$710,000

Did you know, if you have a scratch ticket and "win a million bucks," after taxes and all, it turns out to be $710,000? Yes. How do I know this? Not by winning a million bucks myself, sadly. But one of my physics lab partners came into class yesterday, and told us that his friend just won a million on some scratch ticket. I actually heard a commercial on the radio for it later, and the odds of winning the million are like one in six million something. So it would be extra dumb of anyone to go out and buy a ticket hoping to win, knowing that someone just won yesterday.

Anyway, we did some math, and if he put all his money into an account that pays 6% interest, he could live off of the interest happily for the next 10+ years.

And then we talked about what we would do with that kind of money. The other girl in my group said she would not be smart with her money and she would go blow it all on useless things. The two guys in the group would drop out of school.

I've actually thought about what I would do with a million bucks before, and it doesn't involve anything extravagant. I would buy a car that's actually worth something, but nothing too fancy. I just want it to go in reverse and not break down after 5 miles, be a stick shift, and have ABS (That's my current car's flaws ha). And then, I would put the rest of the money into a bank and just go to school for the rest of my life. I would probably still get a job somewhere down the line, and I wouldn't buy a ridiculous house or car or anything. I would just go to school forever. :) Always learning, always becoming better.

At some point, I would probably take a really nice vacation.

I would also like to give some of it to some charity or good cause, just so that way I'm not selfish. You know, help the needy, be a good person, blah blah blah.


Or-- if I decided that school's for fools (look at me!)-- I would instead put my grand 2-year traveling plan into motion. I haven't really looked at the cost of this, so a million might not be enough, but this is just a fantasy, so I can do whatever I want. It would involve: Live in France for about a year (perfecting my French-language skills), and then spend 3 months visiting the rest of Europe. Germany, Spain and Italy are specifically on my list. Maybe a month in each of those. Then I'd want to go to spend about 6 or 7 months in South America, visiting Chile and Argentina, and working my way up to Brazil, maybe Peru. Then for 1 and a half or 2 months, I'd go to Jamaica, and finish off the year with Quebec (which would be quite a climate change), and polish off my French a little more. Then I could come home and be thoroughly traveled, and then I would buy my car and go to school with whatever money (if any) I had left. That seems like the better option between the two, probably.