If I found $1 on the ground right now, I'd leave it for the next person to pick up.<p>If I found $10 on the ground right now, I'd use it to buy next week's coffee.<p>If I found $100 on the ground right now, I'd use it to buy some Christmas presents and not have to hit my bank account quite as hard for Christmas.<p>If I found $1000 on the ground right now, I'd report it to the police. Then if it ended up coming back to me I'd probably put it towards rent for a month, and watch my bank account grow a little more cushion.<p>If someone gave me $10,000 today, I'd pay off a couple student loans, and feel a lot more comfortable financially each month.<p>If someone gave me $100,000 today, I'd pay off all my student loans and finally be able to enjoy my actual income level. I'd stop renting and find a home that my family could make our own.<p>If someone gave me $1,000,000 today, I'd do a few things. I'd pay off my student loans. I'd rent the house I'm in until I found the house I actually want for the rest of my life. The house would have some modest guest quarters, probably in the form of a mother-in-law apartment. I'd buy a truck and a boat, and invite friends and people I admire to come visit for 2-4 week blocks. I'd keep teaching because it keeps me young and because I've learned how to teach pretty well at this point, but I would reduce my hours. I'd travel with my family, to Iceland and Patagonia, and a few other places.<p>If someone gave me $10,000,000 today, I'd do everything I would with a million, and try to give most of the rest away, buying similar freedoms for a few people I've looked up to all my life. I'd consider them genius grants for people who have given freely of their time and their experience, with little financial gain.<p>With a little more freedom, I'd teach really well, help other people figure out how to teach well and hopefully revolutionize public education. I'd develop some really important open source software projects.<p>But I live quite comfortably in southeast Alaska, where every time I drive to work I look up at the mountains and give a little thanks for living where I do. So while I'd make good use of any money sent my way, I'm working on all these things little by little, and thoroughly enjoying the journey as it is playing out.