Financial Planning

Richard walked nonchalantly into the room. “I've been thinking,” he said. “What would you do if you won ten million dollars?” Anabeth perked up from her book – a trashy romance light-read for bedtime.

“Ten million? You mean like in the lottery or something?” Anabeth asked.

“Yeah, like that,” Richard replied.

“Can we get all the kittens?” Anabeth asked. She rolled onto her back and grinned her Cheshire grin. “All of them?”

His keys and wallet relinquished to the nightstand, Richard jumped lightly onto the bed, sending Anabeth bouncing and giggling. He chuckled and shook his head. “I'm serious, though,” he said. “What would you do?”

“I guess we'd both take some time off,” Anabeth said. She sat up and attempted to look sober. “Neither of us is really thrilled with our jobs. There'd be a lot to think about. I mean, you're supposed to get a financial planner, put money into trusts, all that kind of adulty-sensible stuff.”

“True,” Richard said. “That would probably be best for most of it. But you're also supposed to budget some to let off some steam, right? What would you do with that?”

“A trip is traditional, right?” Anabeth said. “It's a few hundred thousand for a couple's trip to Luna now. There's something we'd never have otherwise.”

Richard grinned and tackled Anabeth into a hug. “I had the same thought.” One hand snaked free and pulled a small, colored bit of paper from his wallet. He held up to Anabeth's eyes, showing a neat, printed sequence of numbers. “We'd better get planning!”