It could already be me

The very notion of achieving overnight financial freedom for me and my family would undoubtedly instantly turn me into a shockily shaking, jibber jabbering, waterfall of tears producing flippy floppy bundle of ecstacy.

Clearly at this point, I'd have to rely on my good lady wife and her significantly more level headed capabilities to make sure that firstly the numbers really were right and to sort out the necessary processes to enable us to get that money safely tucked away quick style.

First things first

Assuming at some point over the following days that I'd managed to regain any sort of sense of composure, at the very top of my list of must do's would be the following.

For me, life can never be defined by the amount of wealth you accumulate or by the raw monetary value of the things you own, the only true goal of my financial ambitions is to achieve total financial security. Quite simply, it's not that I'd never need to work again; it's that every one of my nearest and dearest can be secure in the knowledge that they will not have to face the pressures that money worries can bring to our daily lives.

So all action excitement it's not - number 1 hand in my notice, number 2 pay off the remainder of our mortgage, number 3 pay off my sister's outstanding debts and mortgage, number 4 set up an investment trust / pension fund for our little boy, my little brother and sister, and my niece, number 5 invest securely and live off the interest.


Now for a bit of fun

With the remaining money safely banked, the next thing on my list would be an old favourite - treating my family and in-laws to a trip of a lifetime World Cruise. For me, there's no better way to travel, all the excitement of waking up in a new port, city, country every day, all that fabulous luxury and comfort, and all that rich life experience to enjoy.

You see for me there's really no stand-out item that I'd definitely want to buy, no fancy cars, no luxury goods, nothing. Really all that matters is the extra time I get to spend with my loved ones, and for me I can't think of a better way of enjoying that than taking off around the whole world. There's plenty of time for the kids to gain the education they need, and there's surely no substitute for the life enhancing experience of soaking up culture from all across the planet.


Don't like to talk about it mate

Charidee, although in the words of the great sages DJ's Mike Smash and Dave Nice from British TV's Harry Enfield fame, naturally I don't like to talk about it, but having the ability to make direct and meaningful contributions to the causes closest to my heart would naturally make them high on the list of priorities.

Having lost loved ones to Cancer and Heart Disease, would certainly want to make a sizeable initial donation of around 5% of the overall winnings to those causes, both at a national and local level. Am also passionate about supporting children's charities, and particularly those providing respite care for long term sick or terminally ill children, so would want to immediately donate a further 5% to those causes.

The key thing for me would be to be able to give so much more time to local charities, and to be able to combine this with my passions in life, most notably sport, writing, entertaining and music. Coaching disabled sports, campaigning through my writing to raise awareness and funds for charities, putting on shows and events, helping out with days out, I'd love to really get stuck into this stuff, using the income from the interest payments to fund things for the longer term

Writing my own scripts

For me this would be the true beginning of loving what I do for a living. Having spent much all of my working life as a corporate employee, I've learned to accept the trade off between financial reward in return for a significant investment of time and effort. But in all these years, despite having achieved plenty and earned good wages, I've never really had the feeling of pure joy in doing what I do. Finally I would get the chance to write when I want , what I want and how I want - reviews, short stories, radio and tv scripts, maybe even screenplays.

And lottery or not, and lets face it as I never buy a lottery ticket the chances really are miniscule, this is still very much at the crux of how I see the next few years developing for me. No instant magic cash reward I grant you, but over time I am 100% committed to building up my portfolio of writing, and for as long as it takes, for the rest of my life I know deep down in my heart that in terms of everything outside of taking care of my family and loved ones, it's all that I want to do in my working life.


I'm already there

Whenever I think about my beautiful little boy, my wonderful missus, all my close family, my late Mum and Dad and all the other people I've been privileged to have shared some part of my life with, to me they hold a value that could never be matched by any other material measure of wealth. Millions and billions are an utter irrelevance, compared with the importance of health and happiness.

Rather than waiting ever hopefully for that mystical one life changing moment to arrive, I've come to realise that when I really think about it, I already have more than enough to treasure in this world. The only choice I really need to make is how I invest my time, to make sure that I spend it wisely on the things that matter most.

Pass the sick bucket I know!!