Shoutout to the person in Illinois who won last Friday’s Mega Millions jackpot worth $1.3 billion dollars. Your life will be irrevocably changed. For the better or worse? Only time will tell. Or maybe that person won’t come forward to claim the winning ticket, and we get to do this all over again. Joining in lottery pools with friends and coworkers for those impossible odds at winning.
Obviously, the fun is in the duration between purchasing the tickets and the numbers being picked out of a tumbler (do they still do that?) Let the daydreaming begin! What would you do with that sudden infusion of an enormous amount of cash? I would be able to finally afford a house in San Francisco! Though more than likely I’d probably prepare a move back to Asia. I am so done with the guns and violent crime of this country.
Amongst my friends, we reckon we wouldn’t stop working. A life of pure leisure leads to a quick death. We got to have something that gets us out of bed every morning. With the hypothetical lottery winnings in our bank account, we get the option to work on what we want. We’re no longer beholden to our current jobs for sustenance and health insurance. That’s the kind of freedom those in the FIRE community seek: the “F U” money.
I think the lottery daydream exercise can be instructive on informing us what we truly want. And perhaps it wouldn't necessary need millions in the bank account to execute on. A friend said with his hypothetical winnings, he would quit his software engineer job and go freelance to work on projects that inspire him. I would say he doesn’t need to win the lottery to get started on that. Sure, it’s a risk to leave a steady paying position, but we’ve only got this one life, my friend.
And I’m saying that for me, too.
몽.