Good Morning DINKS. I was recently watching the movie John Q starring Denzel Washington. As I watched this movie about a man who takes desperate measures in order to save his child I started to think about the types of extreme actions that people would take if they desperately needed money to help out a family member. Just in case you haven’t seen the movie John Q it tells the story of a father who takes desperate measures to save his child when the child needs a life saving surgery. John Q races against time to try and save his child’s life; he is willing to do anything and everything possible in order to save his sick child.
If you needed $100,000 in order to help out a family member would you do anything and everything to get the money? Regardless of the reason, whatever it is for medical bills, to pay off debt, to help your family member achieve their dreams, or if you needed $100,000 in order to save someone’s life, what would you do get the money?
What would you do if you needed $100,000 in order to help a family member?
– Steal It. If you had no chance of getting caught and if there was absolutely no possibility of having any consequences for your actions, would you steal the $100,000? More importantly could you steal the money knowing that you didn’t earn it and knowing that it honestly wasn’t yours? Stealing the money may seem like the easiest option because you would get the $100,000 quickly with a minimal effort, but it is definitely not the morally correct choice. Now if there was a chance that you could get caught and go to jail for theft would you still steal the money?
– Earn It. If you needed $100,000 to help out a family member, regardless of the reason, would you get a second or a third job and put your blood sweat and tears into earning the money? Or would you take drastic measures and earn the money with illegal activities in order to earn the money in order to help out your family member in need?
– Borrow It. If your family member desperately needed $100,000 would you borrow it from a bank or from another person in order to get the money for them? Some people don’t like to have debt, but maybe your family member wasn’t approved for a $100,000 loan, would you co-sign or go into debt in order to help them out?
– Save It. Maybe stealing the money isn’t an option for you and maybe you don’t have enough free time everyday to find another job; so maybe over time you would save the money in order to help out a family member. If your family member needed $100,000 but it wasn’t a life or death situation would you make the effort to save your own money and help them out? Would you save the money a little bit at a time while maintaining your current lifestyle and with your current income but cutting down on your monthly expenses in order to help out a family member?
What would you do to get the money?
Photo by Orange County Archives
Kristina Tahnyak
Tahnya is a Certified Financial Planner and former Investment Advisor turned marketing and communications professional She holds a degree from Concordia University, is debt free and currently works in the field of digital marketing.
$100 K is not a lot of money. There is plenty of work out there, if you willing to tolerate different living conditions and some risk.
There is no need to risk your life for $100K by stealing them.
I would like to think that I would earn it, but the truth is that if there were absolutely no consequences I would probably steal it, but only from a corporation, not from another person.