Thursday 23 June 2011

Reflections

 Someone I was talking to the other day was saying how they would love to win the lottery so that they could buy their own house, and never worry about having to move house again. This is my dream as well. I would love for us to be able to own and not rent, so that we could be more stable and have more control over whether we have to move or not. 

It got me thinking though. Apart from the obvious benefits of stability, would I be living my life very differently if we won the lottery? I really don't know. I am not talking about material things (house excluded), more about whether my dreams and aspirations for myself and my children would be the same. I am trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up, and a big part of that decision making involves what will be financially rewarding. I figure that where I want to be is with my children, so if I am going to work, then I want to be paid well for it. Would I feel differently if money wasn't an issue? Would I still be thinking about going back to study, or looking for a job when then my littlest goes to school? Would I have my children in the school they are in? or at school at all for that matter?

What about you? 
Do you feel that you are living your life exactly as you want to? 
Or would you do things differently if money wasn't an issue?

7 comments:

  1. I would think that life is about learning and growing and having goals, so that one is always going there, but not quite reaching the destination.
    Maybe the secret is to be happy along the way. I thought that Kerry Clare at http://www.picklemethis.com/
    had the gift of happiness, of enjoying the present, but I see that the other day she was considering putting her 2 year old up for adoption, so I can see that everyone has their bad days.
    I've known some people who don't seem able to be happy, though, despite what seems like good circumstances.

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  2. Btw: I would love to have the knowledge and skill to caste that hippopotamus in bronze. he's superb.

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  3. I'm in a midlife crisis up to my eyeballs and still working out what I'm going to be. But I also have a sense that whatever it is, has to be something that has real meaning and is RIGHT. At forty I'm not sure how many more times I will get to decide what I'm going to be when I grow up!

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  4. I would really like to think I would live in much the same way. Although owning our own house would be wonderful and having enough money to have regular holidays would also be on the agenda. I would also love not to have to worry about going back to work once all the little people are at school.

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  5. I've had this post earmarked to come back to and it's taken forever! Such good questions to ask. I can genuinely say that I feel a contentment with our current 'lifestyle' (geez I hate that word), though we are renting, and would like to see our family stay content with our modest lifestyle even if a lot more money came our way. I think the aspirational approach to life, which is pushed and encouraged by our consumer-driven culture, is very unhealthy, but so easy to give in to. The gradual upgrading... the sense of entitlement, that we NEED to have as much as the next person... I think I'd struggle not to let that creep in if we won lotto. (Which is why I don't actually buy into lotto!!). I'd like to think I'll choose what to do with my time when the kids are older without reference to money at all... but perhaps that is just because I'm suitably comfortable enough to have the luxury of thinking like that?

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  6. Tania - hope you find out what you are going to be when you grow up. I'm hoping I will soon, but I'm starting to think that maybe this is what grown up is - the journey of discovery, that will never be completed.

    Gina and Lene - I think it is wonderful that you (mostly) feel that you are living the way you want to be living. I agree completely with you Gina that I don't want to lead the 'aspirational' sort of life where the main focus is driven by consumption, and yet I guess to a large degree that is what drives us whether we like it or not, otherwise we could easily go the other extreme and be content to live off government benefits. If our ancestors hadn't had aspirational genes then we wouldn't live in the world we are living in, but could still be cave dwellers.
    I don't buy into Lotto either, so no chance of winning and ever being able to answer my hypothetical question:)

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  7. Just bought a tattslotto ticket this week, would love to buy the simple house we rent just to know we could stay here forever. I have moved home every 3 years most of my life and I just want to stay still. Not willing to make the trade of working and missing out on being home with my beautiful 3 children, not sure it would all add up financially anyway. Not much I would change but fun to dream now and then. Funny talking to people in their late 30s - they often just assume you own a house or at least have the possibility of buying one, friends are discussing buying holiday houses - not their first home. All but a distant dream. Not nearly as precious as those dreamy days I get to spend with my little ones.

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