If you had a million....

If you had a million dollars and the only condition was that you could not spend it on yourself or your family, what would you spend it on?

For me that would include gifting a university, funding a women’s shelter, setting up a community event and probably treating random strangers to a hot beverage.

What if you had a million minutes to offer? That’s about 8 years of full-time (8hr days) volunteering which is what many folks can accomplish easily – either in a lifetime or after retirement. That’s still leaving time for friends, family and self.

There is formal volunteering (like my new 2 hours a month with the Cherie Blair Foundation) and informal such as dog walking for your neighbor who is ill or helping out with a school field trip.

The point is that we all have riches at our disposal to share with our communities for the causes that matter most to us. I will never have enough money to give it away; I do have time. While time is also a precious commodity, we become wealthier for how we spend it vs. keeping it.