First, I would hire a financial planner to advise me as to lump sum or yearly payments. Then, I would pay off all my debts and the debts of my parents.
College funds would be established for the kids
I would…
build a house in Colorado, Nova Scotia and maybe one somewhere tropical.
open a small store, where I could happily putter about, making jams, jellies, sauces and such.
travel to England and Scotland. I would buy a big custom travel bus and see the United States, collecting stuff along the way to sell in my little shop.
go to Border’s, or some other equally large bookstore, and buy everything I fancied.
get 2 Great Danes and some horses and a tractor and then I would have myself cloned, because to do all of the above is going to take more than one of me.
I’m not sure if I’d go for monthly, or lump sum. Lump sum means you get less, over time. Monthly… well, how much is that monthly amount of money going to be in, say, 20 years?
The first thing I’d do is hire a GOOD accountant, and let him decide that.
Then I’d pay off all of my debts.
I’d buy a GOOD laptop, and just cruise around the world for a while, doing contract artwork just to stay in practice.
If I got enough money, I’d fund the kind of game I want to make. Then I’d use the losses from that ( ) to offset my taxes.
Living on a boat for a while might be fun, too.
Basically, I just want to have enough money to live a simple life.
Why, with a lucky lottery ticket, I could take this $10,000 and just blow it all on hats! [/Hot Shots]
I already travel, so I guess I’d just travel more and pay for people I want to come along.
I don’t have any debt, so I guess I’d pay off my parents and my sisters houses.
I’d set up trust funds for my nephews and give a mil or so to my sister. My parents, too, of course.
My best friend would get a mil.
My co-workers, since I’d be abandoning them and thus the project, would get $10,000 each.
I’d buy a house somewhere in Colorado and one in Jackson Hole and start a touristy-skiing thing that does side business in SCUBA diving in the off-months. Heck, I might just quit in a few years and do this one anyway.
The absolute first thing, though, because it’s what 've always said I would do since I first thought about winning a lottery, is buy a Lamborghini Murciélago (updated from a Diablo which was updated from the Countach 5000.)
There really isn’t anything that I don’t already do that I would be able to do with winning the lotto except for the grand, lavish expenditures.
Then i wouldn’t spend a penny. Not one. That money becomes principal, never to be “spent” per se. It would be invested in conservative investments, aiming for around 10% per year or so, depending on the times.
Wait, i forgot one part…i’d give the government their hard-earned 39% off the top. Unless some accountant can tell me how I can avoid it by rolling it into tax free investments or something.
Now, off the interest on my invested principal, I will first make allowances for taxes I will probably owe, add approximately 5% to the principal amount each year to offset inflation (this additional principal can be invested into slightly higher risk/higher reward investments such as index funds, and some income yielding stocks. Mostly into securities and other guaranteed return investments though). With what is left me and my wife will live life to our utmost enjoyment. We will give to worthy causes, tour the world, experience all that life has to offer. We will wake up every day with joy and anticipation of what another precious day in our lives will bring us.
First I’d pay off the bills. Then I’d tell the wife to quit working her minimum-wage job, and to enjoy her new life as housemother (I’m not being sexist, she would rather be a housewife too). Then I’d finally stop worrying about hanging onto a job in this !%^#@&^&!?! recession.
Then there’s the big shopping spree. Haven’t had one of those in ages, and I’m overdue.
After that… well, I’ll take it as it comes, but I’d definitely invest a good chunk of it. Some high-risk ventures, but probably most of the money would go into low-risk steady-income funds and CDs and bonds and such.
Lump sum. I’m already older than my father and my mother’s parents were when they died, and within twenty years of the ages when my mother and my father’s parents died, and I want to get all the money in my lifetime.
First, I would pay off my debts. Depending on the size of the prize, I would give some to my kids and my sister. Then I would follow hudley’s plan, except that I think you would have to re-invest more than 5% to stay ahead of inflation.
The most important benefit: getting enough sleep. If you stay up late, sleep late! No job to go to!
I’d probably take the lump sum, just to make it simpler. Hiring an accountant is definitely a superb idea – I don’t know how I’d find one that I trusted, though.
I have deals with about a dozen of my friends that if any of us ever hits the jackpot, we all get cars. So that’s the first thing that I’d do.
Right after that I’d pay off my college loans, then the mortgage on my mom’s house, then the loans my dad took out to start his business. I’d pay off his partners’ loans too. I’d give my mom some cash so she didn’t have to work very much.
