Lottery Fever?

Does anyone in the United States not have Powerball Lottery fever? I don't know of anyone, even among the rational and staid. If they're not rushing out to buy tickets, they're at least paying attention and speculating - 'what would I do if...'

Given the sheer number of people who are in on tonight's drawing, it's probably 1:300,000,000 against that no one will win while the odds are 1:293,000,000 that someone will. With the jackpot at $900M it's pretty sure that there are 300M tickets sold in the forty-four states that participate.

Confession: I have mine. I bought two plays at one vendor, two at another and will buy one more at a third today. Superstition? Perhaps it is, but I do notice there are differences in the numbers - and not just a little difference. Out of the four plays three are pretty similar, which is one of the problems with the quick picks. However, if you don't have time to stand at the kiosk and fill in your tickets it's the only good choice. Or don't play, which is also a choice.

What would I do if I won? I have plans. Nothing big and I am very good at saying 'no'. I know which groups would get money and I know how I would structure my donations. I know who my family are so newbies showing up and declaring familial relations will be given short shrift.

Depending on how far that jackpot went would affect my plans, but the basic idea would remain the same because who needs more than they need to live comfortably?

Let's say I'm one of four winners. After all of the dust settles I would end up with almost $62M. Honestly, why would I need any more than $120k per year to live? Why could I not live well on $10,000 per month? Even on my bucket trip I'm not planning on spending more than $9,000 per month or $300 per day. One person traveling alone, staying in places for long periods and doing most of their own cooking should be able to make that work. So $10k per month is still far more than I would need, because my overall lifestyle wouldn't change.

I would happily accept $120k per year. Assuming I live another thirty-five years (unlikely, but possible), that would be $4.2M I would need to keep that pace. Since it's unlikely I would spend even $120k per year, it would roll over and I would have that much more available when I really need it.

Immediately, I would spend about $1.5m on myself. A new home locally and my future home on acreage over there. Land + site improvements + the home I've already identified and visualized that I would start on immediately so it would be ready when it's wanted.

I would buy the pickup truck I've always wanted, and a bicycle. Yep, a bicycle. A desktop computer and some clothes - Lee jeans in a variety of shades of blue (based on dye lot). Not Nordstrom or Macy's or any of the expensive places. Kohl's needs my business just as much and their prices are better. So are Target's. Why pay premium price for something I can get for less even if I have the money to spend?

Based on $6M taken from that $62M for myself and my future needs and wants, I would have a cool $56M to offer up to charity. Eleven charities and $5M each with $1M left over for the 'one-offs'? I would have choices, lots of choices and, looking at CharityWatch.org there are a lot of worthy charities out there.


And CharityWatch is worth a donation, too. If a charity uses more than 25% of the received donations on salaries and overhead, they are not spending their money wisely. Who gives money to charity to see it go for high salaries, lush offices, massive overhead and general nest feathering instead of going to help those who need help?

Aside from the winning, I would still get up and go to my job every day because I enjoy what I do (mostly). It gives me something to strive for, to do and look forward to each day. And that would offset some of the need for that $10k from my lottery nest egg so I would save for the future, just as I do now.

Why not retire? Why keep working?

Well, I don't play golf and how many rounds of golf can one play per week anyway? Even hobbies become chores if they're overdone. The pleasure departs and leaves work behind.

I might buy a horse or colt for training, but how many hours per week can one spend working with their horse or colt? I had horses before and spent twice as much time caring for them than I did riding or enjoying them, particularly the colt I was bringing along. Halter training, handling, accepting blankets laid across his back preparatory to the time he would be ready for the saddle, etc. was time consuming and required a lot of patience because he's prey and I'm predator (the position of the eyes in the skull are a giveaway to that).

One thing I have thought of is buying acreage and setting up a boarding stable where people would take care of their own horses. I would have the pleasure of having them there, seeing them every day, but I would hire people to feed them and muck stalls and haul doofle (poop). That would be funded primarily by the boarding fees I would charge, so I would have the pleasure without much pain.

I would also handle this in three stages.

Stage One is drop out of sight. Ditch the cell phone and go into hiding as far as possible. I would not announce my windfall to anyone who isn't in a position of 'Need To Know' because I have no interest in having people seeping out of the woodwork to declare family relationships or beg for money for their sick Aunt Tillie.

I would hire a CPA and meet with representatives of the charities I have already identified. My CPA and I would work with them to establish annuities or trust funds managed by an outside, unaffiliated party of their choice. Not a lump sum payout, but a steady stream of revenue.

I would buy the new house, truck and other things. For the time being I would keep my current car and use that for commuting but the truck would be there, ready to go, for Stage Three which would obviously come after Stage Two.

