If You Won the Lottery...

[ZipperJJ]

I know we've done a lot of these before but here's my take on it...

If you won the lottery, regardless of the amount, what would be the order of importance for getting things taken care of?

For example, mine would be:
1. College education for any of the children in my family, or any of the adults who wish to go ("Teach a man to fish...")
2. Providing everyone in my family with a good home (physically. Emotionally, they're on their own) This includes my own home.
3. Providing everyone in my family with good transportation (not fancy cars but new cars)
4. Donating to charities I care about
5. Investing money so that I am able to support myself and people I care about in the future.

If you had a bunch of extra money all of a sudden what would be your order of priorities?

[MovieMogul]

1. Pay off the house.
2. Comfortable nest egg for future (retirement/travel)
3. Set aside amount for family
4. Give the rest away

[StinkyBurrito]

1. Hire a Good attorney and a Good financial advisor/accountant.
2. Work the rest out later.

[D_Odds]

In order

1) Take the cash and vacate the country to someplace warm.
2) Hire heavily armed guards at my new tropical villa.
3) Call my family and gloat.

[Antinor01]

1. Paying off my old debts, I'm working on it but a lotto win would wipe it out.
2. Buy a home.
3. Take care of my Mom.
4. Pay for my siblings and my SO's sister to go to the college of their choice.
5. Quit my job

Those are the basics, in general order of how they would happen depending on the amount I won.

[lokij]

I only play the lottery if it's above 100 million. Sooo

1. Call a good lawyer
2. Book a cruise, a longish one to someplace exotic, for about 30 people.
3. Invite all immediate family and close friends to cruise with me and have fun while it all sinks in. If they have any worries or reservations about being able to leave on such short notice I would pay to make it worth their while. I figure the news media, charities and basket cases can't bother me when I'm floating in the middle of the Pacific.
5. Make sure my mom, sister and in-laws are taken care of with trusts, annuities etc.
6. Buy a house
7. Learn things and travel.
8. Give to worthy causes in interesting ways.

[rhythmonly]

1) Get my son back.
2) Get my health back.
3) Get my life back....again.

I'd also buy a computer, so that I could post from home.

[Antigen]

1. Buy a couple of homes in different places for myself, and one for my Mom to retire in. Nothing fancy, no huge mansions, just nice comfy homes with big yards.
2. Take Mom on a tour of Europe, and then leave her in Fiji for a while.
3. Take my boyfriend on a much sexier tour of Europe. And anywhere else we feel like.
4. Med school. Why not.
5. Everything left after that is to keep my family living comfortably. I won't give them everything so they can retire, but enough to be sure they never have to worry about school costs or medical costs.

[DeVena]

1. Pay off Visa.
2. Pay off house, build new house, move in new house.
3. Cancel insurance on old house, call fire department, ask if they'd like some practice then burn that sucker to the ground.


Everything else is negotiable.

[Count Blucher]

1) Set up a method to recieve funds via a bank, law firm, or brokerage house via direct deposit.

1) Pay off all our bills.

2) Fix/remodel our house, possibly to become a rental property.

3) Set up two trust funds for both my kids. One that they get control of the money in it when they turn 25, one that they can never touch the assets of, but only derive monthly income from.

4) Find a bigger house in a more rural area with better schools as a primary residence.

[silenus]

We only play when it gets huge, so I have a list for the mega-millions:

Pay off everything (this amounts to pocket change out of the millions)
Set up a bullet-proof retirement fund that will generate, through interest and paying down the principle, $3 million post-tax a year for the next 35 years.
Distribute $10 million or so among friends and family
Set up trust fund for nieces and nephews and grandnieces and nephews
Buy condos in: San Diego (overlooking Petco Park), Las Vegas (on the Strip), Seattle (duplicating Fraser's view as much as possible), and look into a farm in Ireland.
Secretly meet with the Chicago Reader and return the SDMB to Free.
Start a new business endowment fund for my hometown, because it desperately needs a BBQ place and someone who does delivery Chinese.

