Money can't buy happiness...

There was an article on CNN today in which the wife of the biggest lottery winner in history wishes the win had never happened. Reading in the article what has befallen the family since then, I can't say I blame her. Combine that with the sad, sordid lives of many celebrities and it often seems that large sums of money are not worth the trouble caused.

Like I'm sure many people do, I occasionally muse on what I'd do with a monstrously large lottery win. Donate a large chunk to charity, pay off debts, set up very nice college funds for the kids, travel to Europe.... And then what? Deal with myriad "friends" and "relatives" we never knew we had? Spend the rest of our lives trying to protect our kids from would-be kidnappers?

No thank you. That's attention I'd really rather do without.

I admit, I do occasionally get in on the office pools that tend to start up when the lottery rolls over into the $20M range. But at that point, my take after lump sum would only be about $1M which hopefully wouldn't be enough to attract unwanted attention. Enough to do most of what I listed earlier, but not enough to really even alter our lifestyle much, though it might facilitate a career change for DH if he were interested.

When I think about it, though, I already am wealthy in what truly matters - I have a wonderful DH and kids, and we have a roof over our heads and food to eat.

Everything else is just gravy.