Daydreams

Today had one of those frustrating afternoons.  I had a report to produce that I'd forgotten how to do, followed by the finance system going on a go slow.  By 6pm, it had ground to a complete holt, twice, but  I had an invoice to get out, so had to persist.  Lots of time spent waiting for the system to respond to even the simplest commands.   With my computer seizing up,  I daydreamed, wistfully deciding what I'd do if I won certain amounts of money in the lottery.

£100,000?  I'd clear our debts (say, £10,000), buy a new car (another £10,000), finish the house (£20,000), get the garden sorted out professionally (£2,000), fully fund an emergency fund (say £20,000), spend £10,000 on IVF, throw away a bit on gifts, travel and toys (say £8,000), and invest the leftovers in shares (£20,000).

With £500,000, I'd do all of the above, pay off the mortgage (£200,000) and split the remaining £200,000 into deposits for between 3 and 6 flats to have as rental properties.  (Each property would cost between £120,000 and £200,0000, with the balance coming from a mortgage.)  £500,000 would produce enough income that only one of us needs to work, so DH could retrain to become whatever he wanted.   And, having paid off the mortgage, we could invest each month's "mortgage money" in shares.

A win of £1 million, would mean we'd both be able to retire.   I'd do the above, and then spend another £300,000 on rental flats - maybe buying a couple outright for the income, as well as using some of the money to fund deposits for others.  The remaining £200,000 would go on shares.

If it was a £10 million win, we'd be able to do all of the above and give some sizeable cash gifts to family.  With £10 million, none of the properties would need mortgages, so would give us a sizeable income every month, to live off and reinvest.

I didn't get any further - a colleague interrupted my reverie and I didn't feel like sharing my thoughts with him.  Instead, I had to turn my mind back to work.

- Pam (if it was you, what would you do?)