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Good morning. This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Today's tip is that if you get an unexpected stretch of free time, be intentional about how you spend it.

That way, you will enjoy your time windfall a lot more.

So on this podcast, I recently shared recommendations about what to do with a small windfall of money.

The key is to use the money intentionally, so the extra cash doesn't get folded into your usual

budget and forgotten. The same is true with a windfall of time. If you have an hour next week because a meeting is canceled, you could go see an exhibit

at an art gallery near your office, or grab coffee with a work friend, or do some long-term

strategic planning.

With an afternoon, unexpectedly free on a weekend, you could take your kids to an amusement park,

or get lost in a novel, or take out your watercolors and paint.

When we don't think about how to use unexpected free time, it's easy to just unload the dishwasher,

or process email, or putter around the house. And there's nothing wrong with

those things, but there's nothing particularly special or memorable about them either. Much better to

make a conscious choice and spend the time on something that matters to you. Whenfalls of time were on my mind when I read a

recent New York Times article about money windfalls. Financial advisor Ariana Alicia Bano was quoted as

suggesting you create a windfall plan every year for how you might allocate any larger windfalls

of money.

It's kind of a nice problem to have.

But what percent would go to debt or savings or spending and so forth?

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