We recently had a Mega Millions lottery here in New York that was in excess of $200 million. That’s quite a few lattes!! Whenever the lottery gets up that high I daydream a bit and think about what I would do with that much money. Where would I live and what kind of house? What would we drive? Where would we travel? How would we set up the family? What would we do the rest of our lives? How would I tell the boss? (That’s a fun one!) I don’t dwell too long on it but I have some fun for a few minutes.
It got me thinking…
If We Were Rich How Frugal Would We Be?
The first thing that comes to mind with being rich is excess. Big car, plane, huge house, travel the world, eating at the finest restaurants…you see what I mean. We wouldn’t have to worry about coupons. Buy one get one free? Heck, I’ll buy two at full price!
Then I was thinking that we probably wouldn’t go crazy. Yes, we would upgrade some things like our house but it doesn’t mean we would have to live a life of excess. We would still want to live in such a way as to teach our kids proper values and have them understand they won’t have anything they want handed to them.
I remembered the book Millionaire Next Door. It said that many millionaires lived relatively modest lives. I’d like that to be our case if we came into that kind of money. It would probably take a bit of constraint at times but I think we could do it.
And excess leads to clutter! That’s not a good way to live. We’d have to have some control.
Of course this is one of those things that you can’t really know for sure until it happens.
What do you think? How frugal would you be if you were rich?
Sign up with ING Direct and get a $25 bonus
photo credit: jenny downing
- Festive Link Love Carnivality #16
- Festive Link Love Carnivality #11
- Do You Have Frugal Tips For Your City?
- A Review of Rich Dad Poor Dad
- An End to the Housing Crash: Bailed Out Banks Demolishing Foreclosed Homes?
- Review of the Millionaire Mind
Subscribe to Free From Broke | Follow Free From Broke on Twitter
{ 12 comments }
I’d like to think that I’d be frugal, no matter how much money I had.
After all, frugality should be a lifestyle.
Have a Merry Christmas!
Miranda’s last blog post..Merry Christmas from Credit 101!
@ Miranda - I guess the best way to find out is to make a load of money and test it out. If only!
I’ve had that dream sitting in class in college or in the office thinking of what I would do. I’m like you with thinking. Would have upgrades but would generally be frugal. I love traveling so that’s my number one thing to do if I had the time and money. To be honest I would probably buy real estate or a small biz to diversify and have steady income, one I made sure I was easily set for the future.
@ffb What would be a risk you would take if you had that money?
@ Craig - Great question! Maybe living abroad, raising the kids internationally? Start a band again? Like you I think I would have some business ventures going. Maybe being rich shouldn’t stop me from doing these things?
@ffb Shouldn’t stop you at all. I have studied abroad and have loved it. I always play the same question in my mind as well, has nothing to do with being rich. If I had an opportunity to work abroad for a time period, would I do it? Right now being young, single, I prob would. Although would have to find a way to be able to watch my Penn State play in the fall.
Always a fun speculation! I find it difficult to think past the goals I’m currently working on - pay off my debt, fund my various savings and investment accounts, charitable contributions, etc. It would be nice to find out, although I understand the fallout from friends and family and wish-they-were friends and family is so crushing as to be not worth it. I doubt I’ll ever know first hand!
SimplyForties’s last blog post..Having a Hard Time Getting Life Insurance?
@ Simply Forties - It’s true that a lot of “friends” would appear from out of nowhere! Don’t say you’ll never know first-hand though! Who can say for sure what life holds for us.
I like to think that I would be frugal still but I would probably spend more. I believe that typically the more money you have the more you spend.
Mark’s last blog post..Brad’s Deals
@ Mark - Yeah, it’s totally true for us that when we have more money we spend more. But if we won the lottery we’d still keep our spending within reason. I think it would sorta be like changing the scale of everything if that makes sense.
There are many things I would do if I came into a boat load of money, but most of it would have little to do with excessive lifestyle changes. My life is pretty good as it is. What I would do is help my children out a little more and then I would set up a foundation to help support the nonprofit organizations that work with causes that are dear to my heart.
Susan/Unique Business Opportunity’s last blog post..Do Holidays Make Building Your Business More Difficult?
@ Susan - That sounds great!
I have a taste of it.. because I pulled in $20k a month, and to be honest, I still kept (and keep) to my reasonable budget of $1500/month.
Partly because it also isn’t a guaranteed $20k a month, it depends on the projects.
But that budget doesn’t include the $1500 extra I’d like to save and put into retirement.
So ideally, I need to earn $3000/month if I were in a salaried job, and that’d be enough for me. More than enough actually, especially now that I’m debt free.
Fabulously Broke’s last blog post..Last and final cheque: $20,091.50
Comments on this entry are closed.