Current estimates of the next Mega Millions jackpot are $476 million.
Living in Las Vegas, lotteries are illegal (go figure) but I just wonder how much money is “too much” money to win?
Seriously - how in the hell would most people handle a sum like that?
Even if you are very generous with family and friends, and bought a MegaMansion and a fleet of cars and traveled first class on vacations, does the average person really need that much?
Would I like to win millions?
Sure.
But at some point, it would become almost “work” to have such a vast amount and not have crazy long-lost relatives standing at your door, every crackpot in the world writing you for hand-outs, charities hounding you, kidnappers lurking around your family members, scam artists and the publicity factor - wow.
So - how much money would be a “good” amount to win?
No amount is too much if you are levelheaded and capable of saying “No”. You certainly don’t have to feel compelled to spend it all.
If I had $476 million, I would quit my job and use the money to live at a level slightly elevated from my current one. I’d purchase a nice house (not a MegaMansion), and as mentioned in another thread, have a chauffeur on call, since I don’t like to drive.
I’d give reasonable amounts of money to the people I really care about to help them out. I would not give money to crackpots or people looking for a handout. If it became a huge problem, I’d hire a secretary to answer the mail with my polite form rejection letter.
In the stories I’ve seen about large lottery winners, the biggest problems have been reckless overspending and trying to support too many family members. I haven’t seen a lot of mention of kidnappers or scam artists. I’d take the normal precautions, but most of my money would continue to be sensibly invested.
I’d probably still live on a budget, just a larger one based on my larger investment income.
Most lottery advisors recommend that you find a competent financial planner to help you, and that you don’t rush out and spend extravagantly (houses, cars, etc.) until you have a plan for the rest of your life. The lottery winners who go broke are the ones who don’t follow this advice.
For the stereotypical lottery player (low to middle income), a purse of a couple of million - paid out over the course of twenty years - ought to assure their financial security through their retirement. This assumes the money is invested/managed well, and that the player continues living their old life, working a job, pretty much like they used to. And therein lies one problem: the stereotypical lottery player rarely is equipped to manage their windfall, and often ends up burning through their winnings in short order, not unlike Stanley Burrell. (OK, technically Burrell didn’t win the lottery - but he quickly came into a lot of money and just as quickly pissed it away.)
So a purse of a couple million, properly handled, can relieve some stress in your life. Add in another million, and you can start to have some fun: take some nice trips, drive nicer cars, maybe move into a bigger house - and save a bit more for your golden years so you can maintain that lifestyle until the day you die. But again, this assumes you keep on working.
Add in a few more million, and people become tempted to quit the job that occupies a large part of their waking hours. For most 9-to-5 folks, a job is primarily a way to bring in money; the income carries a large part of that job’s meaning, and with that gone, a lot of folks will walk out the door. The problem with this is that the small bit of meaning provided by contributing your effort to something larger (or at least doing something interesting and/or spending time with like-minded coworkers) gets discarded at the same time. This is where a lot of folks are likely to run into problems: what meaningful, fulfilling thing do you do with an extra 50+ hours a week, especially when all your cohorts are at work during those hours? Now you have someone who is likely ill-equipped to handle large sums of money, has just won a shitload of it, and has lots of free time. He’ll try to fill the daytime space by buying toys, and that’s likely to get old in a hurry. Recently-retired folks sometimes struggle with this; instead of trying to figure out what to do with your days for the next 15 years, imagine trying to figure out what to do with yourself for the next 45 years.
As SpoilerVirgin points out, a person with a sense of discipline and forethought should not have trouble managing a very large sum of money and finding something meaningful to do with it and with their free time (assuming they opt to quit their job). The historical record, however, is littered with disasters: click here and scroll to the bottom for a list of previous lottery winners who imploded mentally and/or financially after striking it rich.
The marginal utility for me would rapidly decrease after 3 million dollars. I have seriously considered playing the lottery heavily on those few times when the expected payout goes over 1, but I have not followed through with it because even if I did win, everything over 3 million would be worth less than the money I was spending in order to win it.
Why 3 million? Take out 1 million in taxes and you’re left with 2million. Which is well past the marginal utility curve if I had it all at once, but that’s only around 100,000 a year. Which is more than I need, but enough to buy almost anything I could want: anything beyond that, sure I could find ways to spend it, but at that point I’d just be fucking the chicken.
As for me personally, I would just want enough to buy a very nice house in a very nice place, and live off the interest forever. I figure 25 million would be more than enough to accomplish that.
I’m told that normally, smart people will pay their family attorney to form a private trust to accept the winnings without revealing their identity. Money may come with its own set of hassles, but being well-known does not necessarily have to be one of them.
Probably the biggest temptation for most people would be to end problematic relationships by writing big checks and asking people to go away. This is foolish because (a) they won’t go away, and (b) it’s probably wrong to assume that the other party was entirely at fault, and the same problem won’t crop up with your shiny new wife/husband/dog/whatever.
This is what I interpreted as the OP’s point. If you are just going to live a moderately elevated from what you have, there is not point to the lottery being $470 million. $30 million would have worked just as well.
Being that large just means that it will go to your kids or grandkids who very well might not have the financial sense that you have. In the end, it may be worse for your family and next generations that you won so much. Maybe it would have been better for them if you had won LESS.
Off the top of my head I have about 55 family members split into 14 familes, and couple of friends who I would help. I would like to make life more comfortable for them, not necessarily mega-rich.