Stage Two, several years down the road, I would take my bucket trip.

Stage Three would be returning from my bucket trip and retiring to my cabin in the woods.

Those are far enough off, though, that I won't lock myself in by saying 'I'll do this, this, this and this.' I'll leave Stage Two for Stage Two and Stage Three to Stage Three.

Now, all I have to do is win. Even one quarter of that $900M would work.

$900M/4=$225M*.55=$123.75/2=$61.875M. Not too bad. Not too bad at all. Yep, I could manage on that.

Now I'm going to go pick out my house and truck. Here I am, wishing you sweet dreams!

Best~
Philippa

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Happy New Year - Bad Words Are Excused

I was going to start this post with a rant (the bad words that I have excused from the room for today) but decided that is not the way to start a new year, so I pushed it to the side. I'll rant another day. Instead, I'll join the chorus of Babel since it's said in most languages on the planet: Happy New Year!

Further, I have decided the time has come for a new look for this little missive. The old was boring. I hope the new is more appealing. I like warm colors so that didn't change much, but the overall look is a bit different and, I do hope, more welcoming.

I hope you woke up safe, warm and hang-over free this morning. Personally, I have long since decided the new year will arrive whether or not I wait for it, so I was in bed at ten o'clock last night. Sure enough, it arrived and didn't even miss me. I knew when it got here because a bunch of neighbors were outside yelling and screaming and shooting off fireworks. I think the neighbors are getting old, too, because it didn't last every long. Maybe fifteen minutes or so.

Thinking of that now, I can just about picture some toothless old geezer sitting in a wheelchair, a rug draped over his knees, the stench of cordite swirling around him, his hands blackened with gunpowder. He's looking up at the night sky, chest heaving from the effort of striking the match, "Yep, it's here all right. That was exhausting! Ready for your prune juice Mabel?"

I also thought this morning about my chicken factory analogy from yesterday. That came a couple of years ago.

In 2012 I was let go after seventeen years working for the company I had been with. For the first three months after being "laid off", even the temporary market was barren. I got no calls - not even for something that would pay far less than my minimum. In hindsight, I suspect that it was because there was such a vast labor pool looking for temporary work but few opportunities, they cycled people through. I was at the end of the line and had to wait my turn. Once I started working, I worked fairly regularly.

In October 2012 I interviewed for a job. They wanted me but were in the midst of a restructuring. That lasted all of November and December (does the word 'frustrating' have meaning here?). I finally started working right after New Year and was doing well there.

Then, two months after I went to work there, Congress passed sequestration. The company for which I was working, a military contractor with contracts with a bunch of other military contractors, suddenly found itself holding contracts that were worthless. The companies with whom they had contracted had been hit by sequestration, too. End result, our general manager, my boss, was let go as part of a restructuring. This news came in the form of a division-wide meeting and it was while we were on our way to that that I first commented upon it being a chicken factory.

My 2012 chicken factory experience wasn't the result of my failing at my job. Instead, it was the result of competition - which is a fair basis for deciding which chicken gets hooked to the line with a Bad End. I worked for the CEO who was grooming his replacement. He wanted to step back and retire. It just happened this came at the same time that the company was suffering and needed to lay off a bunch of people. In the case, there were two chickens - one with stronger skills, the other with an 'in' with the manager needing support. The manager needing support had hired the other chicken and they had worked together for ten years. No contest and this little chicken was the one who got The Hook.

Looking back, that was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. I had been there long enough that I was getting stale in my job. Nothing was new, everything was routine, and I was getting bored (truth to tell).

Getting the boot (in the nicest possible way - they did invite me back for a three week guest appearance the year after letting me go) meant that I had a chance to try new things, see new things and learn new things. I may be an 'old dog' but I can learn new tricks and I enjoy it. It's another case of something 'bad' happening means a new opportunity arises.

So there's my backward look. My forward look is to new opportunities in personal life and in work life. That is one thing that is guaranteed. What is today won't be the same tomorrow or the day after.

Looking forward, I am making plans, deciding what I will do when the time comes and opportunity arises. I've even given thought to next Christmas and what I would like to do and have for dinner. It's pre-planning to the extreme perhaps, but it gives me a prize to strive for, something to work toward.

Life will take some major changes next year in all probability. MIL will celebrate her eighty-seventh birthday. My work situation is morphing - first into an aspect of A/P, more recently into the realm of A/R and who knows what might come next. There's the transfer I've requested and what might happen there. It's exciting to think about. There are other things, too, still private things and, when the time comes, they will become fodder for my blog so stay tuned!