[Ghanima]

1. Pay off all debts for me and my fiance (that won't take much).
2. Go ahead and just get the #$!@! $1200 cake for my wedding.
3. Buy a house.
4. Create a college trust fund for my future kids (or my brother's kids).
5. Travel for an extremely long period of time, but not (getting morbid here) until after my dog passes on, because I couldn't leave her for that long.
6. Set aside a chunk of money for my mom's care when she gets sick, which she inevitably will since she won't stop smoking and both her parents died of cancer, dammit.

[Shagnasty]

A member of my family did will the lottery and it is a fucking nightmare. May his now 63 year old, ho useless, jobless, 300 pound, divorced, now health care insurance-less soul die quickly in mercy,

I very rarely play but, id I won:

1) I wouldn't tell a soul except may for my wife's parents. My mother is good-hearted but prone to blab which is unforgivable for these things.
2) Pay off the house. That is the only real debt.
3) Set up college funds and very carefully shielded trusts for both young kids.
4) Put money into retirement accounts.

All I would leave touchable is money for good vacations and entertainment. There is going to be some versions of this that really will happen to me and that is the real-life plan I have worked out.

[HelloKitty]

Really scratching my head about the "I only play if it's over 100 million" comments...??? 80 million isn't enough? How about 99 million...?? :dubious:

Well, I play whether it's 15 mil or 200 mil...still pretty much have the same list:

* Hire lawyer (s)
* Quit job without calling in to tell anyone (screw 'em!!)
* Tell select few family/friends I trust
* Have a huge celebration
* Sell house, buy a luxury RV and travel to wherever, whenever

[Ruffian]

1) Call our financial planner IMMEDIATELY. Tell them and meet with them before family or anyone else other than spouse. Per his recommendations, put a set amount in an interest-gathering account and live off of the interest.
2) Get a good lawyer to protect assets.
3) Hide. I would NOT want this public.
4) Commence fun: create security accounts for all family members, esp. parents, to ensure they are always taken care of medically and so on. Hire a home health nurse for dad *immediately* (he has Parkinson's).
5) Find a good marital counselor. This may be a good stress, but it's a big stress on the marriage. Want to make sure we don't eat each other.
6) Create college funds.
7) Buy a few more homes.
8) Go back to Romania and build an orphanage (or ten).
9) Buy large horse property and under mentorship from those who know how it's done, create a program pairing underprivileged youth with animals needing rehabilitation.

Coolest part--
10) Take my classes on a field trip to Hawaii. Heck, we've studied volcanoes, erosion, deposition, wave formation, beaches...ideal place to learn, ya?

[groman]

1) Pay off debts
2) Take care of my mom
3) Protect the money
4) Go on vacation
...
5) Decide on step #5 while on vacation

I really need a vacation.

Gah screw that.

1) Go on vacation
...
2) ...

[Shagnasty]

Really scratching my head about the "I only play if it's over 100 million" comments...??? 80 million isn't enough? How about 99 million...?? :dubious:

Well, I play whether it's 15 mil or 200 mil...still pretty much have the same list:

One danger is that you really have to divide the jackpot by about 4 or so to account for taxes and the penalty for taking the lump sum (usually 1/2 of the prize). There is also the risk of multiple winners.

A $10 million prize would suddenly become about $2.5 million or so. That is a dangerous amount because you are a lottery winner and yet you are not quite rich. The extra money is fine as long as you can keep friends and family at bay and just use it as supplemental funds. However, things get more expensive when you get more money. Your taxes will tend to go up in general and maintenance costs will be higher if you decide to get a bigger house. Your kids can't get financial aid for school anymore. You also have to save much more for retirement to maintain the lifestyle and that amount may not be enough to retire early on. The list goes on and on.

For the cash, you get to hear people make personal judgments about your finances for the rest of your life. In the end, you end up with some extra money and lots of extra drawbacks. It works out fine for some but many others are convinced they are actually rich and live like it until everything crashes and burns.

