A Billion $

Would I really want a Billion $?

Would I even want to win a Billion dollars? I don’t think so. Frankly, that sounds like a lot of work. I woke up this morning thinking about winning the billion dollar Mega Million jackpot… except I didn't want it.

Wifey had been talking about it. The jackpot was at like, eight hundred and something million on Friday. And at some point on Saturday she’d mentioned forgetting to buy one.

“We’ve got one in the door of my truck.” I said. I’d gotten one, I’m not sure when. She was tickled! I say I don’t play the lotto, if anyone asks generally. I consider the folks leaning on the ice cream cooler, spending hours and probably half their wages on scratch-offs ‘lotto players’. But I will grab a ‘quick-pick’ Mega Millions or Powerball occasionally.

As a matter of fact, I really like to do it when I only have a couple of dollars left. For some reason, I think I’ll have a better chance if, “I spent my last two dollars on it”. They used to only be one dollar. But recently doubled in price, like seemingly everything else in the past few years.

So that’s probably what happened last week. I’d picked one up thinking, what a great story it’d be to win on my last two dollars. I didn’t even know I had a ticket potentially worth a Billion dollars in the door of my truck, sandwiched between a half eaten pack of ‘Turtles’ and an old tube of sunscreen. It’s not like I wouldn’t be happy with the twenty million or so they start at. But she was tickled, and hurried outside to grab the mythical dumptruck full of hundred dollar bills. We checked it… not a winner. Not even close. Hell we didn’t even have one number right. Oh well.

But when I think about it further, and ask myself, “would I really want to win a Billion dollars?” I think the answer is No, I wouldn’t. To start with, a Billion of anything seems unfathomable. I increasingly find myself tripped out, at the numbers thrown around. The news feed this morning mentioned Open Ai is valued at $157B. I mean, that doesn’t even make any sense to me. I grew up in the 80’s and 90’s, when having a Million dollars was rich.

So this morning I woke up thinking about it…I don’t think I want to win some ridiculous amount of money. I’m happy with my life. And winning a Billion dollars would change everything. How would Wifey and I reconcile my wanderlust for instance. Being broke, it’s no problem. I work on the road some, save some, and she is able to travel with me some. If we were mega wealthy, could we keep that same balance? With me wanting to go non-stop, and her wanting to be here on the homestead? I fear not. I’d want a helicopter, and we’d no doubt fly much more often… would one of us die in a plane crash? Not likely if things stay as they are, that’s for sure.

Maybe a million would be okay. After taxes we’d end up with about half, more than enough to secure our future, and be able to pay for the kids' school, ect. But a Billion? Sure, why not ;)