Haven't You Always Wanted A Monkey?

Not that I typically pay much attention to the news, but I have seen the recent story of the woman from Utah who won $1 million on Deal or No Deal. And naturally, it got me thinking about what I would do if I won/found/earned that much money. And, knowing me, it won't surprise most anyone reading this that I immediately thought of this song. (It should be noted that a disturbing number of songs recall time I spent with Amber. I know Amber has always wanted a monkey. She told me so.)

So Alan and I had a hypothetical discussion about what we would do with a million dollars. I was almost bored with our choices, because it appears we would be unyieldingly practical. First of all, you have to consider that most of it would be taken in taxes in most situations where we would win/get the money. So we would only have $600k to play with. What would we do from there?

-Take 10% off the top to just blow on nothing. "Nothing" to us constitutes the possibility of building a deck, finishing our basement, maybe some new carpet, some clothes and video games, maybe a new television. If we felt brave, we might do some of the investing with Alan's parents they have been doing, because his dad is really smart about it.

-Pay off my truck, any outstanding credit card debt (read: not that much), pay off the little commuter car we bought.

-Use a chunk to refinance our house so that our house payment is only $500/month or so. See, we both love our jobs and would keep those so making that small of a house payment would be no big deal and we could double it up to pay it off sooner.

-Put the rest in savings for a few different things, like Mason's education. I already know, regardless of what we have saved, we will be the naughty parents who lie to our child. I'm going to tell him he has to work hard and earn college if that's his desire, but I would really like to be able to surprise him with it and help him out.

I would like to say we would take a fun vacation or two, and that's a real possibilty. There are a few traveling things we would like to do, but I'm not sure anything like that would take priority. If we could use the money to make our monthly expenses lower, we could save up for the trips. I would never expect a million dollars to mean we're set for life the way I once thought it would. Is that a sign I've grown up? I don't know.

So what would you and your family do with a million dollars? It's at least fun to dream about.