so, I was going to be splitting it with at least one other person as I'm sure all lottery number combinations have been drawn so there is a good chance for a duplicate, and c) will really having that much money really make life that much better for me?
Hubby and I have talked about what we would ever do if we ever came across (legally) a large amount of money. Firstly, we'd pay off our mortgage and any other outstanding debt we might have. Secondly, we save enough to future children college funds and emergency cashes, maybe buy a new car or something (overall, setting aside or using up to $500,000 max). But the rest, what would we do with it? Likely donate it to either family members or various charities that mean something to us. So in the end, we would not have 90% of the money we had won since we would have given it to someone else. We don't need to live on that much money and it would be uncomfortable if we did. It just isn't us.
So in the end, it is worth more to me to be happy than to be rich.
I made the right wish.
Upon further reflection during my 45 minute to hour long commute, I realized "hmm... why didn't I wish to win the lottery? I did buy a ticket last night and the radio is all abuzz over the half-a-billion dollar jackpot". I thought, and rationalized that a) I am likely NOT going to win the lottery, b) and if I even had a remote chance of doing so, I was going to be splitting it with at least one other person as I'm sure all lottery number combinations have been drawn so there is a good chance for a duplicate, and c) will really having that much money really make life that much better for me?
Hubby and I have talked about what we would ever do if we ever came across (legally) a large amount of money. Firstly, we'd pay off our mortgage and any other outstanding debt we might have. Secondly, we save enough to future children college funds and emergency cashes, maybe buy a new car or something (overall, setting aside or using up to $500,000 max). But the rest, what would we do with it? Likely donate it to either family members or various charities that mean something to us. So in the end, we would not have 90% of the money we had won since we would have given it to someone else. We don't need to live on that much money and it would be uncomfortable if we did. It just isn't us.
So in the end, it is worth more to me to be happy than to be rich.
I made the right wish.