Do you need a Powerball date?

I am a certified buzzkill at casinos. While everyone else is riding the high of the slot machine’s hypnotic pull, I am quietly calculating the opportunity cost of those chips compounding in a Roth IRA over thirty years. I am not proud of being Foxwoods’ biggest Party Pooper. My friends have learned to seat me far from the blackjack table.

So when I recently learned about “Powerball Dates,” I expected to hate it. But, surprisingly, I loved it immediately and without reservation.

Here is the concept: when the Powerball—or Mega Millions, or whatever lottery has captured the nation’s collective delusion that week—climbs to some genuinely absurd number, you and your partner buy a ticket. Then you go out. Dinner, a walk, a bottle of wine on the back porch—it doesn’t matter. And you talk, really talk, about what you would do if you actually won.

Would you quit your job immediately, or would you finish the project you’ve been working on for years because you actually love it? Would you stay in this city, or has part of you always wanted to live somewhere entirely different? Would you fund a school? Start a foundation? Buy a ridiculous boat and learn to sail? Would you call three people and change their lives before the week was out—and who would those three people be?

This is where it gets interesting. Because the dream, it turns out, is data.

Couples fight about money more than almost anything else, and a significant reason for that is that they are often not actually fighting about money—they are fighting about what money represents: security? freedom? status? control?

The Powerball Date creates a pressure-free container to surface all of that. Nobody is proposing anything. Nobody is asking you to sacrifice anything. The ticket in your pocket is almost certainly worth nothing, and everyone knows it. That is precisely the point. It gives you permission to want things aloud without the weight of feasibility bearing down on the conversation.

And what people want—unconstrained, in the hypothetical—tells you an enormous amount about what actually matters to them. The best part is that the conversation doesn’t have to stay hypothetical. Dreams almost always contain a seed of something real and actionable. Maybe you can’t retire to the Amalfi Coast next year, but maybe there’s a sabbatical, a trip, a pivot worth taking seriously. Maybe you can’t endow a scholarship fund tomorrow, but you could start a donor-advised fund and give strategically in a way that aligns with your values right now. The lottery scenario is the opening bid. What you do with the conversation afterward is where the real wealth is.

Two dollars. One completely implausible ticket. One night of dreaming out loud with someone you love. Even I can get behind those odds.

Ms. Money is written by Marisa Rothstein, JD, CFP(t), AEP, and Lead Financial Advisor at Siena Private Wealth, A Member of Advisory Services Network, LLC.

Nothing contained in this article should be construed as investment, legal or tax advice. Consult your tax or legal advisor regarding your situation. To learn more about Siena Private Wealth, visit: www.sienaprivate.com. All information contained herein is derived from sources deemed to be reliable but cannot be guaranteed. All views/opinions expressed in this newsletter are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views/opinions held by Advisory Services Network, LLC.