Yesterday our tax refund check arrived (our taxes were particularly complicated this year so we elected to skip e-filing, at our accountant’s suggestion), and lo there was much rejoicing. A quick check of the IRS’ payout schedule for the upcoming stimulus incentive checks tells me that we can expect another chunk of money in about a month.

It’s a lovely thing, to have “free” money coming in, except (of course) that it’s not free and I am not the sort of person to grab it up and go wild. Sometimes I wish I was, but I’m not. Alas. I’m sensible to a fault, probably much to my husband’s dismay. My idea of a splurge is buying new flooring—new flooring which we planned to buy a year ago and have just now gotten around to actually purchasing. Woo!

Anyway, my first thought, of course, was to come here today and write about all of the things a savvy freelancer should be spending this sort of money on right about now. Ways you could take that money and do something you could really feel like a grown-up, using it. And I started compiling the list, and it looked something like this:

• Deposit it into your retirement account.
• Pay down debt.
• Invest in new office equipment.
• Put it into the account you use to prepay your taxes.
• Use it to attend a conference that provides great business opportunities.
• Punch me in the face because this list is hardly new nor rocket science, and you are smart enough to have thought of all of these on your own, already.

Hey, how’d that last one get on the list…?

Anyway, then I thought that Hey, we’re all intelligent humans, and there’s no need to belabor the obvious. What would be much more fun would be thinking about all of the things a freelancer “should” do with a little windfall in a perfect world, where other financial concerns are more or less already handled.

Here’s the list I’ve come up with (so far) for that:

• Hire a housecleaner. If you already have one? Hire a personal chef.
• Hire a personal trainer. Preferably one that will chase you off the computer and force you visit the sunlight once in a while.
• Buy some really good voice recognition software. This will allow you to dictate to the computer while doing other things, like running on the treadmill or chopping veggies for dinner.
• Go get a massage. Every month.
• Take a vacation. A real vacation. A leave-your-work-at-home vacation.

I’m already planning on a couple of items from the first list, but I’m also looking to do at least one thing on the second list.

It’s all about balance, right? That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.