MrK said:I want to see what you would (or did) do when you suddenly had cash you could play with.
We have this question come up all the time (with hundreds of thousands of dollars sitting around, it's easy to get caught in "rewarding yourself" for a job well done).
Thing is, we don't.
Or at least our "rewards" don't seem like much to others.
-A spontaneous day off, perhaps, in the middle of the week (once or twice a year).
-A special dinner out at a fave restaurant (we're foodies, so this means close to $200 for the 2 of us).
We bought an almost-new car last year (an '06 Mustang convertible w/less than 15K on it), but we figured out how to pay for the car by selling other things we weren't using (all but $2.5K worth) before we ever bought it.
It is fun to dream and buy cool stuff. But we found that often, these purchases were taking us away from our real dream-- being financially free and 100% retired (w/six figure passive income).
We could have that today, if we cashed out. But we decided (back in '05, when we would have had $100K/yr passive) to take it to the next level-- $200-300K/yr passive. At that level, we'll be able to travel whenever we want, have a few houses (one on the beach, one in the wine country), and be able to home school our kids if we choose (making living in Paris, or Tuscany, or Provence for a year doable).
So to answer your question: "What do we do when we suddenly have a chunk of extra cash to play with?"
Answer: We use it, immediately, to accelerate our PLAN.
In other words, to a casual observer, we don't spend it on "fun stuff".
We invest it.
-Russ H.
PS Slightly off topic: I love road trips. Have done a bunch (Route 66, Hwy 1, etc). Whenever I do a long road trip, I rent a car. Much cheaper than the wear and tear on my car. For instance, I did the South Island of NZ a few years ago. In one week, I put over 2000 km on the car (I was the only driver). Went from Christchurch, to Queenstown, Te Anau, Milford Sound, drove up the coast to Fox Glacier, and back to Christchurch (actually went to Akaroa the last night, since I got back early). Great trip! New Zealand is gorgeous.