I’m sure a lot of us daydream about winning the lottery and hitting the big jackpot worth tens or even hundreds of millions. It’s almost absurdly easy to think of what you could do with that kind of scratch. You could make huge financial mistakes and it probably wouldn’t hurt you all that much. How about if you had a windfall of only $5000 dollars? Now things get interesting. Blow it and it could spell disaster. Use it well and you could be setting yourself up for rewards in the future. CNN Money has a great slideshow on what to do with $5000 dollars.

At this point in my life, if I had five grand to spend, I’d reduce my credit card debt. My wife and I just started new jobs this year and aren’t eligible for any 401k plans yet but we’re already maxing out our Roth IRAs. We don’t own a home, so home improvements are out of the picture. Now some of you may be questioning why I would be maxing out our IRAs when we still carry a credit card balance. I wanted to start a habit of saving and wanted to learn more about investing. The interest we’re accruing for carrying a balance a few extra months is worth the reinforcement of a habit and getting a jump start for retirement.

How would you spend $5000? Now all I need is the article on how to get $5000.