If I had a million dollars

Yeah, I hope that song is stuck in your head now.

Diana started watching that PBS drama about some fictional British aristocracy from a hundred years ago, and it's crazy how screwed up that culture was. Coming into money and power through no action of your own, short of being born, is so bizarre.

I suppose you can come into money in a number of different ways. You can earn it, you can have some kind of windfall event or you can inherit it. I'd like to think that most people in democratic nations tend to earn it these days, but certainly coming from money opens a lot of doors to earning your own.

We never had a ton of money when I was growing up, and we certainly didn't live in a good neighborhood. Even when we moved to the suburbs, I wouldn't call it nice compared to the McMansions all around us. To a degree, I resented the other kids who had money, or thought that it mattered. Few would be what I'd describe as wealthy, as it wasn't a particularly wealthy suburb, but an awful lot of kids had cars they didn't pay for.

In college, I think I was even more soured on people with money, because there were definitely a lot of kids there that came from serious cash, and they were dicks about it. They were all Republicans, too, which probably is why I was so left-headed at the time. It probably didn't help that my majors (radio/TV and journalism) were not exactly fields that were going to make me rich, either.

Eventually, I saw a calling in software development because of that Internet thing that was getting hot, and I finally started making a respectable salary. Everyone I worked with was also doing OK, and the dicketry I saw from my youth was not present. Then I moved to Seattle, and it seemed like everyone made six figures, some chose to drive nice cars, and for the most part, no one really cared. That one of the cofounders of the company was also the richest man in the world and giving most of it away certainly helped with the old perception that money makes people awful.

Meanwhile, back in Ohio, I was surprised at how many people still care about the appearance of money. The middle class definitely has more screwed up priorities, which easily explains, in part, the people who can't pay their mortgages. Lots of houses and cars that people couldn't afford, but want to look like they can. Maybe it's my inner-city upbringing, enforced by my time in the company of other nerds who did OK, but I don't understand the vanity thing at all.

Which gets me to thoughts on what money means to me. I think the most important thing is that it never becomes a reason for me to indulge in vanity or treat others poorly. I'll always be a T-shirt and jeans kind of guy, driving a modest car, sleeping in a modest house. I'll always be giving money to things I believe in (it's time to help out GKTW again, by the way). I'm inspired by people that do great things with money. That's the example I want to set for Simon.

I've also come a long way toward believing that wealth is less about how much money you make, and more about how low your expenses are. That doesn't mean you have to be a cheap ass who never takes vacations, but it's OK to buy clothes at Old Navy and acquire used toys for your kid.

So if I had a million dollars, I wouldn't start trading up on everything. Well, I wouldn't eat Kraft Dinner (can't let that song go), because I already eat Annie's Organic Shells & Cheese, and it tastes better. I'd pay off my house and my cars, lock in Simon's college fund, and probably move to some ideal place. I just can't tell you where the money would come from. I think in my mind, I see it happening from some crazy bonus at some job, or maybe selling a business I haven't thought of yet. Oh, I'd also open up my own volleyball facility. Can't forget that.