What would you do ... ?

I'm sure at one point or another in our lives, we've either been asked or have asked ourselves,

"What would you do if you had $1,000,000?"

Of course, all the semantics aside, like taxes, where it came from, etc., the question is just a basic one with regards to how you would "spend" your newly acquired wealth?

I recall years ago reading a book which posed a similar question (although, I think it was 'What would you do with $100,000?'). It was a self-help type of book that reflected more on ways to cut costs in your individual life and get started thinking about investing. For the purpose of this book, it was more geared towards investing in stocks. I vaguely remember putting down the same old answer of paying off debt, stocking some money away in stocks (even though I didn't have a clue about the stock market), and diversifying the remaining in mutual funds and other types of "savings" accounts.

I was actually thinking of this same question the other day and instead of thinking what I would do with the money NOW (vs. when I read the similar question in the book years ago), I started analyzing the question itself. Sure, I could probably do quite well today if given $1,000,000, but why $1,000,000 in the first place?

Why not $500,000?

Why not $100,000?

Why not $25,000?

Why not $10,000?

Why not $1,000?

Why not $100?

Why not $1?

Why not nothing?

So, instead of asking ourselves, "What would you do with $1,000,000?", we should be asking ourselves, "What would we do with $0?" THAT, to me, is the question answered by successful people, and it's one we should all be asking ourselves on a daily basis.