[olivesmarch4th]

1. Pay off student loans
2. Set aside money for rest of college
3. Invest as much as possible for retirement, including open up a Roth IRA
4. Future kids' education funds
5. Though they are not deserving in the least:
a. buy my loser aunt/uncle shelter for their respective families, pay to house them and take care of their children for as long as possible;
AND
b. hire someone to take care of my great-grandparents 24/7
SO THAT
c. my grandparents, who are fucking SAINTS, no longer have to take care of 10 people who are not their responsibility on a single income out of what they feel is moral obligation because their kids are too damn lazy to do it themselves. I would also pay for the best possible health care for my grandmother's fibromyalgia (or MS if it turns out to be MS) and hire them a maid. They would live like king and queen for the rest of their natural lives--I'd buy them a new house wherever the hell they wanted as far away from mooching relatives as possible.

And it would be money well spent. I wouldn't regret a dime.

[fishbicycle]

1. Hire a financial advisor and a lawyer, for investment and taxes, etc.
2. Pay off debts.
3. Buy house and furnish it.
4. Establish a retirement fund.
5. Provide for my in-laws in their old age.
6. Splurge a little bit, then be sensible. Don't want to squander it. We'd like to see England, that's where our ancestors are from.

I have relatives who won the lottery back in the '70s. They blew it, and didn't have a thing to show for it but some stuff they bought, after only a few years.

[Joni Mitchell]

...the government gave 'em three thousand dollars, you shoulda seen it fly away...

[/Joni Mitchell]

[GuanoLad]

Quit my job.

Ummmm...

Do stuff.

[Yag Rannavach]

1. Put it in a lockbox.
2. Never touch it.

[Scuba_Ben]

In addition to the usual suggestions of spending $5M on various splurges...

Donate big bucks to selected political campaigns, and bring back the pillory for petty crimes.

Then enjoy the access that comes with donating big bucks to political campaigns. And bribe supermodels to attend big-name functions with me.

[silenus]

WOOO-HOO!!!!! I WON!!!!!



$2. I matched the Mega-number.

[OtakuLoki]

Like many dopers here, I'd begin by retaining financial planning help and legal help.

(This is predicated on being the sole winner of the current MegaMillions jackpot)

Then I'd break the money into two portions. About 10% would go to me directly to use for me and the sort of familial obligations other posters have mentioned. This money would be used to get me a house, a car, and out of this apartment. I'd set up college trusts for all the kids in my immediate family.

The other 90% would be put into a charitable foundation, which I would use to set up, first a little joke scholarship I'd dreamed up a few years ago: The Tremain Lysenko Foundation for the Retardation of Western Studies. (The scholarships would be real, and full boat, but only people who get that the title is a bit of a backhanded compliment to the recipient would be likely to get the scholarships.) Then just spend some of the foundation's money each year on things that I think are good and worthwhile, like maybe Ruffian's Romanian orphanages.

And definitely hide. I don't want fame.

[Adoptamom_II]

My wish list has changed over the years. Here's the most recent and not in any particular order:


Keep the news between Mr. AdoptaMom and myself (I don't even think we'd tell the kids - at least initially)
Pay off debts.
Set up future retirement financial security.
Do a few projects around the house we just bought.
Set up secret college funds for AdoptaKids and the grandbabies but not tell them until they actually begin choosing the colleges they'd like to apply to.
Set up a financial vehicle that would allow one parent of each of our grandchildren to be a stay at home parent if they chose to. Enough to live reasonably, but not irresponsibly.
Endow the non profit where I work with enough $ to bring every employees salary up to industry standards for the next 3 years, which should give them enough time to figure out how to maintain that level from then on.
Do something special for foster parents in our area. For instance, an all expenses paid weekend away once every six months or so.
New, brand name tennis shoes for every child in foster care in our area (you wouldn't believe how important that is to some of the kids) plus an outfit or two.
Pay off the mortgages of our siblings - without telling them who did it of course.
Buy one of every scent of candle White Barn and Yankee Candle makes.

