What I would do if I had $100,000

I’m sure many of you reading this have had those moments where you sit down and think about where you are financially. Maybe that moment came for you while you were trying to pay for a meal with your debit card, and was told that it was declined. Or maybe you were balancing your checkbook and realized you had no balance.

Well, I had one of those moments yesterday. I was looking around my room at piles of laundry needing to be done. The reason why they were not done is because I’ve been afraid to touch my checking account. Why am I afraid, you ask? Oh, that’s because I haven’t been working since September and my accounts are looking pretty sad.

Now, something like this can do one of two things to a person. You can either get very depressed and start looking for the strongest liquor you can find. Or, you can see this as an opportunity to re-evaluate past mistakes, and think about what you would do differently, if given a second chance. I chose the latter. I’m a sucker for second chances.

I then did the math and am embarrassed to admit that the total was a little over 60K. Yea. But, if I prayed for only 60K, then I would be broke again once all my debt was paid. That just won’t work. So after much thought, I came up with the figure $100,000.

Now, before I continue, let me clarify a couple of things. My credit has been excellent until I stopped working. In addition, most of my debt, 85% of it to be exact, are student loans and my car note. Now if you’re wondering why I stopped working, that’s a whole other post in and of itself. Just know one thing, it was justified.

Anyhow, once I knew that I wanted to be blessed with $100,000, I put together the following breakdown of how I would use it:

1. ~60K would go towards all my debt. This includes my student loans, car note and credit card.
2. 10K would be donated to charity. I’m currently a World Vision sponsor, so some of that money would go to them. I would also support Hope World Wide and Heifer International. Once I attract more money into my life, I’ll support more organizations.
3. 10K would go to my brother. In my home we’re not mushy people, but I admit that I am really grateful for him. He has been super supportive since I stopped working, and he has given up a lot to be here for Mom (to learn more about my mom’s condition, click here). In addition, he hasn’t been able to get all the equipment he needs to pursue his dream, which is to make movies. So my hope would be that the 10K would give him the edge that he needs to get started.
4. Finally, that leaves me with 20K.
   1. 5K would would be placed in a some type of interest-yielding account (e.g. money market).
   2. ~6700 would be used to buy a Macbook Pro (which Santa did not bring me last Christmas) and the Adobe Creative Suite Web Premium
   3. ~1000-1600 would go towards a down payment for a new apartment (my lease ends in February and I have to move. No option to stay. Yea.)
   4. Anything left over would be split. Half would go to my checking and the other half would go to my savings. This would hold me over until I start my new job in January.
   5. Maintenance: I would make a budget where I determine how much I spend on certain things each month. For example, I would give myself an allowance to spend no more then $50 a week on eating out, etc. In this way, whatever is leftover at the end of the month would go into my savings.

Now I know, I can hear you now. Your probably thinking that I’m still not that well off after all is said and done. Heck, maybe you’re even wondering why I don’t pray for more. Well, $100,000 just makes sense to me. I believe that once I gets used to having money flow into my life, I will attract more.

So, there you have it. Now you know what I would do if I had $100,000. What about you? How would you spend it?

By the way, if after reading this, you’re feeling a bit generous or motivated to give, I am willing to accept your tax write-off as a donation. Simply click here and we can get the ball rolling. Happy New Year! 😀