I loved Budgets Are Sexy’s post last week on 5 Things I Would Upgrade If I Were Rich. (Which was actually inspired by a post at DINKS Finance on whether you’d still be frugal if you struck it rich.) So, I thought I’d keep the blog baton passing and write a post with my own response.
So many times The Hubby and I see someone on TV or in the news spending $10,000 on a wedding dress, $5 million on a house, or (in real life) $50 on a “pre-warn” Ab&Fitch t-shirt, and we think, “Even if I had that kind of money, I’d never spend it on one dress/one house/one t-shirt!”
Most likely that’s because we grew up in circumstances that taught us to be frugal. If we’d been raised as children of millionaires to whom money was no object, then who knows? Maybe I would be dropping thousands on a new designer purse I’d only carry for a month.
But, deep down, I feel like that’s not the case. I’m sure my sense of proportion would be a little off if I’d grown up rich, but I still don’t think I’d be so careless with my money that I wouldn’t stop to consider all the things I could buy with it if I were smart. (I mean, why buy one $5,000 purse when you’ve got the money to buy 100 $50 purses?) 🙂
All that said, the thing in J. Money’s post that originally got me thinking was the question: If you became rich, what 5 things in your life would you “upgrade?” This is assuming you didn’t grow up rich, but you somehow fell into a pile of money tomorrow, whether it’s by lotto winnings or a ridiculously smart investment move or whatever.
Here are mine:
5 things I would upgrade
1. Christmas. I love, love, love the holidays, and I love giving presents even more. So yes, although I’d still be pretty frugal even if I did strike it rich, I would go all out at Christmas time! Christmas trees in every room (in different themes, like vintage and mod)…lights that would make Clark Griswold jealous…and piles and piles of presents for all my loved ones. I would spoil them all silly!
2. Doggy donations. I wish I could donate to every local no-kill shelter and SPCA event and animal rescue foundation that sends me adorable doggy and kitty address labels and asks me to donate. But we can only give so much currently. If I were rich, I’d go nuts!
I want to go to a shelter and deliver new toys and treats to all the animals like Santa Paws. (Told you I’m a Christmas nut.) I want to build a luxury doggy day spa and kitty hotel for rescues to live in until they’re adopted. I want to have an entire gang of big and small dogs roaming my estate (I’d have to get a bigger plot of land) like every day in our house is Westminster.
3. Our food. We try to buy locally and organic for our produce, at least, but it’s expense to have a totally local/organic lifestyle. So that’s a definite upgrade if we had the money for it.
4. Finance classes for kids. One of my biggest pet peeves is the fact that kids aren’t taught basic personal finance strategies in middle and high school…I think they belong right up there with science and math. (More, if you ask me.) I’m not sure what exactly I’d do, but I’d somehow launch an initiative to get personal finance classes into schools. I’m not really a political person, but I would actively campaign for this! (Especially if I had the time since I could quit my job, haha.)
5. My wardrobe. I’m not a clothes horse by any means. I prefer to invest in pretty basic, classic pieces I switch up each season with different accessories. That said? Investing in high-quality timeless pieces has made me a huge fan of Banana Republic, and if I happened to fall into a pile of money? Yeah, I’d give myself one glorious shopping spree. A girl’s gotta splurge sometimes!
Your turn! Share your 5 “upgrades” in the comments!
~Heart,
Em
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photo credit: ron2000
I agree with what you say but when you have so much money it doesn’t matter I think people just buy it because they can. Currency no longer becomes something to think about but who knows I like to think I wouldn’t waste it and that I would do good with my excess. I would admit I would splurge on a nice car though!
I think it definitely makes a difference if you grew up with money or if you grew up being frugal. If you’ve been careful with money all your life, you may splurge a little, but it will be harder to see money as a limitless resource that doesn’t feel real.
Then again, I’ve never won the lottery, so who knows what could happen! 🙂
I would of course splurge a little.. treat myself with a designer handbag!
then I would pay down all my parents debt,
then I´d buy my self a house
and book a trip to the States (my life long dream!)
and donate to different small organzations such as animal shelters, education in poor countries, etc.
That’s really sweet of you, to think of helping out your parents. I think you’ve got a very respectable list there!
1. Buy my dad a plane ticket to Chile (his country of birth, he hasn’t been back for 30 years)
2. Buy my parents a nice home, and maybe a small business for them to run.
3. Create a program for a low income girls to build self esteem.
4. Travel every freaking place I could!
5. If I was rich enough, I would take a ride up into space … that would be so awesome.
I love your responses…you’re so focused on sharing the wealth with other people! If only more people like you DID strike it rich, the world would be a much better place!
(And yeah, visiting space would be incredible.) 🙂