Even if I gave everyone a million bucks each, I still have plenty to have an enormous beach house, NYC apartment, a nice car collection, private island, a G-5 or Challenger, and toys galore. Travel would be everywhere and first class at that.
I have some inventions that I need to patent that could bring in millions more. Patents are expensive.
I’m no democrat, but I believe in helping people who truly need it, so I would explore setting up a foundation that helps low-income people get cars and life-education so they can become self sufficient and productive.
I wouldn’t run for office, but I’d certainly pull the right strings to change my state’s laws regarding criminals and their punishments. Off with their heads would be the new state motto!
If you can’t behave properly, who needs 'em?
Easy to take care of - I’ve thought about this and my husband is completely behind the plan as well.
Keep enough to invest to make sure we can live a comfortable lifestyle for the rest of our lives, maybe $30M, and the rest is donated to a charitable trust founded by ourselves and a few other hand-picked people for the purpose of supporting whatever we decide in the mission statement - education, arts, health & welfare, animal charities - final details TBD. Hire a couple people to administer it - to create grants to be applied for, monitor investments, etc. Spend the first few years as Board Chair to ensure the governance aspects are all being taken care of.
Retire to travel, study, perhaps have a small business for fun.
If it was up to me, I think it might choose the “Win for life” which is an option around here. The chances of winning it are much better and it just gives you $1,000 a week for life.
Like some have mentioned here, it bumps up the standard of living a bit and doesn’t lead to peple asking for handouts. Just makes life a bit *easier. *
It’s true that the larger amount wouldn’t necessarily all get spent, but I still wouldn’t think of it as too much. Fortunately I have no children or grandchildren to spoil. I would probably leave significant, but not dangerous amounts to any surviving relatives, and the rest to charities and causes that I support. You often hear about someone whose will left millions to a university or foundation. I like the idea of leaving a legacy that would do some good.
I should mention that my lottery choice at a high level would always be to receive the money in installments. Even with what you lose in investments, I think it makes it that much easier not to blow it all, and to come up with a sensible plan for living.
I know in CA, when you buy CA only lottos like Super-Lotto, the big cash prize is only if you want it over 26 years, if you want a lump sum, it’s ½. Mega Millions is sold in CA, but does that rule apply?
Money isn’t like milk, you don’t have to use it all before it spoils. It will be just fine if you use a little and let the rest ride, or even a lot and let the rest ride. In fact it just keeps making more money without you doing anything at all.
Thinking that you have allllll this money you must spend is how people unfamiliar with wealth fail. Spend at a level that will keep you happy and sane and resist the outside influences that think it’s ‘party time’ for everyone you know.
It is just numbers in a bank, and lawyers and accountants to take care of it, until you let it get a hold on you.
If I win I will definatly take the annuity. Should be about 12 million a year after taxes, for 26 years, on a $500 million jackpot.
I will scrape by somehow waiting for the next year’s check.
Megamillions.com. The jackpot is currently 500 million, over 26 years or the lump sum option is 356 million. No state tax on lotto winnings in CA so that helps too.
Criminy. I could give every person in my Family & Friends list $5 million and I’d *still * have more than I’d know what to do with.
I have to say that, after discussing the sitch with the Mrs., I would most likely:
[ol]
[li]Set up generous trusts, including education, medical, etc., for our sons.[/li][li]Buy a couple of nice homes with the usual amenities (okay, maybe a couple more than the usual)[/li][li]Make sure we have enough liquid to handle virtually any contingency (again, medical)[/li][li]Give the rest to charity, research, homes for stray cats, whatever. That amount of money, frankly, frightens me. I have a low opinon of my self-discipline, to be quite honest.[/li][/ol]
Once you take out the cost of the immediate payout (-40%), then the taxes -40%), then multiply by the probable interest rate (3%) then take out the taxes on that annual income (-50%) then divide by 12, you’ll find a monthly income of about $225,000.00.
Even giving just $2,000 per month to each of the family members I’d want to help would leave me with a monthly income of which I could easily dispose.
Last big Powerball or similar lottery we had here in Illinois recently, some lottery rep was on the radio and said that if you went lump sum, you would wind up with about 1/3rd after state and federal taxes.
I’ve posted similar sentiments before, but: There is no way that a lottery jackpot can be “too big.” It’s just that, at a certain point, the money tips over from being “personal wealth” to “power.”
If I won a Mega Millions jackpot at this scale, I’d take ten or twenty million and do the prudent, sensible things that one does to ensure that I and my family would be financially secure for the rest of our lives. But as for the rest - well, it seems a staggering waste to just use that money on myself or my descendents, let alone just let it sit.
The remaining hundreds of millions would be used to try and reshape the world - I’d start nonprofits (or several initiatives under one organization, depending on how the tax/legal incentives worked out) to exert power in useful ways. A massive, nationwide push to build support for DC Statehood at a grassroots level in most states, for example. Assistance to pro-democracy groups in authoritarian states. Things like that.
To put it another way: I think of a really big lottery jackpot as the State saying (not without regrets) - “Well, a deal’s a deal - here is a giant chunk of the public’s money.” It would seem to behoove a lottery winner in that position to act as a statesman.
I’ve said that about 30 million would be optimal. That would give you about 10 million after taxes which would provide an income of at least 100-300k yearly, which is enough to live very comfortably without being so much that you are tempted to spend too much on stupid purchases. However, I would not mind winning even more. I would take the lump sum as I have enough discipline to live off any interest without dipping into the principal. I think I would probably start a foundation. The only things I can see splurging for is staff. I want a private chef and a full-time maid and driver (and maybe somebody to scoop the cat litter).
