I think there is a stipulation on the back of most lottery tickets that says that one of the conditions of winning is that the lottery company may use your name and likeness to promote the lottery. Basically it’s the photo op they do when they hand you the over-sized check.
I used to have this carefully planned out when I had a boring office job.
My Exit Strategy :
Background Note: The Marching Cobras are a fantastically entertaining group of Kansas City area somewhat underprivileged Black kids. They are a energetic drum line that stands out at any parade. The Band Leader wears a large head-dress that looks like a Cobra about to strike. I am a dumpy looking White guy.
So I win the lottery. Tell no one. I show up at the office one morning in torn jeans and a T-Shirt (dress code was suit and tie) carrying a small cooler. I sit at my desk and light up a large fat stinky cigar (no smoking policy) and pour myself a martini from the cooler.
I sit back with my feet on my desk and wait for somebody to alert my supervisor (nice guy).
Supervisor comes by and being very concerned asks me to put out cigar, put away booze etc. Probably asks me if I need help or a few days off or something.
I shake his hand warmly while smiling. Ask him if he too would like a cigar and martini.
He declines and urges me to let him help me.
I give him big hug and tell them that I love him like a brother but I’m not going to quit smoking and drinking and I really don’t plan to do any work here today or ever.
Eventually he reluctantly puts the wheels in motion to have me fired.
I shake his hand at that point and pick up my phone and call “The Bus”
The Bus is parked two blocks away and has the entire membership of the Marching Cobras on board in full uniform with all of their drums.
The bus pulls into the office parking lot. I emerge from the building. The Cobra leader lends me his incredibly cool Cobra Head Dress. I lead the kids twice around the office building while they beat their drums and carry a large banner that says “SO LONG FOLKS”.
Then I live happily ever after.
My won-the-lottery list:
[ul]
[li]Pay off all debts.[/li][li]Buy a plain-jane, simple house in a middle-of-the-road subdivision.[/li][li]Buy a Prosche Boxster.[/li][li]Buy Mrs. Homie whatever vehicle she wanted.[/li][li]Buy a few miscellaneous “toys” (watercraft, motorcycle, etc.).[/li][li]Ensure that all my nieces and nephews have generous college funds.[/li][li]Quit my job.[/li][li]Give shitloads of money to my church, the Animal Protective League, the Special Olympics, and various other charities.[/li][li]Live quietly and simply; travelling, taking art classes, etc.[/li][/ul]
And I wouldn’t quit my job dramatically. I would just call in and say I won’t be coming to work again, ever.
:smack::smack:Yeah, by the time I saw that, I couldn’t edit. Sometimes I’m such a doof.
Already retired, so I now longer have the option of a dramatic departure from my job. (I settled for walking out the front door on my last day, standing in the middle of the large open space and shouting, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, I’m free at last!”)
Nothing unusual planned; I’ll buy/build my dream house, stop worrying about pinching pennies until Lincoln screams for mercy, see how much I can talk a dear friend into accepting so she can pay off her bills and relax for a while, and take advantage of the opportynity to do what I want with the rest of my life.
I wouldn’t quit my job. I love my job way too much. My husband, OTOH, would gladly retire now to stay home with our daughter.
We’d sell this house and move into another, nothing ridiculous, maybe buy some land and build if we can find it where we want it. Maybe buy vacation property elsewhere. Sock some away to make sure that Josie never has to pay for college tuition or books–I’ll make her pay her own room and board, though, to make sure she’s not spoiled–my mom did that for me.
Other than that, I think life would pretty much go on as usual. I’d maybe take more vacations.
The following assumes that the take-home sum is about $70 million, though my actions probably wouldn’t be much different with half that amount.
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The first calls I make are to an accountant and attorney I have known for years, people who I know value their families and places in the community too much to egregiously cheat me. As these people are quite used to dealing with multi-millionaires, I then take their advice as to the logistics of having large amounts of money. (I would call my boss for advice, but honestly, $70 million is really too little to trouble him with. If this looks perplexing, check out where I live.)
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Pay off debts, of course.