[lokij]

Really scratching my head about the "I only play if it's over 100 million" comments...??? 80 million isn't enough? How about 99 million...?? :dubious:



It's because I have no interest in playing the lottery every week... but every now and again is cool. It's a cheap way to buy into a bit of a dream. Limiting it to the really large amounts is cool because I'm not spending tons of money playing regularly and I know when I dream and think about it that it's going to be just ludicrous amounts of money. I mean.. in general I think the lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math... which is fine, I suck at math. But, every now and then I look at the billboard and notice it's at 157 million and stop in for my random $5 ticket and don't feel that bad about wasting the money. That's why.

[Cyberhwk]

Pay of debt. (Car and Student Loans)
Buy house both here and on the coast (maybe a condo in Vegas too)
Retire at 24.
Play a SHIATLOAD of poker! :cool:

I'd probably help my retired grandparents out too if they need help, but honestly I wouldn't give away that much money.

[Tapioca Dextrin]

Let's see, assuming I've won an insane amount and I've got the sense to hire a dollar monkey to stop me being too crazy

$1,000,000 each to my immediate family.

Pay off all debts. That's chump change, though.

Go to work one last time. I don't know how that would go down. Maybe I'd smirk for a whole day, maybe I'd laugh in everyone's face, maybe I'd quietly say goodbye to everyone, but it would be a very memorable day regardless.

Lock 90%+ of money away for year. Sounds boring, but the initial rush to spend spend spend could result in a lot of long term grief.

Make the dollar monkey give me $50,000 a month for that first year. Enough to get by on ;)

Travel, try new stuff, have fun etc. for a year. Decide what to do with rest of money.

[LifeOnWry]

1. Pay off debts (Less than $100K at this point, including mortgage, car and credit cards.)
2. College for my daughter
3. Take roughly 1/3 of winnings (or 10 million bucks, whichever is smaller :D) and divide among sister, brothers, and their kids
4. Buy the Bristol Renaissance Faire

[Anastasaeon]

1. WOOHOO! Dance madly.
2. Pay off hospital bills.
3. Secure FIL's house
4. Secure Grandma-in-law's house
5. Buy my family a vacation home in Vancouver so they could visit us while remaining Canadian
6. Buy that house I've been drooling over for the last six months - it's still up for sale!
7. Put in my two weeks notice at work - but donating a hefty amount to the owner to continue building/improving her stores
8. Go straight for my BA in Interior Design, and my husband can get back to school, too, pursuing something he's always wanted to do or try but was afraid to "waste" the money on
9. Put the rest away and let it grow. Despite the awesome house I want, we otherwise live pretty simply, and money won't change that. I don't care for expensive things. Well, I mean, I might switch to name brand toilet paper. Hmm.
10. Switch to name brand toilet paper.
11. Live off the interest, and travel more often.

[mamboman]

1. Tell NO-ONE (Australian Lotteries have a privacy provision)
2. Pay off Mortgage and buy a new Volvo
3. Put the rest of the money in a term deposit for three months
4. Buy nothing else more expensive than a pizza the next three months.
5. Figure out a plan which provides for the future of my children while still giving them some incentive to work for a living
6. After three months, quit my job in a spectacular fashion
7. Big world holiday
8. Blow the rest of the money on my mad scheme to raise James Brown from the dead
9. Possibly die desititute in the gutter.

[Rigamarole]

Hookers and coke in plentiful quantities, of course.

Oh, and buy a Cadillac with dubs.

[Eleusis]

3. Providing everyone in my family with good transportation (not fancy cars but new cars)
That's the one thing I absolutely wouldn't do.

I'd rather get them fancy but not new cars.

Don't you know the damn things depreciate at least 10% the second you drive them off the lot?

A 1 year old Lexus for all two (mom and dad).


That said, I don't care if I won $200 million or $2 million.

It all goes into mutual funds, hopefully split between two or three different brokers, and I remain poor until the interest comes in.

I would do my absolute best to never touch the principle.

