Challenge: When I Win The Lottery...

For the last two years, I've been taking part in the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge over at Long and Short Reviews. The first link will take you to the list of topics; the second one goes to the homepage, where you can find a post with everyone's responses each week. Feel free to join in! 

Today's prompt is, "If I won a large lottery jackpot, I would..."

Well. Naturally that depends a bit on just how large the jackpot was. $500,000 (U.S.) is a lot of money for most of us, but I could put both boys through college (and possibly grad school) and only have a little bit of that left over to put by for retirement. (Which, under the circumstances, is what I would do.)

Now, if I were to win a Powerball jackpot -- something which could easily run into hundreds of millions of dollars -- well... turns out it's still surprisingly easy to burn through that, if you decide to make all your dreams come true. But I'm older, and more cautious, and so there's definitely a very slim chance that I might actually behave responsibly with that much money. 

After I got my castle, of course, and rounded out the sword collection. Okay, not really a full-fledged castle, but it would need to have stone walls, at least one tower with crenelations, and at least one secret passage hidden behind a bookshelf. (Additional secret passages would, of course, be welcome.) 

(It goes without saying that it would need a really, really big library.)

The thing that I'd want to do with money, though, isn't really buying things (as much fun as that can be). It's buying back my time. I'd want to put the money where it would hopefully do some good (maybe in micro-loans?) and then basically be able to set my own schedule with no obligations except the ones I choose for myself. I'd get back into martial arts, maybe add some dance lessons, spend time on writing and reading. Yes, I'd buy a few toys; but mostly I'd set a budget so I could own my own time.

How about you?