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Money meme
If someone were to hand me, obligation-free...
$10 - Probably just stick it in my wallet.
$100 - Split it with Pygment. She needs cash more than I do, so she probably gets 60 of it.
$1000 - We recently rebuilt our security cushion to more comfortable levels so I'd probably toss this at our home equity, which has the highest interest of any debt right now.
$10,000 - I thought about this for a while. There aren't any big THINGs I want at the moment, but I'd probably give the first thousand to charity, then divide the rest into fifths. One fifth would be allocated to "fun" things, like going down to NYC to see a show and buying a new camera doodad. The other four fifths would go into the long-term accounts (IRAs for me and Pygment, college accounts for the kids)
$100,000 - This one is trickier because it's sort of on the border. For 100k we could definitely get the major house addition we've been thinking about. In fact, that wouldn't even take up the whole 100, so the leftover would probably be split in fifths along similar lines. If we decided we didn't want to mod the house after all, then I'd probably think seriously about whether it was time to make a major purchase like a new car (I think it's not, but if there's money on the table...) I would also try to donate 1/10th to various charities.
$1,000,000 - At this point it becomes reasonable to think about replacing the house entirely. Given the challenges of building in situ on our odd ground plot I would guess that half the money should be allocated that way. Half the money gets split into the kids' college funds. Taking off the top 10% for charity becomes a challenge in that I'd like to find some place that would use $100,000 for a project or endowment that I believed in; I feel like a single large contribution can make a difference in some places. If we decided not to replace the house I think I'd use that half for long-term annuities for retirement.
$10 - Probably just stick it in my wallet.
$100 - Split it with Pygment. She needs cash more than I do, so she probably gets 60 of it.
$1000 - We recently rebuilt our security cushion to more comfortable levels so I'd probably toss this at our home equity, which has the highest interest of any debt right now.
$10,000 - I thought about this for a while. There aren't any big THINGs I want at the moment, but I'd probably give the first thousand to charity, then divide the rest into fifths. One fifth would be allocated to "fun" things, like going down to NYC to see a show and buying a new camera doodad. The other four fifths would go into the long-term accounts (IRAs for me and Pygment, college accounts for the kids)
$100,000 - This one is trickier because it's sort of on the border. For 100k we could definitely get the major house addition we've been thinking about. In fact, that wouldn't even take up the whole 100, so the leftover would probably be split in fifths along similar lines. If we decided we didn't want to mod the house after all, then I'd probably think seriously about whether it was time to make a major purchase like a new car (I think it's not, but if there's money on the table...) I would also try to donate 1/10th to various charities.
$1,000,000 - At this point it becomes reasonable to think about replacing the house entirely. Given the challenges of building in situ on our odd ground plot I would guess that half the money should be allocated that way. Half the money gets split into the kids' college funds. Taking off the top 10% for charity becomes a challenge in that I'd like to find some place that would use $100,000 for a project or endowment that I believed in; I feel like a single large contribution can make a difference in some places. If we decided not to replace the house I think I'd use that half for long-term annuities for retirement.
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In some other ideal universe our neighbors would suddenly decide to move, i'd buy up their land, knock down both houses and build one on the combined lots.
In a farther future (4+ years from now) where both kids are past the age of going to this school then moving would be a more sensible option than house-replacement.
To riff on this a little bit more, I generally do not like new construction. However, if I have the money to get a house built then I can work with builders on things that are of value to me (such as preservation of natural trees, lowering the carbon footprint of the house, building with stone or other 100-year materials) which are damn near impossible to get in your standard mass-produced new construction.
Unibrain