[UntouchedTakeaway]

1. Buy the house I'm renting - I love it.
2. Trust fund for my niece.
3. Trust fund for my brother.
4. Set up a charitable trust in my late mother's name for donations to...whatever.
5. Call up the local PBS station & offer to meet their pledge goal IF THEY JUST STOP THOSE FREAKING BEGGING SESSIONS! :p
6. Just continue to live my life the same way I live it now - only with more breathing room


VCNJ~

[Nava]

1. A flat in Parchelona (Parchelona = Barcelona + towns adjacent to it and which can be reached by subway).
2. Sell my car. Yes, I know, it sounds like a dumb thing to say. But if I was based in Parchelona it would make sense to use the bus/subway/taxis/rent as needed. Being based in a small town, it doesn't.
3. A desktop from PCBox (you buy the parts and stick them together, asking for help if you can't figure something out).
4. And other decoration from IKEA, Natura, antiquaries and MediaMarkt. Eclectic, they call it ;)
5. I'd try to get into a groove of "one project a year". A reasonably done project is 9 months. A badly-done one can be years. A hurried one is a nightmare for eternity. At least one of the other 3 months would be dedicated to travel (part of it, "back home").

The family doesn't have anybody of college age; the only one who's not college educated and who may at some point want to be has parents who should be able to pay for it. There would be a chunk going to NPOs but it's not something to happen only in case of lottery, it's part of my life already.

[An Arky]

Hire honest financial and legal help. I don't want to be screwed or sued.

Provide for my family, a couple of friends, and charities.

Make sure my family and I stay healthy, physically and mentally.

Spend several million dollars equipping, recording, promoting and touring my band.

Live well off the remaining, invested securely. I don't care for lifestyles of the rich and famous; I'd rather spend it on having fun and learning and seeing and doing things that interest me and my family.

[asterion]

Let's start off by assuming a $100,000 win (after taxes. Hey, right now $100,000 after taxes is the equivalent of 5 years pay for me.) The breakdown would be roughly as follows:

1. $10,000 into a savings account (6 months pay)
2. Max amount in my IRA for the year (not sure what it would actually be, but assume the full $4,000.)
3. $46,000 (or $50,000 less total allowed IRA contribution) into an index fund tracking the S&P 500. Maybe I'd diversify it out a bit and buy a bond fund as well. But at my age I want to be stock-heavy.
4. $30,000 for that new car I want.
5. The last $10,000 pays off the debt I have (not much) and the rest is spending money.

Now, if we assume a much higher number, it's more or less the same. If we're talking millions, getting a lawyer and a financial advisor become a priority, but still, a fair amount would go into liquid savings, most would go into the market, I'd clear the debt I already owe (and if we're literally talking like $100 million, probably ask my parents if they want their debt cleared as well), and I could have fun with the rest. But I don't understand $100 million the way I do $100,000. I don't think I'd wind up being one of those stories you often hear about, but eventually money by itself becomes just about meaningless.

[ZipperJJ]

For those of you getting a financial planner ASAP...

Would a financial planner be more or less apt to be honest and trustworthy when (s)he is faced with a new millionaire client? Do they have anything to gain by screwing you?

For some reason I imagine the people who answered "get a financial planner right away" as their first priority calling up the first listing under "Financial Planners" in the phone book at 11:01 PM on a Wednesday night asking for whoever is available to please come help them claim their prize :)

[silenus]

My daydream version of that scenario is informing my planners/accountants that I would be stashing $10 million overseas in an account they could not access, for the express purpose of giving me revenge money in case any of them did something stupid, like embezzle. That would be enough money to enable me to have them tracked down and whacked, wherever they tried to hide. Easier to do that than to take their children hostage. :D

[AtomicDog]

1. Pay off debts

2. Book a seat on Soyuz to the International Space Station

[Scuba_Ben]

2. Book a seat on Soyuz to the International Space StationI like this idea. Save me the window seat!

[Racer1]

1. Weather machine research.

2. Despotism.

[drachillix]

Well first off, take the 26 payments option.... Assuming 100mil IIRC first payment is like 2.6 million. That will cover every car, truck, house, credit card, old debt, and set up some pretty hefty trusts for the kids, still leaving a million. Go drop $100K at a jewelry store for my wife. Expand business into nice location. Living on $20K/mo should be doable.

