$10,000 a month is $120,000 a year. Over 10 years, that’s $1.2 million (and since it’s over 10 years, I could invest the money and pay out over time). Plus I’d offer up $1-$2 million towards the business idea, but it’d be as some minority partner. So, if my math is right, it’s “only” about $3 million. And I’d structure the investment so that I’d slowly get paid back over the years if the business became profitable.
The point is to give some friends a chance to do whatever they wanted, with an assurance that they would not have to worry about paying the bills while they try to make it work. One friend loves music - maybe he can open a music venue, or start a record label, or try to make it as a musician. Another friend has two daughters who are really into sports - maybe he can open a sports academy or a gym. You want to run an independent bookstore/coffee shop? Open a marijuana dispensary? Become a freelance photojournalist? I’ll pay you for a decade, and then give you some “scratch” to get you on your way.
(All Powerball ideas are, in my estimation, daydreams. How fun would it be to show up at your good friend’s house (he’s known you since college; he was best man at your wedding) and say, “Sign here. You’ve now agreed to not talk shit about me. In exchange, here’s a million bucks. Oh, and do you have any interest in running a bar on the beach that plays live music on the weekends? Here’s another $2 million to make it happen. You’ll need to develop a customer base, so in the meantime I’ll cover your salary.”)
I guess this would invite mooches and grifters. My thinking is to tell anybody who shows ingratitude that they are completely cut off, but to set aside some portion of winnings towards providing for family and investing in friends’ futures.
Same here. And I don’t think any of my friends would expect it. I certainly wouldn’t.
I may help some of my friends out (really just one that I could think of), but I think they would feel weird about accepting money from me. So I’d have to be more creative. I’d probably give a chunk to my brother, or at least fund his kid’s educational costs (she’s my godchild). And some to my parents, but they, too, would be reticent about accepting money from me. They definitely don’t like feeling like they need anyone’s help. But I’m sure I could at least set the up with a nicer house if they wanted one. I’d happily throw a mil or two their way if they’d accept it, but they’d likely say “leave it for your kids.”
That’s why I (OP) specified those stupidly obscene power balls - the $500 million pot, where even if you take the lump sum and pay the taxes you’ll have a couple hundred million dollars.
Your kids - and their kids - are taken care of. You’ve traveled the world. You have an annuity that pays you $50,000 a month for the rest of your life. You have your mansion, and have fully funded your charity, and your credit card companies are regularly calling to offer you tickets to the best venues and concerts.
You still have $10 million or so that you could easily give away without a thought.
I’m hoping that I’m not the only one who would enjoy being a kingmaker. I’d have envelopes with $10,000 cash which I’d give away to random people. I’d devote money to getting fledgling businesses off the ground. I’d set up a trust to cover the education and medical bills of everybody in my family. And I’d go to a few select friends and make them a very favorable business offer.
Except I don’t trust most of my friends to run a business competently. I’d rather just give them the money if that’s the case. I’m not doing “give me an interesting business plan” type of stuff, because it’s hard to come up with a good business idea and plan and execute it well. That’s not something most people, in my opinion, can do. If I’m interested in giving them money, I’ll do so without caveats.
I still have a lot of friends who don’t yet own homes, and might never be able to given the real estate market in California. I’ve fantasized about buying houses for them if I won the jackpot. I could either transfer the houses to them, or keep the houses in my name, at least for a while, and just let them live there rent-free. This would at least allow them to save up a down payment for their own place, and would still be a good investment for me if the friendship eventually went sour.
I appreciate live music, and am often taken aback by how little so many incredibly talented folk earn. I’ve often daydreamed about being really generous to creative folk, moreso than just cutting checks to my friends.
I really don’t know how I would decide how much to give to which friends. I play golf with maybe 15 guys - 5-6 or so wh are my closest friends. Same for music. Would I give the 10 closest to me $100k each? None of them really NEEDS money - some are quite well off. What would it do to the dynamic with the others?
