I’d share some of it with our kids, and use the rest to improve the house. I want a covered breezeway (or something) between the house and the garage. The kitchen needs everything – cabinets, flooring, etc. – and I’d like to move the laundry room to the second floor where the bedrooms and clothes are.
If there was anything left after that, I’d pave the driveway and do some landscaping.
I’d do the same thing. Crap – I must be a grownup now 
Treat myself modestly (20%) and whack the rest into a pension fund.
I’d pay off my debts and have about $4000 left over. That $4000 would probably get sucked away in taxes on the $50,000 windfall or winnings, but if there was any money left, I’d put it into savings or investment. Maybe I’d open a Roth IRA and put the money in there.
Sorry to give such a boring answer, but that really is what I’d do with the cash.
I’d take 5k or so and get a new car. I don’t want a fancy one with all the bells and whistles, just transportation. I would like to take about 5k to invest in stock (I don’t know what, but I like to gamble). The other 40k would be put into a high interest savings if possible. I’m a pretty boring kid, huh?
Brendon
Pay bills, put some away for my son, maybe buy a car, put money down on a house.
Get out of debt, buy a new car, and go play poker in Vegas with some friends.
A big chunk goes to taxes. What’s left would almost pay off my debt.
Pay off my debts (about $15k), set up a college fund for my baby, get new flooring for the whole house, finally finish decorating the bedroom, have a new back patio put in (just stamped concrete), and do general maintenance on the house. Then, go on a cruise (aft balcony, please!) and save the rest.
Most likely waste it
I’d probably use it to buy each of my kids a car when they turn 21 or get out of college. Or give it to them to to help them out as they get started after school.
A third of $50G would mean more to each of them at that point in their lives than it would to me. I don’t have any debt and make enough to buy myself pretty much anything I want - and I don’t want all that much that costs much.
I pay off my credit cards every month… a habit I got into a long time ago and refuse to break… so I would instead use it to pay down my second mortage. I already have more interest write off than I can possibly use.
In fact, I am expecting to receive a check for $350K any day for a piece of land I bought 3 years ago that I just forced the seller to buy back from me. There was a problem with the lot… don’t ask. Once I get that check I will pay off my HELOC along with the numerous legal bills that are piling up from my recission lawsuit. 
Any money I have left over will go into the retirement account…
Put most of it aside for startup cost for Mr. Lissar’s dojo. Maybe fly down to see some friends and take a short vacation. Nothing exciting.
I might consider investing 10K of it with Cash Call, the people who make those high interest no-collateral loans. They offer something like 12% interest to the investor, but of course they are not FDIC insured. As long as the risk is distributed evenly it seems like it ought to be reasonably safe.
Just checking: you know that when some of us talk about paying off our debt it’s not credit cards (or at least not just credit cards), right?
Pay off my credit cards, get my house spiffed up (A/C, finished basement, new fridge, new siding, etc), buy myself a way-too-big TV, get a second dog and put the rest in savings.
Put it into my superannuation (pension) fund.
Straight to the retirement fund. I’ve got savings now, so I already spend what I want to.
We have no debt, not even a mortgage on our house, so I’d put it in short-term CDs and finance two adoptions. Anything left over, I’d use as the starter on a college fund for the kids.
Pay off my school loans (about 40K now), and put the rest in savings.