Chris Thompson   Chris Thompson on the internet

The news today was filled with a number of interesting stories, but there were two that particularly stood out for me. Firstly, in an act of tremendous goodwill, a woman in Nigeria has given her lottery winnings to a beggar. And what a lucky beggar they are. I can just picture the look on their face as they hold out their hand for a bit of spare change, only to be given a cheque for 3 million naira.

Hopefully, too, the winnings will go towards things that matter; things like a home, and good food, and all the things that we take for granted. It will go towards things that help, rather than being blown on fancy cars, or expensive toys.

Quite curiously, the reason she gave for giving the money away was that she was scared she would become broke. She had read reports that a number of lottery winners become “broke in the short run and come across a lot of misfortune.” I must admit the idea of giving your money away because you’re scared of running out of money seems slightly strange. But all the same, it’s a heart-warming story.

And secondly, another thing that caught my attention today was a story regarding houses and property in the Philippines. If prices are going to fall, then I would be very tempted to look into any bargains that might spring up. There are a number of things that appeal to me about it as a place to visit.

But looking into Philippines real estate would, of course, depend on a number of things. Not the least of which is this side job taking off in the manner that I hope it does. Oh well, fingers crossed, and we’ll just have to see how things go. First things first – I need to clean my house a bit, because I’m moving into a new one in a few days time. And I quite fancy getting my deposit back in its entirety!

I’m not sure how it came about, but today, my friends and I were talking about the lottery. Probably, it was one of those instances where you’re lounging and talking for so long that the topics run dry, and change, and change again. Perhaps something about the lottery came on the television.

The news has certainly been filled with lottery stories recently. Here is one such example: someone has won despite not even buying a ticket. Quite nice, I would imagine.

We were debating what we would do with the money, if we were ever lucky enough to win. The jackpots are so huge these days that I can honestly say I don’t really know what I would spend it on. It would be important to me to take care of my parents, that much I do know. I would happily sort their mortgage out, and would be tempted to get my dad the sports car he’s always wanted, that sort of thing. Apart from that, I would just bask in the joy of not being in any debt, I think. Maybe put a fair bit of it in something like one of these high interest savings accounts, and then you could just live off the interest.

That’s not to say I’d be as laid back with it as these two, who are content to live in their parent’s home despite winning over £2 million. But I would be quite relaxed; it would just be nice not to have to worry about anything.