We all dream about winning the lotto or by some miracle seeing six extra zeros added to our bank account one day. Now in all reality the chances of someone just getting a million rand are very slim unless you work hard for it or you come up with a brand new idea that will make you a million rand just like that. The question I would like to pose today is, “If you do just get a million rand extra from somewhere, what can you actually do with it?”

A million rand may sound like a lot of money, but if you actually sit down and try to use it wisely you may not achieve a lot of meaningful things with it but one million rand extra certainly has the potential to change someone’s life if used wisely.

Depending on your current circumstances, we all probably have a million different ideas as to what we would do with that million rand. Lets say you are in your early to mid 20’s, you are working in your first job out of university, you maybe earning about R12 000 a month and rent a one bed roomed apartment. With one million rand you can certainly do a lot. The first thought for most maybe to go out an buy a ‘hot’ car, maybe even your dream car which may cost you about half a million rand! Then you think to yourself, I am left with another half a million. One may then be tempted to go on a shopping spree for clothes and gadgets and maybe treat yourself to a holiday in a far away country. With all this spending, that remaining half a million rand maybe finished sooner than you know it if you are not careful. Have you every realised that when you have a bit of extra cash and you have not budgeted for it, it tends to run out rather quickly?

On the other hand, one may decide to spend that million rand in another way. Why go out and buy a flashy car? After all a car is an expense and will rarely appreciate in value. Instead of buying a car for half a million, why not buy a house or an apartment of that same value? Property is by far a better investment than a car. If one already has a bond on a house or apartment, they could use some of that million rand to ‘knock off’ a large part if not all of the mortgage. With what remains you should now think about what you can do to make that remaining money you have make you more money. Rather than thinking of going on a shopping spree and spending all that money on ‘fun’, one should look at investing that money into something. One can look at the financial markets and invest in financial instruments such as the stock exchange. This would require the services of an experienced investor as if you do not know what you are doing you could easily loose a lot of money. Maybe you have always wanted to start your own business; you could use some of that money to get your own business up and running.

Yes we all would like to treat ourselves to a few ‘goodies’ with a million rand and we should but one shouldn’t spend the majority of that million on ‘goodies’. There is so much you can do with a million rand if you think carefully about it. Instead of buying a R500 000 car, by yourself a decent R200 000 rand car if you are really into cars. Go out and start investing in property with some of that money. Property is still a very sound investment and has made many people wealthy over the years and will continue to make people wealthy. Look into business opportunities which can make that one million rand grow into two then five then ten million rand. As tempting as it maybe to go out and ‘blow’ that million rand like there is no tomorrow, remember that tomorrow will be there and that one million rand can carry you through for many more ‘tomorrows’ to come. The first thought if you are ‘given’ a million rand should not be how you are going to enjoy spending it and fulfil all your dreams but you should think about how to make that one million rand into two million and then start enjoying your money.

What would you do if given a million rand today?

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