By Eric Joranson
MoneyMix Contributor

You keep checking the Powerball so you can quit your job. Fly to some hot sandy beach where you’re steps from the ocean and can hear the waves crashing. Where you sip those drinks with the little pink umbrellas. Your hardest decision of the day is which to order first, fuzzy navels or frozen margaritas. And then what fruit to go with it, pineapple or strawberries. 

You lean forward in your pool chair, lose your balance, and fall into a pile of papers on someone’s desk. Oh wait that’s your desk. And those are your papers. And you’re not in Acapulco.   

...Yet

A few days at a sunny seaside resort could be paid for and you don’t even know it. All courtesy of your very own tax refund. Seriously. Even the chin-drippin’ pineapple wedge. 

don’t blow it

Just make sure devoting your refund to your next vaca in the sun is the best option.  The last thing you want to do is to blow that stack of cash on a trip and then come back to even larger stack of bills. 

So, take a second, think of different ways that new-found-money can make your life better. In fact, there may be a way to have a little fun, while you’re taking care of business.