I know of a woman much older than myself who was given a very unusual birthday gift. She was offered a non-trivial but not lifechanging amount of money on the condition that she spent it on herself.
This woman is a private citizen with no government ties or connections. She is professionally successful. She is in good health. All her basic needs are well covered. If she had to spend on herself, she would have to do so on luxuries. However, she is not a luxury sort of gal. She likes to be comfortable, but you'll never find her shopping in Greenbelt 5, for example. She's actually quite frugal.
Feeling that she didn't need anything for herself that she couldn't already afford, she ended up turning down the gift (to the shock and horror of her family and friends who were more than willing to help her look for creative ways to spend the money).
What would I do in her place? Each one of us has a list of must-haves and the nice-to-haves. My list of nice-to-haves is pretty long. I am fully aware that each and every item on that list is self-indulgent and unnecessary, but if I *had* to spend the money anyway, yeah, I could wipe it out easily by working on that list.
Honestly, though, I don't think I'd be that self-indulgent. In that situation, I'd probably try to be a little pilosopo. There's another list--let's call it the "man for others" list. Given the constraint that I would have to spend on myself, I would probably enter into an off-setting kind of arrangement: I'd have the gift pay for my basic needs, while I use my basic needs budget for "man for other" stuff. Probably. Assuming I could get away with it.
I think about this woman's situation. It's such an unusual problem. It reminded me of the movie Brewsters Millions. I don't know how I would feel in her shoes. Right now, I'm just having fun fantasizing about what I might do if I were.
