Okay, so I was planning to write a post about Freedom from Unrealistic Expectations (a.k.a. “The Great Christmas Card Fiasco of 2015”) but the craze surrounding the stratospheric payout of the Powerball lottery prompted me to tackle it instead. Look for the scoop on Christmas cards next time.

As of today, the lottery is estimated at a mind-blowing $1.3 Billion (yes, Billion with a capital B), that’s about twice the amount of the next largest amount ever won. An article on cnn.com said that in a one-hour period in Texas yesterday $5.8 million in tickets were sold. When I checked, my odds of winning were 1 in 292 million.

I think most of us can identify with the fun of dreaming what we would do if we suddenly had vast riches dumped in our laps. I could drop $400 on a purse without thinking about it. Going to Hawaii like Shawn and I did last month wouldn’t be a rarity. We could have multiple vacation homes and travel wherever we wanted to go. We could give lots to charity and bless others.

But I worry about what the lottery would do to my motivation. Would work become less important than pleasure seeking? Would I expect money to fix a lot of my problems and be disillusioned when it didn’t? Would all that wealth wreck my family in the long run? What would happen to my attitude and gratitude?

Now that I’ve turned the Big 5-0, I think more about my legacy. Winning the lottery would really screw up my legacy. I’ve been very blessed by those in past generations of my family, not by life-altering inheritances but by their examples of hard work and careful management of their resources. Shawn and I have received inheritances and gifts but not to the extent that we could abandon working for a living. Those blessings have enhanced our family life and allowed us to make investments for the future.

That’s what I want to give my children and hypothetical grand children. Not so much money that it makes them lazy and entitled but careful gifts here and there that remind them of the benefits of hard work, planning and living within one’s means.

Shawn reminded me of his favorite Warren Buffett quote: A very rich person should leave his kids enough to do anything but not enough to do nothing.

I am beyond blessed to not have to fret about finances, and I know I am not exactly normal in that. If I were living paycheck to paycheck, I might be more tempted to spend a few bucks on lottery tickets and dream of not having money troubles. But the thing is, when you have money, you’ve got to spend time managing it. We’ve been learning that as our assets grow, we have to pay more attention to a lot of details. And guess which detail-oriented person at our house gets to do most of that? Not the happy-go-lucky creative one (thanks, honey!).

If we won a billion, our focus would be on managing that money and using it. I don’t think I would be as motivated to write, and I wouldn’t be as inclined to share life lessons with my girls on getting the best deals at Kroger (use the card, look for savings, accumulate those wonderful fuel points). Would giving lose a lot of its meaning if it wasn’t any kind of sacrifice?

Maybe it is God’s plan for you to win a billion and use it to help others, but as for me, it just doesn’t fit. I think it would mess up my motivation and wreck my legacy, so I’ll just be thankful for what I have and keep planning for the future.