Saturday is typically my riskiest time of the weekend. It’s when I spend my hard-earned dollars to buy tickets for the PowerBall and local lottery drawings. You see, like everyone else I have fantasized about holding that oversized check announcing to the world that I’ve hit the big jackpot.
If we had the power, all of us would like to get rich via the lottery winners’ lane, right? My team at work is no exception. When the lottery pot gets extraordinarily high, someone among us takes the lead in collecting funds for the lottery pool. The companywide exhilaration usually precedes the drawing with all of us announcing that come Monday we’ll all be calling in to quit our jobs. Unfortunately, that over-the-top goal has yet to come to pass and we have yet to get showered for our optimism. In reality, a third of the company employees are actual millionaires, but they still want their share of the lottery win!
So when our numbers don’t make the winning set, we all go back to our daily grind. Not exactly sulking as you might expect, but you can bet that the next time the lottery jackpot gets earth-shakingly huge, we’ll be back to our lottery pool alliance and dreaming of our winnings.
What will you do if you end up a big lottery winner? Will you promptly quit your job and fly to the vacation country of your dreams? Move to another neighborhood, perhaps in another country? Buy a really expensive house or car? Get all the colors of the Manolo Blahnick shoes you’ve always desired and wear a pair every day of the week? Or will you be smart… pay off your IOU’s and become totally debt-free? Please do yourself a favor and accomplish the last.
My BFF (best friend forever) Josie B. and I have mega million dreams like everyone else. But if and when the Dear Almighty grants us our lottery win wish someday, we would like to spend the money ala Mother Teresa. Helping the poor. Should the heavens pour financial blessings on us, the wealth will be shared with an overseas movement that alleviates poverty through nation-building. Constructing homes for the poor communities and providing shelter for the homeless will be where our winnings will be invested. People who are living in the slum areas will appreciate having their own space they can call their own. My friend’s reward and mine will come from the upliftment of such lives. If we can accomplish that awesome deed, we can live the rest of our lives grateful for the blessing. However, I have to admit, although our intentions are noble, it will take a miracle for our dream to come to pass in our lifetime. We can only dream… and perhaps if we wish hard enough, it will become a mind-blowing reality. After all, Dr. Oprah once said that if we must dream, make it grand!
For now, even if there’s a chance that you or I will hit the mega million jackpot, we shouldn’t plan to quit our jobs. You see, no one should quit their day jobs even if they inherit a fortune. People have a better appreciation of the value of money when they have a full understanding that it is earned through hard work. We need to embrace such appreciation in order to not spend money unwisely.
So while the multi-digit paycheck stays elusive, let’s go to work, love our job, and if it’s meant to be, we’ll be living the abundantly blessed lifestyle. Someday. Cross our fingers!