Year 2 2.7-2.8 million.

Debts are covered, bank is feeling pretty padded, drop another
$100K on each of the kids trust funds, pay off family residences, take about 100 various family members on a nice hawaiian cruise.

Shift business into predatory pricing mode. Roll back prices to like -3% profit, advertise like there is no tomorrow, and watch the competition crumble. So I lose a couple hundred grand, no biggie, we are now the only game in town.

Year 3 shift business to +1% profit. Should work well since we will have a great location and a rep for great prices. Volume should net me at least +$100K or so. Start sponsoring community events making me into a pillar of the community as well as a successful business man.

Year 5 semi retire, occasionally buzzing in to make sure the biz keeps running.

Year 10 After watching the collapse of Dell and Gateway to my excellent company I will retire, sell my stock and buy an island somewhere. Invite managers and star employees to spend vacations there as long as they run things my way. Treated like royalty, flown in by my private jet, and totally spoiled rotten. The competition for employee of the month will be like the olympics of computer repair.

[Zsofia]

1. Get a nasty, nasty lawyer and financial advisor
2. Take the phone off the hook
3. Pay off the house
4. Build a garage
5. Hell, buy the neighbor's house and kick the renters out
6. Kitchen and bath remodels
7. World travel
8. Go back to work. I can't imagine winning the lottery and quitting and sitting around eating bonbons all day.
9. Set that Sri Lankan orphan I sponsor up for life. They're looking for money to get the kids bicycles and just remodeled a bathroom; boy are they gonna be shocked at the Christmas they get after I win the lottery! Less than a dollar a day my ass - Senani won't have to wear the 1.50 underwear anymore.

[El Perro Fumando]

Since I didn't win last night, here's my "Continue dreaming" list

1. Dance of joy!
2. Call in sick to work.
3. Pay off husband's student loans.
4. Set aside enough to pay off my scholarships with service obligations if I choose to quit my current job.
5. Hire a lawyer.
6. Go house shopping. I want a single-family home on a decent plot of land. I don't want to have to tell people to turn down their bass unless they live with me.
7. Paint/furnish/decorate new house completely before moving out of current townhouse.
8. Take a nice vacation.
9. Take some time to send hubby and I back to school full-time.
10. Invest the rest to be a supplemental income (off the interest) when we get out of school.

[Lady of the Lake]

I’d open a wine bar here in Apple Valley, MN. We’d have the main room set up for socializing, but also smaller movie rooms. There would be the usual was-a-blockbuster stuff, but also show a lot in the zombie, pirate, anime realm…probably I’d be the only one in those rooms, but I’d have fun!

We’d also have Karaoke in the back, which would have a camera there to capture my patrons drunken singing styles! We’d then have that playing in the entry way to entice customers (or scare them away, depending on how you look at it.)

There must be other people besides me who want to go out with their friends to places that aren’t dance clubs or smoky sports bars.

If I had anything left over after my wine bar went belly up, I’d buy my parents a small, run down vineyard near California and tell them to go fix it up and retire already (far away from me tee hee!)

[dwc1970]

Pay off all my own debts.
Help everyone else in the family pay off their own debts.
Move into a nicer home.
Get all the things I have really wanted but have not been able to afford.
Travel to the places I have always wanted to visit.
Sock away the rest for savings. Live off the interest.

[nashiitashii]

1. Set aside money for graduate degrees (probably two masters' degrees)
2. Pay off parents' mortgages (they're divorced, so there's two)
3. Put aside enough money for a simple but elegant wedding
4. Buy/construct a house that fits our needs as a couple (this would mean a workshop for his art and a room for my crafts and a library/study area in addition to a couple of bedrooms and a couple of bathrooms)
5. Nest egg/retirement fund (Neither of us have savings that isn't going to go back out into rent/furniture/tuition/basic needs in a few months.)

[Clothahump]

1. Establish a good trust to accept the money.
2. Pay off all debt.
3. Fix up the house
4. Travel
5. Most important.....be able to sleep at night without worrying about how to pay the rent tomorrow.

