Win Prizes

Everyone likes the chance to win prizes. Sometimes, even something that might not normally appeal to you will have a great deal of appeal if you win it in a sweepstakes. For example, when I was about 10 years old, I won first prize in a raffle. The first prize was nothing special – a board game or something like that – but I was so happy that I had won a prize at all that I did nothing but brag about it for the next week or so. Sometimes, winning a contest does that to you.

Of course, the best thing to do is to win cash. When you win prizes that pay, you can use them for anything you want. One time, a good friend of mine won a thousand dollars in a lottery drawing. The good thing about such a small cash prize is that it is not necessarily reported to the IRS. You can do whatever you want to, and not worry about having to pay taxes on it. He blew about a quarter of it on one big party for all of his friends, and saved the rest for a vacation getaway trip. I've got to say, he enjoyed the heck out of the money.

One time, an aunt of mine actually won a trip. The funny thing was that it wasn't a trip to anywhere that she wanted to go. It was a vacation beach getaway and she is about as far from a beach person as you can get. She loves going to the city and hanging out downtown, but she you can not stand getting away from it all. The good thing about that was that she ended up giving me the prize. I was able to go with my girlfriend at the time to Virginia Beach for a long weekend. To say that I was overjoyed would be putting it mildly. It was one of the most pleasant surprises of the year.

The only drawback when you win prizes is that sometimes it can go to your head. I know a lot of people who assume that, once they win prizes that are substantial such as a few thousand bucks, their luck has changed. Some of them become a little bit impulsive in their behaviors, assuming that they will win more or that things will come out well for them in the end. As long as you keep your level head, however, you don't have to let this happen to you.