Someone Else’s Money
Whenever I come into some money (tax rebate, freelance check, bonus, etc.), I usually save it. Save, save, save—that’s my mentality right now as I shoot for a $10,000 down payment for a place to live.
But recently M and I have come into some money that has a whole different set of circumstances behind it and I know we can’t “just” save it. A few years ago when I first started going with M to visit her family, I met her uncle. Great guy, loved baseball, and just a nice person all over. He and I got along great and every time we were in town we usually visited him. But it turns out he was having health problems and a few months ago he passed away. We picked up and drove to the funeral the next day—it was hard because everyone missed the guy.
Anyway, it turns out he left M and I some money and we feel compelled to spend it on something he would’ve liked. So we’ll probably go to a ball game (we’ll have to see the Yankees, his favorite team, of course) and maybe do something else. We haven’t really thought about what to do with the rest of it. But we know we won’t be putting it in the down-payment fund.
Why? It’s not that it’s a “boring” way to spend the money. I mean, I don’t think I would want my money to be passed on and spent as a small % of a down payment. I think it should be spend on something meaningful that he really would’ve wanted us to do. So we never really considered “saving it.”
Instead, we see it as one last gift from a man we both remember very fondly. The way I try to picture it is by asking myself what we would all do together if he were still here. That’s why watching a Yankees game is an obvious one—he followed that team with a passion only rabid baseball fans know about, and that’s how we’re going to remember him.
April 17th, 2008 at 8:22 am
My condolences. I think that’s a wonderful thing to do with the inheritance – my kids are rabid yankee fans so I know that passion. And for you it sounds like this would help you remember him much more than walking around your house knowing that he paid for a floor board or a window.
Your story brought to mind several studies I’ve read about where they’ve found that buying more stuff doesn’t make people happy for very long but having more experiences does. You’re using the gift to have an experience that you’ll cherish for a long time. Way to go.
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April 30th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
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April 30th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
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