Discussion thread for the "Polls only" thread (Part 1)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
6364

My answer to the lottery polls was probably unsurprising. I’m young enough (barely) that I could arguably be better off taking the annuity, but as others, I’m not sure where the nation (and the world) is heading over that much time, so went with the lump sum.

My father and stepmom are very comfortably well off for their age, so I’d give them “some” as that’s probably all they’d take. My mother is substantially less well off, so she’d get a lot. My brother and sister in law are both medical doctors, so they don’t have much need and my niece and nephew are too young to need much right now, so they’d all get “some” with the understanding that if they need more to just ask.

My M and FiL will also get “some” as again, they’re comfortable, and probably wouldn’t accept any more. And my wife is an only child. And neither of us have any living grandparents.

My extended family will all get “some” but would need legal assistance as most live in Israel. My wife’s extended family will also be getting some, but none of them are in serious need, and the young ones have enough wealth from parents that they’re likely to have few issues getting the education they need (academics permitting), although we’d certainly offer to help.

I have a few close friends who would also get “a lot” - $5-10 million, enough for them to retire although I might make one of them move into a 3 bedroom, 2 bath guest house on my soon to be built new property as a “live in DM/GM” as I said in another thread.

Other than getting a larger house with secure water rights somewhere else in Colorado (I like the state, but not so much Colorado Springs, but want to be close enough to my wife’s family for her sake) - I’d take a lot more trips to go see all the places I’ve wanted to, but between them, I think I’ll largely stay a home-body.

Finally, not having kids of our own, all of my funds would go to my wife if I predeceased her, with an expectation that once she passed, we’d make sizeable endowments to a few worthwhile beneficiaries (the ACLU being the one we contribute to the most currently), probably set up a few scholarships for women in the sciences, and another “some” distribution to family and friends across the board, with all the remaining assets going into a trust for my niece and nephew.

6365

I think I’d give the maximum (approx $13,000 per year, from each my wife and me) to every sibling, spouse of sibling, niece, nephew, and cousin. I’d be happy to help fund higher education to any relative. Everyone is pretty self supporting now, so I wouldn’t feel the need to do more unless something unusual happened.

I’d give each of our kids at least $1,000,000 lump sum now so they could buy a house or start a business, or whatever they wanted (the youngest is 26). If they behaved rationally and used it wisely, they could have more any time.

I’d give away a lot of money. That would be the fun part. And a lot of first class travel would be in my immediate future.

6366

Yes, this here. My new job would be actively seeking out deserving folks who really, really need a break. It wouldn’t take much to turn someone’s life around, and it would be a drop in the bucket to my billionaire self.

mmm

6367

Same here!

6368

Ah, winning the lottery! Always a diverting daydream.

Well, I love my current job, so I wouldn’t quit. I’d make generous gifts to my dad and my two sisters (my mom died a few years ago), and to my best friends. I’d establish trusts for our three sons. We’d probably travel a lot more - plenty of places on my bucket list, including the UK, France, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica, just off the top of my head.

I’d also give a lot to my church and local charities, and to the county, state and national Democratic parties.

And I’d update my will, but as before, my wife would get the bulk of what’s left.

6369

I’ve thought far too much about what I’d do if I won a huge prize, but I’ve got to say that once it got into the billions, it started to beggar my imagination.

First, I’d get the lawyers and financial advisors working on the best way to spread the wealth. There are a whole lot of people in need in my city, and I’d want to make a real difference. I’d earmark at least half for charity.

My kids would get whatever amount they’d like right now. If I had minor grandkids, I’d set up a trust for them. I’d give my brother as much as he would accept, and the same goes for my former stepmothers. If my half-siblings needed money, I’d do the same for them (although I don’t know them all that well, so maybe not an unlimited amount), and I’d set up trusts for my half- sister’s teenaged children. If my cousins or their children contacted me, I’d send some their way, and if my only remaining elderly aunt needed it, I’d provide support. There are four good family friends I’d try to give money to as well, but if history is any indication, they’d decline.

Given my low number of living relatives and their general dispositions, I suspect I wouldn’t be able to give most of it to them. But I bet I’d finally be able to talk my son-in-law into letting me pay off his student loans!

6370

To answer the apology/gratitude question, I picked ‘apology,’ but it’s not even that - I don’t even need people to say they’re sorry. I just wished they’d understand how they hurt me.

My parents have - wittingly or unwittingly - inflicted a great deal of psychological trauma and unhealthiness on my siblings and I through their fundamentalist-snake-oil-Christian ways but to this day seem to think that they inflicted 0% harm, or only have the slightest inkling of what the upbringing did. Some other people have hurt me a lot too but to this day have only the slightest inkling or none at all. It’s like I was an insect trod under their shoe - what they did had immense effect on me, but they hardly even notice the ‘crunch’.

To answer my own lottery question, I’ve had some movie ideas I’d wanted to see on screen. Given that I have no cinema work experience myself, I’d take some of my money - a few hundred million dollars - to a movie studio and ask them to make the film for me, telling them that the entire budget would be paid for out of my own pocket and all they need to do is make the movie and we’d split the profits. But the movies would be highly politically controversial, so they’d need to be willing to take on the backlash that might ensue.

