I’m a really laid-back sorta guy.  Most of my life’s accomplishments have come because of excessive prodding of parents, friends, wife, church and family.

I honestly think that if it weren’t for my parents, I’d be a beach bum somewhere in California or Florida or I’d be a farm-hand in Idaho or Nebraska.

I digress …

When I was in high school, I would regularly dream about how my life would be.  I sometimes ponder that dream life and wonder if I could ever do it.

But I’ve been taught and have bought into the idea that a long, solid, money-making career would best suit two of my life’s most important goals of supporting a family and retiring happily.  So I continue on the long, upward latter of corporate America.

But if I had $1,000,000 deposited into my checking account tomorrow, this is what I would do:

I would set up $100,000 accounts for each of my kids.  They would’nt get a cent of it until they finished college.

Then I would set up a large portion of the cash left into a mutual fund or something similiar and let it work for me.  I wouldn’t touch my 401k … I’d let it continue to grow.

I’d sell my house and move to Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon or Washington.  I’d pick a small town with a population of over 8,000 but under 20,000.  I’d go directly to local school district and explain to the administrator that I had recently retired and was willing to work as a high school teacher (computers and/or math) and coach basketball and cross-country.  If they had a chess team or program, I’d sign up to coach/teach for that too.

I’d get up every morning and exercise and then be to work by 7:00am.  I’d teach classes all day long and then when school lets out at 4pm, I’d coach/teach the extracurricular activities.  I’d get home by 6:00pm every evening and play with my kids and be with my wife.

In the summer time, my family and I would head to the mountains.  We would camp and fish and hike for several weeks.  I’d probably buy a boat and go water-skiing too.  I’d BBQ every night.  I’d stay up late and lay on the grass with my kids and wife and watch the stars.

Oh to dream.