CHAPTER 12 - “I want to live…like an animal, careless & free…”
“I want to live…like an animal, careless & free…” was the song which came to my mind. I blasted that on my car stereo whilst driving to the bank. I collected the temporary debit card, which was black in colour after several security checks and signatures.
Time to head out, got some breakfast from MacDonald’s and ate in my car. Now, I was about to do something for the first time in my life and I wanted to remember every moment of that day, for the rest of my life, so I decided to go big. I picked the BlueWater Shopping Centre nearby London. My SatNav tells me it takes about an hour to get there. For those who don’t know, BlueWater is one of the biggest shopping centres in Europe with over 300 stores. They have everything from Apple to Amrani to Gap and PCWorld.
That was the first time for me at BlueWater, I wanted to make the first ever purchase quite memorable, something that I will keep for days to come. I went straight to a popular Jewellery shop and bought a 6,000 pound Rolex watch. That is my entire savings of working for almost 10 years!! I know it is too much but I wanted it to be crazy, so I can remember it my entire life. The shopkeeper did have doubts of showing me expensive watches, but I put a straight face and told him I was looking for something special. He wanted to do few financial checks before selling it to me. I gave him the “black” card, he went inside and came back in few minutes time and began to address me as “Sir” and offered me a drink. Hmm, is it just money that deserves respect, and not all the hard work people put in, working day in and out, supporting their family and kids!! Strange would we live in!!
I got a guarantee card, purchase proof, they almost made it like I bought a house or something! Apparently, I could sell the watch back and still get a lot of money as like gold, it retains its value very well. Now, this was not even my favourite, the thing I wanted the most was be at the Apple Store.
I always used to ogle at the beautifully finished expensive Apple products but not today. Today I need a shopping basket!! The first thing I always wanted but never could justify the purchase as I mostly use PCs, was a Macbook. With soo many versions out there, it was difficult to choose. I wanted something which was thin and light so went for the Macbook Air, it costed about 1000 pounds. My iPad was almost 2 years old, so I picked up a new iPad. I never purchased an iPhone without a contract and my last phone was almost a year old. So I got the new one. I wanted to buy a few things from my parents as well, but I was going to come back before I visit India. Today was all about me!
After that I headed for branded stores, Armani Exchange, Diesel, Lacoste, etc. Stores which I would never go in otherwise! Before it sounded ridiculous to pay about 80 pounds for a T-Shirt, now I wanted to buy and see how it feels.
My final stop was HMV. I bought a few new DVDs and few more old ones which I always wanted. Famished with aching legs, I decided to eat. I went to a restaurant called ASK Italian and their pasta was amazing.
It was noon and I wanted to head out and look for new cars. Looking at the bill from WhiteWater shopping centre, it raked up to 13,000 pounds! Boy!! I never would have spent soo much money in a single afternoon had it not being for the windfall!
I had a few models of cars in mind, so I found the Mercedes Benz showroom and wanted to check cars. I test drove both the new C class and GLA. Just sitting in those cares felt amazing, that sheer quality and luxury, you cannot find that unless you spend soo much money!
I hopped over to Audi’s next and checked few more models. They all felt amazing, I wanted to do a bit more research before I splash money out on a sparkling new car.
I wanted to check BMW as well, but was too exhausted and went home picking up a burger meal from KFC on my way back.
The next few days until the meeting, I was planning, deciding and organising my finances. I spoke to the lady from the lottery company for a bit more guidance. I met my new account manager at the bank and he gave few more pointers and how to make the best of the money, but the thing I was really looking forward for was the meeting with the finance team.
The day arrived soon and I showed up dressed very smart, wearing my new Rolex watch. It was a location in London so I had to drive for about 2 hours to get there. It was a board meeting room and I had two more advisors and the same lady who came in to hand over my prize.
Next was all boring stuff about ISA’s, fixed deposits, bonds, etc. etc. But mainly, I opted for the no-risk route without getting into investments, shares, etc. I choose to put 18 million pounds on 2 year fixed deposit, this would give me an interest of 35,000 pounds every month. 2 million were put into easy access savings account so it will still generate about 1.9% interest P.A. and then the remaining 1.98 million was put into a quick access account.
So in the end, I will have about 36,000 pounds generated as interest, free for me to spend plus have 4 million at my disposal. I have very happy with that arrangement. Heck, I would have been over the moon with nothing but the 36,000 pounds every month! Compare that to the 2,500 which I used to make every month. I really, really, really feel blessed!!
Now what the committee also did was give me access to their millionaire club. It was an unofficial club, which was formed by all lottery winners and this is where, the next exciting thing of my life was waiting!! Let me reserve that for the next chapter.