What would you do with $25 million?
I mean, after you'd paid off the student loan, divvied out a cool mil to each of your greedy siblings, bought mum a coat of Antarctic fur seal and hired the Stones to play the old man's 60th - what then?
Would you march into your boss' office, throw your instant coffee in his face and tell him to stick his miserable job where no man wants one stuck?
You could buy a first class ticket to the Canary Islands, set up a little beachfront rum bar, run fishing charters from your 50-metre super yacht and take up scuba diving.
With $25 million you could become a NASA space tourist. Maybe fly all your mates out to Vegas, rent Caesars Palace and throw a pool party in a vat of Krug champagne.
Or would you play it more low-key? Invest the bulk of your windfall on the markets. Become a property magnate and live handsomely off the interest and capital gains while honing your golf game or running Zebra on your high country estate.
These are the questions I'm grappling with as I contemplate winning next week's record Big Wednesday Lotto draw. I can't explain it - it's just a gut feeling.
$25.7 million to be precise. Imagine how many Snickers bars you could stockpile with that kind of moolah, how many 50 cent lolly mixtures you could buy.
Buoyed by a $6 scratchy windfall on Tuesday, I decided it was high time to check a Christmas Lotto ticket given to me by my mum. And as luck would have it - on the very day I posted about my natural predisposition for good fortune - I struck gold with a $25 division three haul.
But did I squirrel away my winnings for a rainy day, sign up to Kiwi Saver or open a high interest term deposit savings account? Hell no. I sunk it straight back into the Lotteries Commission's legally-sanctioned gambling racket in the hope of striking it big.
I didn't, of course. No one won last night's $21.7 million jackpot, which simply boosts next week's prize pool to new and dizzying heights.
So what if I have more chance of being struck by lightning every day for a year than acing first division. Can't a fella have dreams?
Financially speaking, I'm a man of extremes. I can get by on the smell of an oily hair piece if I'm saving for an overseas adventure or have my heart set on a big-ticket purchase.
But I can also spend wads of cash with reckless abandon and complete disregard for starving African children or homeless Courtenay Place transients, yet have little or nothing to show for it.
I guess our spending habits fluctuate according to our incomes. As a left-leaning politics student I could comfortably survive on my meagre student allowance, the few bucks I'd make waiting tables and the money I'd earn 'compromising' myself when the Chinese squid boats were in port.
But as I've got older, and the salary has headed north, my spending habits have grown exponentially. I need a win on Wednesday. I can't face those fishermen again.
And while money doesn't make you happy, it sure as hell makes life easier.
So fingers crossed folks. I'm on the verge of striking it big. Vegas baby, here I come.
What would you do with $25 million?
I mean, after you'd paid off the student loan, divvied out a cool mil to each of your greedy siblings, bought mum a coat of Antarctic fur seal and hired the Stones to play the old man's 60th - what then?
Would you march into your boss' office, throw your instant coffee in his face and tell him to stick his miserable job where no man wants one stuck?
You could buy a first class ticket to the Canary Islands, set up a little beachfront rum bar, run fishing charters from your 50-metre super yacht and take up scuba diving.
With $25 million you could become a NASA space tourist. Maybe fly all your mates out to Vegas, rent Caesars Palace and throw a pool party in a vat of Krug champagne.
Or would you play it more low-key? Invest the bulk of your windfall on the markets. Become a property magnate and live handsomely off the interest and capital gains while honing your golf game or running Zebra on your high country estate.
These are the questions I'm grappling with as I contemplate winning next week's record Big Wednesday Lotto draw. I can't explain it - it's just a gut feeling.
$25.7 million to be precise. Imagine how many Snickers bars you could stockpile with that kind of moolah, how many 50 cent lolly mixtures you could buy.
Buoyed by a $6 scratchy windfall on Tuesday, I decided it was high time to check a Christmas Lotto ticket given to me by my mum. And as luck would have it - on the very day I posted about my natural predisposition for good fortune - I struck gold with a $25 division three haul.
But did I squirrel away my winnings for a rainy day, sign up to Kiwi Saver or open a high interest term deposit savings account? Hell no. I sunk it straight back into the Lotteries Commission's legally-sanctioned gambling racket in the hope of striking it big.
I didn't, of course. No one won last night's $21.7 million jackpot, which simply boosts next week's prize pool to new and dizzying heights.
So what if I have more chance of being struck by lightning every day for a year than acing first division. Can't a fella have dreams?
Financially speaking, I'm a man of extremes. I can get by on the smell of an oily hair piece if I'm saving for an overseas adventure or have my heart set on a big-ticket purchase.
But I can also spend wads of cash with reckless abandon and complete disregard for starving African children or homeless Courtenay Place transients, yet have little or nothing to show for it.
I guess our spending habits fluctuate according to our incomes. As a left-leaning politics student I could comfortably survive on my meagre student allowance, the few bucks I'd make waiting tables and the money I'd earn 'compromising' myself when the Chinese squid boats were in port.
But as I've got older, and the salary has headed north, my spending habits have grown exponentially. I need a win on Wednesday. I can't face those fishermen again.
And while money doesn't make you happy, it sure as hell makes life easier.
So fingers crossed folks. I'm on the verge of striking it big. Vegas baby, here I come.
What would you do with $25 million?