[butler1850]

1. Pay off all personal debt, including mortgage.
2. Buy a nice piece of waterfront property, and build a slightly larger home, with the features I really want. (granite countertops, wireless network, industrial kitchen appliances, hot tub, heated inground pool [indoor-outdoor], kickass home entertainment room.)
3. Buy small "flying boat."
4. Learn to fly said "flying boat"
5. Begin year long flying trip to fish & hunt the western hemisphere.
6. Begin 2nd year with Asia/Africa/Europe version of 1st year trip.
7. Open a small book store somewhere, with limited hours (to allow hunting/fishing).


Somewhere in there I'd take care of the mortages on my siblings (and in-laws) homes, and set the nieces/nephews & Butlerette up for college.

[gigi]

Buy a two-bedroom, two-bath house with enough land around to not have neighbors up-close.

Give some to my close friends who have four kids in college.

Keep a nest egg to repair the house.

Quit my current job and take the time to find something meaningful and maybe even enjoyable to fill my time.

Give the rest to non-profits I believe in.

[gigi]

WOOO-HOO!!!!! I WON!!!!!



$2. I matched the Mega-number.
Don't leave us hanging! What did you do with it?

[Shodan]

For those of you getting a financial planner ASAP...

Would a financial planner be more or less apt to be honest and trustworthy when (s)he is faced with a new millionaire client? Do they have anything to gain by screwing you?
Already got one, and he's pretty good.

That having been said, I read in the paper this morning that somebody won half of the $390M jackpot, and it was $80M, so let's pretend it's that much. My church gets $350K and pays off the mortgage. They also get another $4M so we can relocate. One million to my mother-in-law's church in her honor. One million to my brother-in-law's church, in honor of the 25th anniversary of his ordination. My folks' church, another million. Another $650K to various charities - the Center for the Study of the American Experiment, the local and national Republican parties, various others. Pay off the house. Trust funds for the kidlets. One hell of a weekend for everyone in my family - fly them all in, set them up in a hotel, take them all shopping on Saturday, fancy catered dinner Saturday night, favors (like watches and/or jewelry) for everyone. I got fifteen nieces and nephews. $25K apiece. Invest the remainder, and live off the interest. At least one million in something as safe from hyper-inflation as I can find. I wouldn't quit my job, but I suspect my attitude towards it would change.Too bad I don't play the lottery.

Regards,
Shodan

[silenus]

Don't leave us hanging! What did you do with it?

Newspaper and a donut. Last of the Big Spenders, I am! :D

[elfkin477]

1. get a lawyer and set up a trust.
2. pay off my student loans, which are my only debt.
3. remodel my folks' home and then buy houses on ajoining properties for little bro and I.
4. have fun furnishing said homes
5. set up scholarships for kids who attend the high school I did, and donate to fund the school lit magazine.
6. donate a fair amount to NH Reads
7. I'm not much of a traveler, but my best friend and I - and maybe a few others - would be able to explore all the interesting places in Weird America over the summer.
8. if I won a great deal, I might start a small publishing company.

[D_Odds]

With $80,000,000 I could see myself here (http://www.caribbeanislandbrokers.com/Castaways-Reef-Project-on-Calabash-Caye/) or here (http://www.tropical-islands.com/Grenada.htm). My family could stay here (http://www.friedmanarchives.com/British%20Columbia/pages/Shack%20-%20vertical%208x10%20300%20dpi.htm). I would put this man (http://notmydesk.com/features/henchmen/luca.html) in charge of handling hand-out requests.

[Canadiangirl]

In order:

Don't tell anyone except hubby.
Quit job
Set up minimum income fund for stepson which won't kick in until 30.
Sell house.
Move to the west or east coast, somewhere near an ocean and whales into a house very similar to house in movie "Man without a face" Mel Gibson.
Travel.

[gigi]

Newspaper and a donut. Last of the Big Spenders, I am! :DSo you blew it all in one place? :eek: