If I Had a Million Dollars...

I generally don't contemplate this question because it seems pointless to think about things that ain't never gonna happen, but for some reason, as I lay trying to sleep last night, I unleashed my avarice and had a full-on fantasy about what I would do if I made a million dollars a year.  

This is what I decided:

First, we would buy an amazing piece of land that included a hill for sledding and lots of big trees for climbing and building tree-houses.  We would build a beautiful Victorian-style home with a wraparound porch AND a sunny guest house that could be used as an suite for aging parents or a beginning home for young marrieds.  The main house wouldn't be big-- but I would want it to have four bedrooms, a well-equipped kitchen, fireplaces, and a master bathroom with a giant Jacuzzi bathtub.  It would also have a library with lots of windows and comfy furniture.  I would hire someone with amazing taste to decorate it for me.

The property would include a barn and a fully-equipped wood shop.  We would buy horses and goats and chickens and a cow and grow a huge garden and an orchard.  We would all work together as a family, building fences and chicken coops, weeding and harvesting the garden, and making sure the cow got milked every morning.

We would buy Abe a Smart Car, because he loves Smart Cars.  I would get a SUV with four-wheel drive.

Every year we would visit Abe's family in New Hampshire and also take a big family vacation somewhere else exciting-- the Galapagos Islands, the Grand Canyon, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, Hawaii....

I would hire someone to do all the shopping, including picking out wardrobes for everyone in the family.  This person would also be responsible for making sure our hair generally looked decent.

After buying our house and our cars, we would live off $130,000/year (including vacation expenses and the cost of keeping a professional shopper) and donate the rest of our money to amazing causes, like helping women in underdeveloped countries (particularly those with obstetric fistula) and sponsoring international adoptions.

What would YOU do with a million dollars a year?