If you had a million dollars to give away, who would you give it to?
Thanks to the advice of Andy Dufresne from The Shawshank Redemption, I’m giving it to my husband. Observe… (vulgar language warning)…
I don’t know if $60,000 is still the limit, but I may check with the IRS to see if that’s changed with the economy since the time period of this movie.
Also, fun fact, I toured the prison where much of this movie was filmed. They have it set up like a museum with props and memorabilia from the movie and everything.
This question also brings to mind a writing assignment I used to give my students. Which, full disclosure, I ripped off from an episode of that old MTV show Road Rules. That show had the cast traveling around doing different challenges with the goal of being “rewarded handsomely” at the end.
One challenge was that the cast was given an obscene amount of money that they had to spend in something like 48 hours. But the catch was, they couldn’t spend it on things. Like, they couldn’t have anything to show for it. No fancy new clothes or other items like that. I remember they rented a BMW van to drive around during the time and went to a fancy restaurant and ordered the most expensive things on the menu. They had to spend every bit of it.
So I asked my students to write about what they would spend their money on in a situation like that. I honestly don’t remember what any of them said, but I think it’s not as hard to do as previously thought.
I would certainly go to a few fancy dinners and buy really good seats to concerts and shows. Take trips and have experiences.
But I think I’d also do something like clear the lunch debt of as many school kids as I could. Maybe pay college tuition for those who need it. That way they’re not burdened with student loans. I wouldn’t make it a Scott’s Tots thing, I would actually do it (where are my Office fans at?).
Of course this is only a million dollars so that wouldn’t go as far as I’d like with all of these ideas. Not in today’s economy. But it’s a nice idea.
What would you do with the money? If you couldn’t buy anything tangible with it? I’m curious what other people would do.
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