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Get a nice hybrid SUV, suitable for long journeys taken with impunity.
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Buy a $2-3 million annuity for my parents so they have a steady stream of income for the rest of their lives.
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Give a dollop to my church—probably the equivalent of the annual budget. (I’m finance chair for another few months, and we’re a small congregation, so I think in these terms.)
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Buy condos in Bloomington, IN and Austin, TX. I don’t intend to have a truly permanent residence, but I’ll probably be spending more time in these cities than any others. Probably a residence in Lincoln/Omaha as well. Definitely storage here.
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Invest the remaining principle in coupon bonds or some such, something that will pay me a dependable income, but which I can unload if need be without taking a colossal bath.
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Live out my life like an episode of “Route 66”. Going where I want, doing what I like, generally chilling. FWIW, my current GF is actually pretty down with the idea as well.
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IF I COULD TRULY AFFORD IT, I’d really like to endow a chair at Indiana University. The best folklore department in the United States does not boast a specialist in European folklore, and I should like to change that. “StusBlues Professor of Central and Eastern European Folklore” has a nice ring to it.
step one: buy a car RIGHT NOW, given used car shopping woes are stressing me out right now. Not a showy one, just a reliable one which would be a very nice change
step two: pay off my last 20k in student loans.
step three: buy/build a home in the town I currently live in.
step four: if I won a lot of money, repeat steps 1-3 for my parents and brother
step five: put the rest in the bank, and go to work as usual.
step six: donate a fair amount to my town’s library fund so they can expand like they’d like to.
Yeah, nothing too crazy, though I might decline working on a few contracts at work now and then to stay home and write.
Two chicks. At the same time.
Overrated.
Do you have to use photo ID to prove your identity when collecting, or could you get away with, say, birth certificate and the like? If so, you could get disguised by a professional stage make up artist and collect the payout incognito.
(Pretty sure you can opt for anonymity in the UK lottery)
I’d like to determine that for myself. 
Good point. It’s kind of like how left-handers have a hard time playing catcher in baseball: the awkwardness is difficult to explain until you’ve tried it.
In Ontario, to collect prizes of $10,000 and over you need two pieces of ID (one must be a valid government issued ID that includes your photo and date of birth). Additionally:
So it looks like you can opt out of being a “Featured Winner” but your identity will be publicized no matter what. That’s probably so that if you’ve got a second family you’re keeping a secret, or if you’re a deadbeat dad, of or you’re in hiding for a debt, they can track you down.
I would find an investment advisor and a good lawyer. Assuming a $50M payout, I assume a $12.5M payout. At conservative 3% return on investment, that would be about $375K a year in income. I’d take 100K for my “salary”, and get my lawyer to figure out a way to help me give the rest away. My plan/dream is, I walk into various places of worship with $20K and say, “Give me a list of 5 people who could change their lives with 10K and how they would use it (child care to finish school, a used car to get to a job, downpayment on a modest house, etc).” I’d then choose one of those 5 and give it to the church 20K with the stipulation that that person gets 10 anonamously and the church can do what they wish with the other 10. Repeat until I’m out of that year’s interest. Eventually hitting every place of worship in the phonebook. Impacting the community one life at a time.
I’d use the places of worship for two reasons. One, they usually know the needs of their members and two, to allow it to be a charitable donation (though earmarked) and hopefully avoid the taxes on that surplus over the 100K salary (that’s why I’d need the lawyer).