I’d quit my job, or more likely quit trying to find one, and buy myself a nice but not ostentatious place to live in Berkeley. I’d buy a cabin in Tahoe. I’d buy myself a couple more cars. I’d party till I got tired of it, then I’d take off and drive around till I got tired of that.
If there was anything left after that, I’d invest it in low-risk stuff that my trusted accountant recommended to me. Then I’d use as little of it as possible to tide me over till I can find a job/career. So basically I’d use the jackpot to make my life as carefree and leisurely as possible for the next few years.
as i am in an office pool for 200 million, i have given it a bit of thought.
due to pool size i would get about 7.7 million.
the old, buy a house, pay off houses of family, set up trusts for the younguns, various charities would be rather happy, amazon would make a tremendous profit this year, remember all “the little people.”
every now and then hand a stranger on the street, bus, subway, plane, etc, $100.00… just because i can.
Lump sum - yearly is a bad move. Inflation will continue over the next 20 yrs, and that “big” yearly amount will steadily be worth less and less. Heck, the state would probably like to see you take the yearly, so they can then invest the lump sum and just pay you out of their enormous returns.
Anyway - first thing, hire a lawyer and an accountant before telling anyone that I’ve won. Take the lump sum, get out of debt, buy a few toys, and sink the rest into some good, diverse investments so that I -hopefully - get capital growth for the rest of my life.
Assuming I get 200 million, which is what the latest jackpot is.
10 million for mom.
10 million for dad.
5 million for grandmas.
5 million for 3 uncles, 1 aunt.
5 million for two cousins.
That’s 55 million so far.
Next, I’d buy houses in New York City, Alaska, and the Bahamas . NYC in the springtime, Alaska in the summer, and the Bahamas for fall and winter. This would cost me 5 million per house.
Then I’d take a long-ass vacation to England, France, Germany, the Middle East, Egypt, Nepal, Japan, and Austrailia. Assuming 1 million per country, that’s 10 million.
Hrrm, I’d take all my winnings in a lump sum. Then transfer aaaaaaalllllllllll of the cash over to a nice swiss bank (or any other bank that has been around for more than 150 years).
I’d then set up to have all of my bills paid for me and switch to working part time (do my work and head home). (I think 50k a year is more than enough to live on)
I’d give my parents a nice chunck of money a even million (get rid of their debts and help w/ their retirement) also I’d by them a classic car.
Oh yeah, and buy my way into grad school
Screw the rest of the stuff, lets get that money safe, I’m too young to be able to handle much money responsibly
Lump sum. Travel to all the places I’ve been wanting to see. Great Britain, Japan and Austrailia. I also promised my dad I’d take him back to Hong Kong. He went there on leave in the service and has always wanted to go back.
Pay off the family debt and put my sister back in school.
Then comes building the “compound”. About 200 acres of farmland in the middle of the county I grew up in. Houses for myself, my parents, my sister and her husband, my grandmother and my two best friends and their families.
Then all the toys. The LAN, the Lincoln Navigator, ATV’s, snowmobiles (it is Michigan after all), the shooting range. Oh yeah.
As far as charities, the bulk of it would go to research to find a cure for diabetes. My grandfather died of it, and now my mother and uncle both have it. It runs in the family. Also, handouts of clothing and things to the homeless folks at the mission. Been there myself.
Professional Student. Get Ph.D.'s in English, History and Geography.
That’s for the $200 million jackpot. For something smaller, a house and car for me, pay off my, my parents and my sisters debts. Go back to school and finish my degree. Help my sister finish hers.
I also have a good long time friend who is also a good accountant, so I don’t have to worry about trusting someone I don’t know with handling my money.
If it was an amount of money that I could potentially live off of forever, or most of my life, I would do the following:
Get a 5000+ sq. foot house on a +5 acre property bordering a large lake. Buy a new Corvette, a Mercedes Benz S500, and a Cadillac Escalade. Have a dock with a skiboat and a small, 2000 square foot lake house built right on the sand. A hammock, an outdoor pool, a massive back deck, and a circle driveway with a fountain in the front. Oh and it should have a gate, and it cant be seen well from the road because of the 10 foot high brick wall in front of it.
I’d probaby invest the rest, but I’d use a ton to throw massive keggers every friday night during the summer.
