The Love of Money

Over the past few days I've seen several posts from individuals showing their restaurant bills and the tips that they left their wait staff. In each, the tip that was left exceeded the total cost of the bill, in some cases by around 5%, and in some cases by around 250%. The actual tip amount ranged from $100-$7000.

Now, my initial thoughts are those of shock. Why would anyone leave that much of a tip, either percentage or dollar amount? Also, how does someone spend $6700 on a meal, much less the $7000 tip?

Secondly, I feel a bit of envy. "I wish I had the money to leave a 200% tip. I wish I was able to spend $7000 on a meal. Not that I would, necessarily, but man, it would be nice to be able to."

I saw a lot of comments stating that posts like these are self-glorifying, boasting the posters' 'good works', but the people posting say that they are showing what they are able to do in an attempt to inspire others to work hard and get to where they are, that it is attainable by anyone. The posts are meant to be motivating and to encourage both hard work and generosity. And, I have to say, that while I was shocked and envious, I was also inspired and motivated.

Rolling in the Dough

Every time the lottery jackpot gets really big, like it did this past weekend, I get a super strong urging to go spend a whole $2 and pick myself up a ticket in the impossible hope that I may get that 1 in 175.2 million chance of winning. I never have, and I don't know if I ever will, but I gotta say it's incredibly tempting. In fact even though there was a winner, and the jackpot has dropped to a measly $40 million, I'm still tempted to go get a ticket...

However, regardless of whether or not I ever buy a ticket, much less win, it's a lot of fun to try and imagine what I would do if I did. It's also pretty difficult. Have you ever really thought about what you would do if you suddenly had hundreds of millions of dollars? I was truly thinking about what I would do, what I would buy, etc... and after everything that I could think of that I would actually do, it still didn't even really scratch that amount of money. It's mind-boggling to think about how much money that is.