The current jackpot here is estimated around 112 mil, so I’m guessing the take home is around 70 mil. Given that I would realistically do this:
[ul]
[li]Call my boss and explain that I would be missing formation in the morning. As someone above pointed out, I can’t just NOT show up w/o reason. I’nm fairly certain that within an hour of calling him I’d recieve a dozen calls from the commander on up to the group commander. [/li][li]Yeah, I’d come in to work AFTER I did whatever you gotta do to arrange to get your bucks. But it would be to immediately fill out and drop my retirement packet. Again, I’m fairly sure they’d move it through as fast as possible. There’d be no reason to even keep me around at that point. 70 million bucks? I wouldn’t be able to concentrate at work anyway. [/li][li]The 3 guys in my section would at least get a mil from each. I have few living relatives, so really, with 7million bucks to spread out amongst them that leaves me 60 mil. My wife on the other hand has 8 sisters and three brothers. I’ll be generous and say I’d give up 15 mil to slpit between 'em. [/li][li]Seriously, I could probably live off the interest of 45 million dollars. I’d buy a modest but nice house in a normal neighborhood. I’d buy a new jeep. I’d have really nice stuff in my house, but not anything a regular person wouldn’t have. Seriously, I don’t need a lot of fancy stuff and I’ve always said I don’t want a house so big I have to pay someone else to clean it. I’d get my wife a nice car, but knowing her she’d just want a truck. [/li][li]I’d open a comic book/ gaming store. Just for freaking fun. But not right away. I would admittedly spend at least a few months travelling. Lets say all of that costs me about 3 mil. 42 mil to go. (I’m probably over estimating the cost, too. I’d travel, but I wouldn’t be getting penthouse suites or the like. I would appear to be an average tourist because I wouldn’t go be trying to live like Paris Hilton or anything.)[/li][li]I’d donate to charities that help disadvantaged children and mistreated animals. Put money into investments and CDs and the like. [/li][li]I’d kick back and enjoy life. [/li][/ul]
In order to gain some peace I’d probably make sure my location and phone number was tip top secret. Because I can imagine the crazy stuff that happens in families when a windfall happens. I have a few relatives that are, basically assholes. (they don’t even speak to me ONLY because I speak to relatives they don’t like) I might give 'em a few thousand, but seriously, I don’t need their crap in my life.
I’d buy all girls on my block a color TV and a bottle of french perfume, and donate half my money to the city so they have to name a street or a school or a park after me.
If I won a crazy amount like 112 million.
First thing I’d do is call in and quit my job, wouldn’t explain why even if pressed for an answer.
I would make sure the people in my life that important to me before I became stinking rich would never have to worry about money again in their lives. This is a small group of people, 3 to be exact. The “rest” of the family I would write checks in the amount of $100 000.00 with the strict warning of spending it wisely because they will not recieve another penny from me. Some of them I know are such poor planners when it comes to money I would put them with an account where $2000.00 a month would be put into their account, that way it would give me enough time to relocate so I can be totally unreachable by these people.
I would buy acres and acres of land wooded lot water front type of property to call my home, I like people I just dont like living next to them. I would design my dream home nothing extravagent but very comfortable and built to my “wishes” It would have a sound studio for starters 3 car garage, secret rooms, lots of cool things.
As for vehicles, I wouldn’t be driving around town in a lamborgini but instead a muscle car yet to be decided there’s so many. I would also buy a truck and a winter car.
I’d probably buy a nice winter condo or something so I can get the fuck outta here in the winter. I’d also do alot of travelling.
I probably would not change my lifestyle all that much. I’d continue doing what I’m doing, since I enjoy it (photography.) I don’t really need anything I don’t already have, other than perhaps buying a reasonable property in an area where the property tax is not going to kill me. I’d spend a maximum of $500K on a house, but more likely in the $300K range. I’m not even sure I’d buy a new car. A car’s a car, right? My Mazda 3 keeps me perfectly happy. The bulk of the rest of the money I would invest or use to broaden my business. I’d probably take a few extra trips every year and visit a few more expensive restaurants I’ve always wanted to go to, but I really can’t see doing anything drastic. I’d also throw my parents a few hundred thousand or a million, while I’m at it, but they’d probably be likely to refuse it.
I’m assuming a lower jackpot of like $10 million after taxes. If I truly had a substantial sum ($50 milliion and up), I might spend closer to the $500K on the house, and use the money to build up some kind of business, fund my own projects, or help photographers fund projects that sound interesting and promising to me.
So, yeah, I guess kind of boring.
I should have added in my post that I’d get a lawyer much for the same reasons you said.
I don’t know what the interest on about 40 mil is, but if its 100K or more annually I’d be set to pay all of my expenses with change. I live cheap. But I would love to be able to do like you described and help some people in need.