If I Became Rich

Dreaming and planning of the day

I am so grateful to Rasheed Hooda and Livia Dabs for tagging me in their articles inspired by Timothy Key’s article and writing prompt about what you would do if you became rich. This got me to think and to dream for quite a few days now. I am now ready to answer the question with lots of joy!

Here is Rasheed Hooda’s article. I love how he talks about sharing a lot of the money with family and giving some of it away. I love the simple and yet very rich in connections lifestyle he already leads and how he would amplify that if he had a million dollars. Be sure to read it here:

I also really enjoyed reading Livia Dabs’s answer as well. She explains where she would live to make the most of the money and live a life of freedom and joy! That is what I love as well! Check out her article here:

Timothy Key originally asked what we would do with one million dollars! I love this question and it got my mind thinking for a few days. It is so much fun to ponder such a question because it makes you dream. I love dreaming and getting into a possibility space. I love how he clearly has a wonderful plan to make sure he and his family do very well in the future by investing. Check out his article here:

Now, what would I do? What if I were given or came into a million dollars? I have taken many afternoons of walking around in my garden to think of this. It has been so much fun thinking about it. I am a minimalist, so I think I would go about it in a very methodical way.

We live a very simple life right now. My husband and I own our home and we have no debts. This leaves us in a very good place and I am so thankful that we have lived so simply yet so joyfully these past 16 years.

I believe in always sharing and giving. That would be the first part of my plan. Share the abundance that we have so that it will keep a ripple effect going throughout time. This is the most important thing to do.

First, what I would do is to make sure that our son had enough to pay all of his college tuition and living expenses. In around 6 years he will be going off to college. We have already saved quite a bit in his college fund, but having this extra money would mean that he would not graduate with debt. I feel that is one of the best gifts that we can give him. I would also want to make sure that he had a trust fund set up so that he would have a good investment to start out with. I think that putting around $200,000 towards this end would cover most everything.

I would also want to make sure that my parents had any debts paid off and that they had some extra money in case they need anything in their later years as they are now in their 70’s. They are very healthy and are doing very well, but I want to make sure that they have the help, care and resources that they need going forward. I would give them $100,000.

I would also want to give away money to organizations to help others so that we can end world hunger and make sure everyone has access to clean drinking water and money to build small businesses to change their lives. I know that Rasheed Hooda mentioned Kiva loans and that is something I would put money towards. I would put $100,000 towards this.

I would also put $100,000 into investments. That way we would be able to take time off of working (even though we both could work remotely because my husband is a software engineer and I teach online courses). We would live off of some interest at times along with the savings that we have.

After sharing and giving I would want to go on the adventure of a lifetime! We would have about $500,000 left to accomplish this. After traveling to many places on our list, I would love to explore the possibility of moving to Japan. My husband is half Japanese and we have traveled there. We both fell in love with Japan and we found it very hard to leave there.

Just today, we found out that since so many young people in Japan want to live in the city, country homes with land are being sold for very cheap prices. I would love to sell our home here, sell most of our stuff and buy a Japanese country home. We could even run it as a guest house part time in our retirement years.

These dreams really have my mind drifting off into a fantastical land of possibility! I love it so much! I will keep dreaming of this because I believe once you put something out there into the universe it can come true!

I would love to know what others would do with one million dollars. I’m tagging Keno Ogbo, KeepingItRealWithAnnick, Gurpreet Dhariwal to see what they would do!

Here is the article that I wrote long ago about part of our stay at a traditional Japanese Hotel (Ryokan) that was also a Bhuddist temple. It really did change our lives.

Trista Signe Ainsworth is a professional organizer with Joyful Minimalism. She helps working women clear the clutter, overwhelm and shame from their homes and lives so that they can truly live in joy. Sign up for my living in joy newsletter: Live in Joy

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