You just won a million dollars. Where do you go next? Everyone dreams of having lots of money, but what stumps most people is how they would spend it. First thoughts are usually fancy cars, boats, and mansions, but how far could one million dollars actually go?
According to elitedaily.com, there are many ways to spend one million dollars on just one thing, and you’d be broke again. For one million dollars you could buy a Bugatti Veyron, purchase 500 pounds of fresh caviar, become a rapper and feature 2 Chainz on 10 of your songs, or you can meet for coffee with Apple CEO, Tim Cook, twice. If you wanted to get more out of the million, according to hollywoodreporter.com, you can also spend it in just one weekend by taking a private jet roundtrip, renting out private parties, staying in expensive hotels or suits, making reservations at pricy restaurants, going to private clubs or concerts, and of course, shopping.
I don’t think the average person would blow all of their money in one day or even one weekend, but there are many instances where people have got ahold of a million dollars and blown it over time. On theguardian .com, Alex Lasarev shared his story about “living on the streets to being wealthy and then losing it all.” As a teenager, Lasarev inherited a little over one million dollars without any guidance on how to spend it. He made poor decisions and spent his money uncontrollably. He blew it on poor investments, failed business ventures, expensive penthouses, and loans to friends. After a few years, he was tapped out again and became depressed.
A million dollars can be helpful if used to pay off credit card debt, college tuition, home mortgages, car expenses, and other bills. A cushion of that much money may make some people comfortable but doesn’t exactly guarantee happiness. According to busniessinsider.com, money can buy you happiness only up until a certain point. After making $75,000 a year, more money will not make you any happier. One of the theories is that money doesn’t cause contentment, but relationships do. J.C. Hewitt stated, “…Happiness has mostly to do with relationships and the quality thereof. I doubt that it’s a metric that can be measured effectively by economists to come to a conclusion.” There is also the theory that having money will make you greedy and want more. James Altucher shared with Business Insider, “I thought, if I could make 10 million dollars then it must be too easy. In fact, I honestly thought, everyone else had probably already made 11 million dollars. So then I felt poor again. I now needed 100 million dollars to be happy.”
Although one million dollars would be nice, I think the moral of the story is to stop wishing for money to magically appear; be content with what you have and don’t put yourself in situations where you need money to rescue you.