D$ is one of my truest #friends in this world, that’s not only the name I’ll assign him for this open letter on #steemit, that’s actually his nickname in real life—D-$. His trademarked symbol is on the bottom of this letter, under “sponsored by.” He likes to tell the #story about the first time we met and how we were introduced through a mutual friend of ours, 
Christyle brought D to my place because I needed some more financial support for the party I was throwing—D has always been that guy. D’s version goes something like this: “Christyle said: look, he’s really cool, he just needs a little more money but he’ll trip out if all you want to do is talk about money, talk about music, chicks, anything. Just something other than money.” I love it when D tells the story and he gets to that part, it reminds me of something a humble person might say.
That was 20 years ago—D is still an instrumental key in my life. He’s made several reassuring statements to me that I never anticipated hearing, statements that give me strength. He admires me and looks up to me. He believes in me the same way I believe in him, thanks D, I love you homeboy! Thank God we met.
It’s safe to say since our first meeting back in 1998, D has continued to stack millions of dollars and gone on to build a great fortune, I still don’t know if he even has a debit card—I don’t care. The few times we get together each year, something will come up about “what would you do with a million dollars” or “if you had a month to travel.... ?” Questions like that. I’m the guy in the conversation with two ears. And then the other day, out of the blue, D sent me a text message with a picture of a California lottery ticket—I pasted his text message to the picture:
I wasn’t expecting that message. Well, I was and I wasn’t because D has been trying to get a response from me to this particular type of question for a long time. I don’t know, D, I never really thought about it. 🤔 This was my response:
That question led to this text conversation:
D doesn’t have a #steemit account, nor does his wife, AND she’s an incredible #vegan chef!
Because that’s the way excitement works, right? We get excited about possibilities and ‘what if’s’ whereas normal, everyday occurrences become routine and, over time, something routine and normal evolves into neglect and a lack of appreciation ensues. Here’s the conclusion to our text conversation and then I’ll attempt to reenact the mythological disbursement of 370 million pieces of 100% cotton paper that only us humans have been programmed to believe, over the past 150 years, maintains value.
That was a long introduction, D! It took a long time to get to the part about what I would do with 370 million fabrics of that 150 year old invention identified by the finest inkjet printers on the planet. Does that mean my first one is a no-go? The one that went “I’d like to buy happiness to every decision I make... they sell that somewhere, does $300 mil cover it?”
Well then, first things first, I’d pour myself a cup of coffee and pack a fresh green one because I’m awake, it’s a day, and I’m awake.
$370 million. I don’t know much about real estate but that’s A Lot! The first thing I’d do, D, is figure out an adequate extortion rate because that lottery ticket was purchased in the United States and that’s what keeps the Feds in business.
Because the value exceeds a 1/2 million dollars, before we collect our winnings, we’ll have to mark-up the value by 150k because... well, I can’t answer that! I’m not sure why the Feds add and subtract dollar amounts to anyone at any time without justifiable cause.
The taxable winnings are $369.5 million. 37% of $369.5 is about $137 million. Add that to the additional 150k for exceeding a 1/2 million dollars in winnings and the Feds get $137.15 million. That ticket was purchased in California with a state sales tax of 10n1/4%—the state gets their cut too. 10.25% of $370 million is $38 million. Add that to the Feds’ cut for a total of $175 million in tax liability and the netted winnings equal $195 million—dang! “That’s a lot.”
After I split my winnings with you, my pocket has about 98 million pieces of 100% cotton paper backed by a monetary system created with the intention of getting people like me and you excited about things such as ‘Lottery.’ ‘I’ll take a lifetime supply of happiness backed decisions, please!’ Because I can’t think of a logical purchase—I’ll blow half of it I guess!
$50 million—blow it! And I’m not talking about buying fancy cars or jewelry or any worldly items, I’m talking about blowing it. As in, no...
No record of purchased items and I have to somehow get rid of $50 million—now that is a #challenge! This hypothetical just got interesting, I didn’t expect that. So, I say up the stakes! I’d up the stakes on me and give myself a time limit—48 hours.
Now I have to blow a million bucks an hour for the next two days and I can’t have anything to show for it, #fun—no time to sleep! I’d have you pull up a list of every single low income apartment rental in Los Angeles, California. I know there isn’t anywhere near 50 million but however many there is, I’d divide that number into 50 and cut checks to the landlords. Pay all of their rent for however many years $50 mil will cover. What’s left, 48?
Did I ever tell you I got expelled from high school? Not suspended, expelled, I couldn’t attend any of the public schools in my jurisdiction. That happened at the beginning of 12th grade. Eh, good thing though, really! I never took a required elective called Social Studies, I don’t know why I never attended it 🤔 I guess I just didn’t feel like it—interesting. Since I was expelled, I was able to cram a bunch of courses in at a continuation school, Social Studies was one of them. Otherwise I probably wouldn’t have graduated and we all know how priceless they train us to believe high school diplomas are. I don’t even know where mine is anymore—last time I saw it, it was in a red folder. So, about that high school that expelled me, I’d even out my pocket to $40 million and cut HHS a check for eight million bucks. The memo would say:
40 million dollars, that’s a lot of money, it seems like I can’t give it away fast enough. I might as well cut a few more checks to the schools I attended. Kindergarten was one school, then first grade was another. First grade, that’s when I learned I better run fast and know all of the back alleys to get home. D, I’m not kidding, everyday in first grade, the ‘big kids’ would chase me as I walked home from school. Every day I had to be a little bit faster, eventually I found a short cut through the alley and I was able to hop the fence in the back yard at the house I lived at. Second grade was another school, I lived with my grandparents that year, ok, that’s a total of three schools so far. I can’t remember attending a third grade? 🤔 Fourth grade was a different school and then I did fifth and sixth grade at the same school. Junior high was seventh and eighth grade, a total of five schools. Five seems like a good number, cut each of them a check for five million, there goes another $25 mil, down to 15 million, we’re almost there!
I’ll split that in half again, call it 7.5 million in my pocket and the other 7.5 million I’m going to ask you to match me and let’s purchase an arena. A fully functional arena that can host all kinds of different events; concerts, sports, super cross, that type of arena. I think fifteen million is more than enough to purchase an already functioning concert hall and have plenty left for overhead. I think your real question was, “what would you do with seven and a half million dollars?” Good question, that’s a lot.
I’d live it up somewhere, D! I’d roll that seven and a half over to a brokerage outfit in terms of an immediate annuity. I’d negotiate my own terms and allow them to do as they wish with my capital, in return, they cut me a monthly check in the amount of $7,500 just to keep everything in that seven and half spirit. Yeah, I think I can survive on that! If nothing else, it should at least cover the employees running our concert venue the opening weekend. We need to make the first event memorable, something that’ll really cause commotion and stir up the headlines—mix up the talent. I say two headliners, Yelawolf and Justin Bieber. Whoever says they don’t like this song can’t be trusted. 😉
Now we need a couple of DJ’s from the UK, you know what kind of music I’m talking about, right? Drum n Bass. 
Load up 
What do you think, D? How’d I do? Do you still think dreaming big can lead to problems? Did this letter teach you something #new about me like you were looking forward to? If so, what was it? Why don’t you do me a favor and register an account here at #steemit and tell me about it. You know where I’m at, I’m easy to find, I’ll keep an eye out for your response. Say hello to the Mrs. for me and give both of the J’s some knuckles. I love you homes, let’s chat soon!
