A Good $6 Investment

Different people define investments in different ways. To me, an investment is one of three things.

1. Something that I'll be able to use multiple times so that I get my money's worth out of it.
2. Something that pays dividends.
3. Something that increases in value.

I bought a couple of Santa hats for us this year. I'm not sure they'll ever increase in value, but we've already used them multiple times since I bought them last Thursday and they've paid a remarkable dividend.

We were on our way to Oklahoma City on Christmas Eve. There is a road that runs between Route 82 and Interstate 35. No speed limit sign that we could see. But we now know that the speed limit is 55. We found out because we were doing 65 - 10 miles over the limit. From what I understand, a speeding ticket generally costs $25 for each mile over the speed limit - so in our case that would have been $250.

"Good morning sir. Do you know how fast you were going?"

"Good morning. About 65 I think."

"Did you know the speed limit is 55?"

"No, I had no idea."

"I'll need your license and insurance card. When was the last time you had a ticket?"

"I've never had one."

Thank goodness he didn't say "Well, that's about to change!" He said, "I'm going to run your license through the computer and if everything checks out, I'll give you a warning."

A warning! No ticket! No fine! It could have been because of Mark's stellar driving record. But I prefer to think that it was because we were wearing Santa hats. Really, who could give a ticket to an old git in a Santa hat? That's like a 4000% return on that $6. I'll be looking for bunny ears in a few months...