I’d also use some money to open a science-and-math museum here in Austin, because we are a city terribly starved for museums.

6371

I chose “I feel an adequate amount of both.” But it’s not necessarily because “I’m so appreciated,” it’s that I really don’t feel any need to be thanked or apologized to most of the time.

6372

At the risk of nitpicking, if I understand the laws right, if you were to take the lump sum on a $2 billion jackpot, you’d have only something like $600-700 million remaining after taxes. I believe the rule of thumb is 1/3; that the average lottery winner only gets to keep one-third of the publicly listed jackpot sum.

6373

Yep, I understand.

But $5000 or $10,000 can have a profound effect on some folks’ lives.

mmm

6374

I’m in California, so clear skies are common, at least in the summer.

I’m reminded of a business trip I took to Bucharest, Romania one November several years ago. From the time the plane descended through the clouds for landing, until the plane ascended through the clouds on departure two weeks later, I did not see the sun for even an instant. It was so cloudy that whole time.

6375

“Only” is not a word I would apply to one person getting $600-700 million.

6376

I picked that I’m in need of more apologies. I have a real thing with people refusing to take accountability for their actions. My mother never took accountability for her egregiously abusive behavior, none of the men she married did, and my father in law is right there with them. It’s always “I’m sorry you feel that way” bullshit, or in the case of my abusive stepfather, “Mistakes were made.” I’m so sick of it I try to minimize the amount of time I spend with people like this - my father in law is the only one I even talk to but I’m half-relieved he spends most of his time in another country because I always feel like I’m going to explode in his presence.

I want people in my life who are self-aware enough to understand how their actions influence people and who are willing to make changes when they are doing harm. I value actions much more than words. I have immense respect for people who recognize they are doing wrong and course-correct.

6377

If I won the bazillion, I’d take lump sum because I won’t live 30 years. My parents are dead, my brother and sister are doing fine and their kids and my kid are grown and also fine. I can’t see dropping fortunes on their heads, and in fact I think that’s a great way to ruin someone’s life.

I’d just give it all away to charities, keep maybe 10 mil for myself. Get a house with a bigger garage so I can own a couple of cars I fancy (nothing too expensive, maybe a Tesla Y and another fun car) because my current garage is 1-car. I’d say I’d travel more, but I already do leisure travel 6 weeks a year. Biz class seats I guess. My life wouldn’t really change much. I’ve owned gads of stuff and really didn’t like it; when I got rid of it all I felt so much happier.

6378

I’d take the annuity because then I’d know I’ll never have to worry about money again. I’d also give most of it away. But I’d probably buy a nice house and residency in a couple of other countries.

6379

The thing I want out of money beyond the necessities is the ability to live in a pleasant environment and offload labor. So a nice house with a landscaped yard (I wouldn’t think more than 2000 square feet interior, maybe an acre max for the yard. I’ve known people with way too big houses and the problems they can be.) Something near the woods or a walking path. Having a place like that and never having to do yard work or major housework or anything like that again. That’s the dream.

6380

I have a single window air conditioner unit – in a seven-room two-story house. It does nothing whatsoever for the upstairs, except whatever good it does that the floors between upstairs and downstairs are slightly cooler. It gives me a cool spot I can sit in if I’m getting seriously overheated, makes it possible to do at least some cooking in the kitchen though I still avoid the oven when it’s hot except for brief jobs, and keeps the rest of the downstairs semi-bearable.

It’s also in about the only window that it’s practical to put one in. Most of the downstairs windows have either furniture too close to in front of the sills, or radiators just enough higher than the sills to interfere with air conditioner placement; and I don’t entirely trust the upstairs wiring with that much of a draw (plus which the above is also true of some of the upstairs windows.)

When it’s hot, I open the windows at night and shut them in the morning. Most of the time that’s enough; though we get a lot more days when I do want the air conditioner than we used to – they used to be rare enough that I didn’t have one.

6381

We have the Unico central AC system in our 1918 house - the same system used at Colonial Williamsburg, with flexible pipes threaded through the walls rather than obtrusive ductwork. It works pretty well. I’d always prefer to have the windows open, though, summer weather permitting.

I can think of very few people who owe me apologies, but I do sometimes feel unappreciated. A little more gratitude from some of those around me would be nice. Not that I wallow in it, though, or that my resentment keeps me up at night or anything!

6382

I really can’t characterize myself as either a gun supporter or a gun opponent. I support the availability of a fairly wide range of guns, under controlled conditions, but also oppose others universally.

6383

Yeah, there’s a lot wider range of positions than just “gun supporter” or “gun opponent.” I answered the poll question as a “gun opponent” because I’m not personally a gun owner/enthusiast and would favor more restrictions than we have now, but I’m not an extremist.

And I voted “no” on the “would you consider the above statement to be a fair characterization of the pro-gun side?” question. Different people on the “pro-gun” side have different reasoning, but my best attempt at a one-sentence general summary would be something like: “Bad people are going to have guns anyway; I feel safer letting good people have guns too.”