Well, this is pretty much a no-brainer for me. I'm one of those people who constantly thinks of things to do with extra money, not that there's much of that around our house these days. But there are definitely things I would love to do with extra money. Lots of things...
1. Buy a house, without any kind of mortgage whatsoever. Ditch the old house - sell it for $1 even. Just get rid of it. (Can you tell how much I don't particularly like the house we're currently stuck in, thanks to the crappy real estate market?)
2. Buy new cars. My car isn't exactly old, but Husband's is, so we'd trade in our old cars and get some nice new ones. I think Husband would probably want a nice truck with an extended cab, and I would want probably a minivan, if I'm being realistic.
3. Set aside college money for Baby and two future kids (I don't think I want any more than 3 kids). Put it in a CD or money market or something so it earns interest as the cost of college continues to increase.
4. Set aside retirement money for Husband and me to retire some place nice and live comfortably. I love the city I live in, I do, but the Florida summers really get to me, and I would love to live in a nice place in Connecticut someday. I would probably totally change my tune come wintertime, but here's what I think Connecticut would be a nice place to retire.
5. Get a new laptop for me and for Husband. Also get me a new cell phone and get him a new all-the-bells-and-whistles BlackBerry.
6. Buy my mom a house and a car she doesn't have to worry about. Give her some retirement money so she can stop working and stop worrying about losing her job.
7. Get a regular cleaning person to help me keep the house clean.
8. Hire an interior decorator - I'm horrible at that kind of stuff.
9. Give some money to a few charities near and dear to my heart - the American Cancer Society, St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, and March of Dimes.
10. Get a really, really big gift card to Borders or Barnes and Noble and buy beautiful hardback copies of the classics. Also buy some nice trashy books for light reading.
11. Set the rest of the money aside for a rainy day.
So what would you do if you won this week's PowerBall with $42 million dollars? What would you spend money on first?