Same with extended family. Do I give a million to each of my and my wife siblings? Half a mill to each niece/nephew? I dunno. sounds more complicated than beneficial. Instead, I could imagine hosting a big family reunion somewhere exotic - with free travel, etc. for anyone who wanted to come.
I would immediately put all of it, except for a moderate pile of cash in my own investment accounts, into a trust, which was professionally managed. I would set standards for grants of funds – I have organizations I’d give to, and there would be a portion set aside for charity to individuals, up to a set amount per year. You can dole out to needy friends through this fund, but I would sure stick to addressing real needs specifically.
The troubles with giving large amounts of money to friends are considerable. Firstly, human beings don’t give things, they exchange things. There are no unconditional gifts, no matter what you think of your own pure generosity. Parents make huge sacrifices for their children but they expect that in exchange they will be respected, loved, cared for in their turn, listened to … they may often be disappointed but they have those expectations, whether they admit it to themselves or not. Favors done between friends are, despite appearances, delicately calibrated by both parties to keep a rough balance, or resentment will build on either or both ends. Believe me, I know this by hard experience. These things are built into our social dna, and unless they get really out of whack, go unspoken.
Friends are most congenial when they are on an equal footing. Give a friend a million dollars and they will not be the same friend ever again, if they are indeed ever your friend again at all. The majority of people will piss away a million dollars and be left with nothing, and then how will you feel about them?
I would suggest deciding who you would share your good fortune with before you win a lottery. I would only be helping out a few people very close to me who would I would help out in any way I could before I had millions to waste. I don’t know they would do the same for me, nor do I care.
The problem is that only a very few states allow you to claim the lottery prize anonymously. So most places not only your friends and family will know you won big but so will perfect strangers (and distant relatives you haven’t heard from in a long time), some of whom think they’re entitled to some of your money.
There are people now who think they’re entitled to some of my money, it will just be a change in magnitude. Even that select group of friends might be pissed off when they see how much I give to charity.
The only people in my life I feel that way about are my immediate family. As in, I would give them my house, a kidney, whatever. And yes they would do the same for me. They’re inheriting my estate anyway.
The last time one of the lotteries approached $1 billion, either Slate or Vox had an article on how to handle that much money (a quick search didn’t find it).
The one item I remember that I liked was funding your own Ford/Rockefeller/Carnegie Foundation, and then making people board members and paying them through that. As long as the foundation expenses are reasonable relative to assets (or maybe gifts, don’t remember), you can set that amount as you wish.
So, $100M endowment, pay someone 1-2% to manage it (drop it all in various index funds and mostly ignore it would be my plan), then appoint 8 people to the board at $10,000/month ($960K, <1%, reasonable). Meet once a quarter/year at some swanky location to decide who to distribute funds to and Bob’s your uncle.
As a bonus, you could apparently expect various entities to wine-and-dine you trying to extract funding for various buildings and research.
I would have no problem telling most of these people to piss off. If somebody has a legitimate need, I would be compassionate and probably throw a few bucks their way. But people I don’t know or haven’t talked to in many years? Pretty sure I could dispassionately say “nope. bye.” with no guilt on my soul. The people I would be most likely to give money to are not ones who would ask me. I think in the last thirty years, I’ve only had one person borrow money from me, and that was $50, so it’s rather unlikely any of my friends would come asking for a handout.
I’ve always thought it would be cool to create the spaces I wanted to see more of in my neighborhood–bookstores and coffee shops and bars where visual artists could display and sell their work, and musicians, poets, etc could perform. With enough money you could just buy a building and rent out some of the space in order to cover the costs of labor, utilities, and other expenses for your little concert hall. You could pay the musicians generously without charging a steep cover or worrying about selling enough tickets. And yeah, maybe talk to a money person about how to make it so the money snake keeps eating its own tail after you die and the music can go on forever.