THREW Mikes EyEz

Original Writings, Images, Video and Artworks of Mike Hartley

Winner/Loser

3 Comments

What would you do if you won the lottery? So ask the Bloganuary question today.

I used to waste some minutes thinking about this. Sometimes when work was at its worst I’d allow myself to think about walking away and doing my own thing or just the other fantasies of life without financial concerns.

I just didn’t find it healthy for myself. Nothing against taking a wild chance once in a while if that makes you happy. I just thought the time and money would be better spent on appreciating what I do have and maybe helping someone else.

Gambling, remember moderation. Photo by Mike Hartley

I try to avoid gambling as much as I can. I make a friendly small bet with my son on football games that after a whole season usually results in me losing $10-$30. I did have one successful year. I do that though to keep in touch and talk sports and some ribbing or bragging rights.

I will occasionally play. And by that I mean maybe 2-3 tickets a year. In recent times it hasn’t even been that much. I buy the family some scratch offs at Christmas but don’t play those either. But I realized giving money away to throw a slip of paper in the trashcan wasn’t much fun.

It’s good to know yourself before you start gambling. I’ve got an additive personality and I know I could quickly be in trouble if I started betting or playing lotteries. And then the horror stories you hear about the winners.

But to answer the question

  • Set my family up for life.
  • Take care of some good friends.
  • Donate about half to charity.
  • Smile and have a good time with my better half.

Author: Mike Hartley

With a lifetime and a half in the Newspaper industry I'm preparing for my retirement career as an Artist, Writer, Photographer and Video content provider. I'm a proud father of two wonderful children and I'm still married to the first girl I fell in love with and probably only one that would have me.

3 thoughts on “Winner/Loser

  1. Sometimes when my mind is too active when I’m trying to get to sleep at night, I think about what I would do if I won a LOT of money on the lottery – interestingly I rarely got past the sharing round step – and never got to spend anything on myself.

    When our National Lottery was first introduced, we used to talk about winning big when I was at work – one of my favourite questions to ask my colleagues was ‘If you won the lottery, would you tell your partner?’ … I used to watch their faces closely – like you might search out a ‘tell’ when playing cards.

  2. I would have to agree with your answers. You ever watch my lottery dream house on HGTV sad to see people win 1 million then settle for a $500,000 house, then wonder why they lose it ? Never thinking about how expensive it might be to maintain.

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