Monday, February 26, 2007

I Have a Question for You

Someday soon, in theory, my third-place Jeopardy! money will come in. I'm figuring it's going to be somewheres between five and six hundred bucks after taxes. Here's the question: what should I do with it?

Some possibilities I'm considering:

1. Just putting it in my account/deciding that's where my frivolous William Daniels purchases came from. This is probably the most responsible course. I'm not a big fan.

2. An idea I used to have was buying some NCAA 1st/2nd round tickets for the sub-regional in Chicago, assuming of course my beloved Aggies play there. The problem is, my one basketball friend here discovered she has to go to a conference that weekend. I don't want to go alone, but that would have been pretty sweet.

3. The current frontrunner is buying a new TV. As some of you know, my current Picture Box--while having served me well for many a year--has a 13" screen. I've resisted getting a different TV for quite some time, since the picture's pretty good and it's a handy VCR combo and it's just so cute. But it hit me this afternoon, whilst I was watching selected scenes from 1776/eating a delicious sandwich, that (since it's widescreen) I was watching a picture that was about 12" by 4". That is not much John Adams for my gazing pleasure.


Suggestions? Recommendations? Complaints about my earlier recalcitrance toward buying a different television from anyone who used to live with me? Discuss.

10 comments:

Craig said...

I didn't know you got money from Jeopardy. I'd open a Roth IRA and buy shares of an S&P 500 index fund.

Rachel said...

Every day, I grow more and more convinced that you are an old man trapped in a young man's body.
You may take that as a compliment, if you like.

Tina said...

I have two comments:

1) Buy the TV, or do something else that brings you joy. Though I will say that I think life is way to squint at the man you love on a screen half the width of a sheet of paper,so I'd go for the TV.

2) Thank you for commenting on my blog. You are singularly responsible for motivating me to post again, as I do require constant validation from others.

Tina said...

Oh, and I forgot to include my other comment: I don't know Craig, but I would concur with Rachel's characterization. I would also advise that he take it as a compliment or ignore it all together, seeing as I am a complete stranger to him.

Craig said...

I would say I have a young man's vitality and an old man's wisdom. By opening that Roth IRA now, not only do you take advantage of your current low tax bracket, but you harness the power of compounding. Every year you waste requires to to put away so much more money towards your retirement.

Nancy said...

for Craig: But if you're all prudent and stuff now, you won't have any funny memories of the crazy sh*t you did when you were young and stupid to share with your buddies at the nursing home. And wouldn't that be a shame?

for Rachel: remember my TV? You loved that TV.

and remember windexing Emma Thompson's face? good times.

Craig said...

Nancy, I have everything I need in that regard on my left cheek.

Anonymous said...

I will plead the 5th when it comes to Craig's level of wisdom but I think he should take it as a compliment too. It is better that being an old man in an old man's body. That would be depressing - for me especially. On a similar note, Craig and I won't have to just sit around thinking about what we used to do, we will be cool old people that will dress up in cute maroon sweaters, check ourselves out of our retirement home and go watch Aggie basketball.

Rachel said...

Thanks for the input, everyone! Let's review:
1 vote for Roth IRA
1 vote for TV
~4 votes for Craig being an old man
Very productive. Now all I have to do is continue to wait for the check to actually get here. I just re-looked it up, and it said please allow 120 days for payment. So . . . if it's not here by May 23rd, *then* I'll start to worry.
Poo.

Rachel said...

OK, no, I just re-re-looked at it, and it's 120 after the broadcast.
So maybe I should just buy a TV now. That date is too depressing for me to want to calculate.