I’m giving about 30 percent away to family and friends immediately. After ten more years I figure I would be spent out and settled into a groove. At that point I could give away another 30 percent of what was left. Rising tide lifts all boats. There is no way I could spend it all in my lifetime. Might as well give it away to people who could in turn help my local economy.
My lending club account is gonna be huge!!!
IF we are talking hundreds of millions…
I have several aspirations of a giant NPO airmobile heavy rescue team.
I would probably end up running a huge SCA/ren fair venue (available for private parties and weddings as well :D) Hundred acres or so, Full blown 20,000-30,000 square foot castle, gardens, well groomed battlefeilds, plenty of shade, vendor areas discreetly rigged for power and data, tournament arenas, everything.
For giggles the castle could also be a nice fancy 4-5 star hotel for a small number of guests looking for a luxurious medeival getaway.
What would you do with the other $499 million?
In the first place I do not believe anybody is going to receive that $476 million jackpot as it is annuitized. More likely the eventual winner will take the payout which after taxes will be about 1/3 the jackpot. Say $150 million.
If I were going to buy a Mega Millions ticket I could handle that amount easily. 10% to my church; that takes me down to $135 million. My daughter gets the same amount. A cool million to each of my siblings, half a million each to the first cousins and my nieces and nephews, then set up a scholarship fund for my high school. Pretty soon I’ll have reduced the principal to $100 million before long. Build a new house, buy a new car, set up some conservative investments & live off the interest so my daughter has a huge fortune when I die. Easy-peesee.
I’d spend half of it on chemicals and fast women. The rest I’d just waste.
I had a plan for my winnings, but Magic Johnson beat me to it last night.
So I’m guessing my wife and I would become philanthropists. After I bought a modest-looking home and built a bowling alley in the basement.
Well, here’s the thing: when you have $476 million, it is a full-time job determining what to do with it, so it is work. But it’s not like you’re working a double shift - doing your $40k/year day job, then going home at night to work 8 hours managing your half-billion dollars in assets, leaving you with no time for fun, the kids, vacations, etc. 
As a matter of fact, once your net worth nears $100,000,000, that’s about the tipping point where you really start to need a full-time team of people to manage it (the tax forms alone would drive you to distraction). So at $476m, you’re going to give the job to the team, allowing you to go back to work for $40k/year. Win-win!
It’s never too much money. For me, that is. For the rest of you it’s wasteful.
I would give a lot away, and make sure my daughter and siblings were taken care of. After that, I would travel, and it would be on private planes. Never again would I have to mess around with the horror that our airports have become. No one kicking my seat, or screaming, or taking my armrest, or sneezing on me. The only problem? If the pilot has a breakdown, I’m not strong enough to take him.
I’m not sure I understand the question. 
Of course, the thing with those giant lottos, is that usually it’s not just one person who wins.
My coworker and I were just joking about how “awful” it would be if we had to share the big prize with other people. How would we survive if our dividends were only a fifth of the jackpot? We’d be unable to refer to ourselves as half-billionaires at that point. The horror!
I’ve been out of contact this week so this is how I learned about the new owners of my favorite team. It also totally stole my idea for what I would do with the winnings.
I can’t imagine having too much money. Just off the top of my head my ultimate dream home* would cost about 100 million to buy the land and build plus several million a year in maintance. Then vacations and stuff on top of that. I could easily spend 500 million in my lifetime and that is without giving any to charity aside from allowing some people to come live on my compound rent free.
On the other hand my minimum number to quit work is between 3 and 6 million depending it I get married before achieving that amount. So after that there is a decrease in marginal utility until I get in to fantasy land.
*2,500 acres with mineral rights and my compound with all ill ever need to never have to leave or see another person again self contained within.
I would take the whole amount and invest in lottery tickets! I’d be sure to win!
Too much ain’t enough.
What percentage actually crash-and-burn, though? Obviously, many of the winners who do well keep a low profile, but surely some people manage to handle the windfall, right?
Hmmmm. A leg up for the kids. Annuities for the grandkids. Nice, but fairly small house on the water. Plenty of land around it. Boat, maybe 40 ft. Shops for my various hobbies. Travel, maybe find a few places for vacation houses. That only comes out to about 10 million. Then a paltry million a year or so for living expenses.
That would certainly be plenty, but I think I could hande the rest of the jackpot without much trouble. There are a few causes I’d like to help out.
So, no, I don’t see any problem with winning a huge sum. There certainly would be work in handling it but it could be a lot more meaningful than 9-to5 drudgery. And lots of good could be done.
This is an interesting post. I see everyone say that they would give most of it away and I would like to think it would be just like that. For what it is worth everyone I talk to says the same thing.
On the other hand I have read more than a few stories about lottery winners and how things worked out. It turns out that everyone will hound you for a long time. And I mean everyone.
Oh yeah if you do win and give it all away good luck in convincing anyone that you really gave it away.
Family, friends, acquaintences, and syncophants and everyone in between will be calling showing up etc.
Some of the outcomes for a lot of lottery winners are the following::
- kidnappings - some by their own family members
- suicide - too much stress over the having trouble saying no to everyone all the time.
- marriages and relationships ending
The list goes on.
I have a friend who won $10,000 on a scratch off. He is a landlord and caught hell from his tenant because of not fixing up the property (now that he had all that money).
I am sure everyone here is the exception to the rule and would be able to just continue living and thinking the same way you do now.
But to me the problem is the entire world sees you as someone who just won a half a billion dollars (never mind what you actually get after taxes)
Above all it would seem to me you had better have a plan in place before you won. (trusts, legal & financial help for anonymity etc)
now here is a story of a guy that did it correctly. He waited 30 + days before claiming his jackpot while he set up his plan.
he was also a manager of 5 Golds Gyms in Idaho. What can you do in Idaho even with 85 million lump sum?
First off, I probably wouldn’t change anything very quickly, but I’d at least think about quitting my job and buying a house. It’s not that I hate my job, but I could honestly do without the stress. Given the chance, the ability to do what I wanted in my own hours sounds pretty appealing. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t do anything useful or productive.
As far as the money goes, I wouldn’t blab too much about what I had. I don’t claim I’d give it all away, but at the least I wouldn’t be blowing it on rubbish. I’d probably pay for some repairs to my nice, efficient small car instead of buying a brand new hotrod. I’d buy a modest house I can take care of. And if people bothered me, I’d leave.
But then, I’m lucky. My family isn’t what you’d call pushy, but they are pretty proper if informal. They wouldn’t ask for money unless something very bad happened.
Move someplace better?
I could find creative ways to use any amount of money.there is no such thing as 'too much and this is not a matter of greed, just imagination.
I don’t play any lotteries, however, so the point is moot.
I will evade the question since the only time I play the lottery is with my co-workers, and we only play when it’s a large jackpot. So $560 million -> $350 million cash option -> divide by 40 employees -> $8m apiece -> $5m after taxes. That’s not enough money to retire on, so we would probably move to a nicer house (we’re in a $270k house in the SF Bay Area, we’d probably move to a $500-600k house in the hills, nothing extravagant though), sock money away for the kids’ college, invest a bunch, and travel.