The Money Marathon Day 4 (Thursday)

18/2/2016

You've been doing great on spending money so far. It's getting more complicated now. Two tasks today:

1. You get to spend £5,000 (or $7,250) today (and only today, all money will disappear at midnight unless spent). What will you spend it on (again, as before, be as specific as you can)?

2. Now second part – in addition to this part, you suddenly receive £25,000, which you can spend in any way you want (i.e. save, invest etc – it won’t disappear).
a) What do you do with this money?
b) What happens with your body and feelings when you read this task and when you are thinking how you'll spend it?

If you just joined the Money Marathon, here're Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 tasks.

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7 Comments

Helena

18/2/2016 03:24:39 pm

1. Ok, I will actually pay to do the repairs in the flat that I wanted to do – will pay to the builders to do the kitchen and bathroom. This will be pretty much 5,000 (I’ve previously ran some calculations). When thinking about it, I feel some relief, like completing something that’s long due, bringing things in order.

2. I wouldn’t want to do anything with it right now, would just put it on my bank account to have as a safety cushion, and probably be slowly using it towards living expenses. It makes me feel a bit more secure. And yet, I also somehow feel uncomfortable with this decision, as I am asking myself whether just “eating” this money is the right way to do? Is there no better use for it?

It also feels like “not enough” for something big, but also “too big” for small things.

I will also probably go to a very nice restaurant (although strangely enough with this money it will feel less appealing to spend it on a restaurant than when I got 3,000 or 5,000), it’s again as if I were spending it on peanuts.

Also, now I remember it’s been years that I wanted to do an annual leadership course that costs around 10,000 pounds. I won’t sign up for it straight away, perhaps, but will set 10,000 aside with the idea that I can potentially go into it in a few months, if there’s no better use of this money. Why not straight away? Well, perhaps they could give me a scholarship, or maybe I will decide I actually don’t want to do this program.

Anastasia

19/2/2016 03:36:40 pm

Thanks for the answer! So what would you consider a "better use" for this money?

19/2/2016 10:30:48 am

5thousand on a car for the kids to learn to drive in.

25 thousand update the house and finish my Pilates studio in the garden.

Anastasia

19/2/2016 03:35:30 pm

Great! Two suggestions:
1. To be more precise with spending. I.e. update the house and finish Pilates studio - do you definitely know it's going to be 25 thousand? What if it were 24,600?
2. What is the reaction of your body as you are trying these various figures out?

Lisa

21/2/2016 11:52:39 am

£5,000 -
I would spend this on the same things as I chose on Weds, but if this is another £5k on top of that - this is how I will spend it!
Take the whole family on a holiday: my parents, my sister and all my nieces and nephews. I would rent a villa by the beach on an island in the Caribbean so we could have lots of fun family time together. This would use up all the money, plus a bit more!

£25,000 -
1) What will I spend it on?
I will use £15,000 to add to savings I already have which have been set aside to use for a deposit on a flat, which will enable me to put down a deposit on a decent flat in London which I will rent out. I will then use the £10,000 to support myself to go travelling for 6 months. This will start with a road trip with a friend across the States (we will also film our travels and some of the characters we meet and maybe put this on a Youtube channel that we make). I won't plan out the whole 6 months as I want to leave things open to chance and opportunity, but after the US I would like to include: horseback safari in Kenya, hiking in the Dolomites and troll-spotting in Norway ;p , island-hopping in the Caribbean, and free-diving in the Andaman Islands.
2) What are the feelings in my body when I read this and when I think about how to use it?
The feeling when reading it was a slight clenching in my stomach as I thought I need to really figure out what I want (in life!) so I know how best to spend this money.
The feeling when I actually started planning what to do with it was a subtle opening up in my chest and feeling lighter in my head as I started to look forward to the things I could do which excited me, and had just been dreams. By the end I was feeling a fluttering of excitement in my stomach :)

Floriano

3/3/2016 07:36:17 pm

I would buy CND Soldiers, 2005 + Girl with Balloon (signed), 2004 and artworks for the value of 5000 £ at the Joseph fine art gallery.
The amount of 25000 £ I woul deposit on my account. The sensation is to gratification, my breast is full and I feel comforted

Cabinet Makers Utah link

20/11/2022 12:07:37 am

Very thoughtful blog

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Who is Anastasia?

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