In the meantime, I hope you and yours are well, safe, happy and healthy. I wish all of you only good things in the coming year - cheers!

Best~
Philippa

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Youth and Dreams Are Over-Rated

God, I am so glad I’m not young. Things that seem so hard when you’re in your twenties are still hard in your fifties, but they aren’t so burning because you can see farther.

You know, from bitter experience that what is immediate now, pressing against your nose and breathing heavily enough to cloud your vision in your twenties is boring and old hat when you reach your fifties. By then, with all that experience behind you, you’re better able to step back and away, to weigh the benefits and costs. Everything has costs and benefits, there’s no escaping that reality.

Faced with a particular situation I don’t have all of the answers. I don’t know that Plato or Socrates or Solomon would have the answers, but I can see the distance. I know that a decision made today, in anger or haste, will leave bitter dregs and regret far into the future. A bad decision or bad series of decisions made today will leave the bitter taste of ash long after the immediate need is a painful memory.

In my twenties I thought things had to happen right now or it was the end of the world. What I didn’t see was that the end of the world was almost always something else, entirely.

I was much like any other twenty-something. I often had trouble looking beyond my immediate needs, my wants and wishes and dreams and desires. It’s normal. It’s a hold-over from kiddom when our parents were there and did their best, within their means, to do what they could to make us happy or at least keep us healthy.

If we are deprived of things as kids, dreams take on greater import, deeper significance and meaning. In our twenties those dreams become all-important, perhaps even to the exclusion of longer term happiness and security. Dreams can cloud clarity and higher reasoning, preventing that long-term happiness by the determined chase for something that is momentary.

It’s like, or it can become, the case of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. You want it all now not seeing that if you kill the goose in an attempt to get the eggs, you get one or two eggs but you don’t get them into perpetuity. It’s shortsighted and damaging to both you, the getter and to the goose, the giver.

Instead, it would be better to be patient, to wait, accept what is now, basing your decisions on logic and deep thought not on emotion and reaction, and let the future play itself out.

I had dreams. Some big, some small, all were important because they were mine. Then I got older, suffered the bruises of living and I learned that one thing, one dream usually isn’t worth sacrificing happiness over. Happiness has a higher value than a single moment or a period of a few hours. To me, happiness is a culmination of many things – not just one.

I can’t speak for everyone. Maybe for someone it is that important, but then I have to ask: If you gave up that one dream and had years of satisfaction with a wistful ‘I wish’ instead, which is better?

Why does that dream have to happen in a particular order?

Cart-horse is not the best of all worlds, but sometimes it’s the hand we’re dealt and then it’s incumbent upon us to make the best of a bad situation. By all means, take the time to rearrange the cart and horse but accept what is. Things will be different. Perhaps it won’t happen in the order planned, but they can usually be accommodated.

Will it be ideal? Perhaps not, but few things in life are ideal. Most are far from perfect and happiness is where we find it and, mostly, how we make it. More often than not, it’s a matter of compromise, of giving something up partway to meet someone else, with their conflicting wishes and dreams in the middle. To arrive as an adult – a fully-grown, fully mature grup – at a place where compromise is possible, you have to be willing to bend, to give, and sometimes, depending on the case, to sublimate yourself at least partially in order to achieve that longer-term happiness.

Faced with choices A, B, C and D it is up to the individual to stop and weigh the options.

If I do A because of C, what will happen?

If I do D because of A and B, what will happen?

It’s not likely, in any given scenario, that things will be perfect. At the point though, it’s necessary to pick the options that are best, accept what is, acknowledge what cannot be and move on.

If you cannot do that, all you will do is bring misery and unhappiness, regret, to those around you. Ultimately the individual making the choice will end up miserable, too, because instead of missing one dream, they will likely miss many others – all because they could not have the one.

Then the individual has to ask themselves if that’s their goal, to cause regret. They have to ask themselves, are you going to make someone else unhappy because you can’t have things exactly as you want? If the answer is yes, then they have to ask what is the price? Is that price higher than I want to pay?

I suspect, based on my experience, that if the individual puts the dream above reality, they are going to be wildly disappointed. Everything will collapse and they will be left with nothing. Not love, not wealth, and most importantly, not happiness, and that’s where the price becomes too much to pay.

Dare to dream but be willing to compromise.

Look long-term and make decisions based not on the fleeting moment of Now, but on the future.

Weigh your dreams against the cost to others, and decide which will serve both parties fairly, or at least as fairly as life and circumstance allow.

That's my advice to the youthful dreamers. I hope it's advice that's never needed, but knowing life as I do, the hope is faint.

Best~

Philippa

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