Delusions of grandeur....

Some of you may have noticed, I like to tell stories. Lately, I haven't been writing so many of them down, but I'm still telling them in my head, only just to myself. One of the things that I do when I can't sleep is to tell myself the story of how my life will be one day, if I meet the right guy (always a celebrity - I don't necessarily want to be famous, but I wouldn't mind being famous-adjacent), or finally write publish a novel, or whatever. Harmless fun.

On Friday night, I was doing this but this time I picked a new scenario. Winning the lottery! Tons of fun, no work required, and you can get all new stuff! So I immediately began planning what I would do with the money. I figured not to get too far ahead of myself, so I decided my win would be $2 million - just enough to be life-changing without having to support everyone I've ever met for the rest of my life. After taxes, I'm guessing that would be somewhere around the 1.4 mil mark (I don't actually know how that works, but I figure the government takes at least a third.)

And then I thought about what I would change in my life to make it easier. Not my job, my job is pretty easy most days. I don't want plastic surgery or designer clothes or anything in that realm. The one thing I'd change if I could is the neighborhood I live in. Don't get me wrong, I like my house, and my neighborhood isn't bad, but if I could, I would live in downtown Decatur. It has everything I like to do, it's close to most of my friends, and it's a pedestrian area (for Atlanta, anyway) - I could walk to tennis, to the bars and restaurants, to live music, to public transportation.

Out of curiosity, I went online to look to see what it would cost to get a house in that area... and found a townhouse I really like next to the tennis courts and the library. It has a downstairs bedroom that would be perfect for when my parents come to visit, and a bay window for my cat, a two car garage, and a deck! I might possibly have driven by it last night on my way to go grocery shopping (obsessive Vix is obsessive.) So between that and paying off my mortgage on my current home, that's half a mil gone. I figured I would invest $25,000 or so in my current home, and then sell or rent it (in my head, to someone deserving, like a single mother who can't get a loan the regular way. I like the idea of helping someone like that, although it probably wouldn't work out.)

Then I'd want a new car, and to invest for retirement, and to give money to my family and friends.

It's a fun fantasy, it's definitely kept me occupied this week. But the hilarious part? I've never played the lottery. Ever. I don't know how to buy a ticket, it kind of intimidates me. But I might start playing once a month or something. It's nice to have something to hope for, even knowing that it's a pipe dream.

So what would you do with the money?

*sigh*

Today I took my car in to get a 60,000 mile tune up. I knew it was going to be expensive, but it has turned out to be more than I expected. Now, mind you, my car is ten years old, has very low mileage, and has been relatively problem-free for its existence up to this point. As much as I would LOVE to get a new car, having a payment right now just isn't in the works. So I'm happy to do what it takes to keep this car going for another (hopefully, knock-on-wood) five years or so.

But I am out $1500 now. And of course I had to put it on my credit cards, which is just adding to my seemingly never-ending credit card cycle. I have been trying so hard this year to get them paid off and to change the way I use my credit, but it seems like every time I get close, something like this happens. I had just gotten my total credit card debt down to less than $1000 and was hoping for this to only run me $500 or so. It's disheartening.