What Would You Do with One Week of Wealth?

How do you decide what to do with an unexpected windfall?

I’m only a few million bucks away from this kind of luxury! Photo by Shifaaz Shamoon on Unsplash

We all have plans for what we’d do if we won the lottery. Even I do, and I never play. But here’s what I never made plans for:

What would I do if I made $15,000 from one viral Medium story?

We Could Learn a Lot About Sex From the Dutch has made, as of midnight last night, $15,271.15. 

What would you do?

I have checked the stats over and over and over. “Maybe I’m reading it wrong,” I think. “There’s no way that story could really make that much money!” But it did. It took me two or three hours to write, and has made more than my novel, The Trailer Park Rules, that took me at least a year to write. 

I’m shocked and thrilled and also paralyzed because I can’t decide how to best take advantage of this windfall. The right thing to do with an unexpected chunk of money depends on how much it is and what your finances are like – and how comfortable you are with spending.

I’ve talked to a fair number of people about it, and I’ve found the different opinions interesting. Some people recommend I use it to pay off credit card debt, but I fortunately do not have any. I have always prioritized avoiding debt.

Others say we should take a trip, which isn’t a bad idea because my Dutch husband has not been back to see his European family and friends since 2017, and he misses them deeply. (Bonus: A European vacation is cheaper for us than it is for most people, because we always stay with family. But international airfare is still very expensive.)

Several people have suggested I pay off my house, which is tempting, but I don’t owe much on it and the interest I pay each month is under $25, so my mortgage is going to take care of itself soon enough anyway.

If you’re fairly well off and all your needs are being met, you might decide to spend it all on something fun and frivolous – maybe a designer bag or something. That is not me. In fact, thrift is so deeply baked into my DNA that I don’t think I could ever feel right spending money on something like a designer handbag even if I won the Powerball.

Another possibility is to tuck away every penny for emergencies. If I didn’t already have an emergency fund, I’d choose this option.

My miracle Medium month

I know a handful of people regularly make big bucks on Medium, but my normal monthly haul is more like $1K-$2K. It’s nice, but I’d frankly earn more if I got a job at my local Taco Bell, where they are now paying $15 per hour. 

I know some people – doctors, engineers, attorneys – routinely make more than this each month and don’t see $15,000 as all that much money. But the U.S. median annual wage is only $48,060. I myself never managed to reach that number, including when I was the editor of a daily newspaper working 60-hour weeks. In recent years, I haven’t even come close and don’t expect to.

So in that context, making $15K for a single story is like getting hit by lightning. And I’m aware that lightning doesn’t usually strike twice. I cannot assume that by being clever and working hard I can repeat this feat. 

This is a one-time gift from the gods.

So what should I do with the money?

I could solve a problem, indulge myself, save for the future or do a bit of all three. But I can’t do everything. It’s $15K, not a million bucks.

Since Untrickled is about income inequality, I’m going to be open here. I’m truly interested in what all of you think. So here are the possibilities I’m considering so far, keeping in mind I’ll need to tuck away half the money for taxes:

• I chipped a front tooth as a young child and that tooth is showing signs of needing attention. It’s going to be expensive.

• My ancient car needs major repairs so I only drive it at low speeds in town. Should I put more money into it, knowing old cars are money pits, or should I use the entire windfall to buy a hopefully (but not necessarily) more reliable used car? I could also decide to ditch the old car entirely, but because there’s essentially no public transportation in my town, that’s a tough pill to swallow.

• I’ve rejected the idea of paying off my house, but I could pay a significant portion of the money owed on our other house. (Yes, I still own the house we previously lived in and rent it out, because I could not sell it in 2008. I live in an area where housing is still cheap enough for almost anyone to fairly easily afford to buy. It is not a money-maker; until my adult son started renting it, I lost money most years.)

• My 401(k) is pretty pitiful because I haven’t been anyone’s employee, or made much money on my own, for a long time. Plus, for most of the years I had a regular job, my employer didn’t offer a match. Should I dump money into it now? 

• My husband and I rarely go out to dinner. Should we splurge on a few nights out?

• I have a family member I provide help to each month. Passing on the windfall would give that person a lot of relief. Should I give it all away?

• We’ve done a lot to the fixer-upper Victorian we live in, but there’s still plenty more to do. We would like to renovate the downstairs bath, which, to give you some idea, still has a charming but problematic pull-chain toilet. 

Additional things to keep in mind

I have two mortgages (one nearly paid off and the other on the downhill side) and a bit of medical debt I’m making payments on, but owe nothing else.  

Once I pay off the house I live in, I will no longer have access to the line of credit now available, which is nice to have for peace of mind in case a tree falls on my house or something like that. However, I’m 58, so in about a year I could borrow money from my 401(k) without penalty if I absolutely had to. 

I tend to wonder if there’s any point in putting money into retirement now, when I’m already at “retirement” age; I know lots of people my age who are already retired and I’m still trying to gain a foothold! I don’t actually plan to ever retire. I’d still be writing every day even if my windfall were several million bucks. But because I can very soon consider my 401(k) to be a last-resort emergency option, I’m leaning toward putting most of the money there. 

In the meantime, I did make one purchase already

Some neighbors had a brilliant idea: They have a place in their yard where they put up a pool all summer, and then when the weather changes they take it down and bring out their fire pit. 

This treehouse, seen through the top of the pergola, is one of my favorite spots. Beneath the pergola is a goldfish pond and small patio area. (Photo by Michelle Teheux)

Way back when, in the brief period when I was solidly middle class, I had a suburban house that came with an above-ground pool. It was surrounded by a deck and I loved it so much. I have missed it ever since, but my yard is not suitable for a big pool. However, there are hybrid pools now that are large enough to hold several people but still small enough to drain and put away for the winter. You can buy them for a few hundred bucks. 

The big pool I previously owned required lots of maintenance, but this type, my neighbor confirms, doesn’t demand much as long as you keep it covered in between uses. My husband was hesitant to spend several hundred bucks on the pool and the paving stones for the pool to rest on, but as I told him, “I made enough to cover it last night while we were asleep.”

Does this seem like a less-than-thrifty choice? It’s all in how you look at it.  

We have done a lot of work on our backyard – it has a goldfish pond with a small adjacent patio, a pergola and a treehouse. (All the structures were essentially free. My husband built everything with scrap wood, so we only had to purchase hardware and stain). We love our backyard and use it as our own little retreat. We turn on the lights, play music, pour a drink and feel as if we’re on vacation. The pool will fit in nicely with our “backyard vacation” spot.

So that’s our splurge. Now I need to decide what the best and smartest use for the rest of the money would be. And in the meantime, I’ll do my best to write more books, Medium pieces and Substack newsletters that people find worth paying for!

About Michelle Teheux

I’m a writer in central Illinois. If you like my work, subscribe to me here or on Medium. My new book is The Trailer Park Rules.