As Everett Dirksen said, “A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon, you’re talking real money.”
Okay, that changes my basic family disbursement share to ~$1.35M.
ETA: also, DIBS!
BTW, seriously I would be unlikely to be doing much of the Megabucks expenditures in the first year+, other than the clearing of debt and securing some trusts for specific family members – I would have to take my time to research the *real *full costs of some of the fantasies. Pretty sure many of them are bloody expensive to fit up, run and maintain after purchase even for anear-billionaire. Or for instance I’d have to think over if a multimillion gift to a highfalutin’ first-tier elite university that already has a ridiculous endowment would be appreciated as much and make as much difference as if it went to one with fewer resources on hand. I have a couple of vanity business projects “to give me something to do” that I would not mind if they weren’t that profitable as long as they were not hemorrhaging cash, but that would require finding and hiring competent managers. And so forth…
Speaking of things to buy when you have too much money, I see in the news Playboy Mansion is going to be put up for sale with a restrictive clause that you have to let Hef live out his life there. Yeah right, now that he is finally “settled down” I have to have him as a tenant until he kicks? Though he’s asking 200million and everyone says even with the intangibles it should at best get 90, so no deal, for those prices I can pick up a far better crib ready to move in.
the neatest thing I ever saw someone do in retirement was to build an intercoastal houseboat. The deck had enough room for a car and a 2 place sea plane that could be winched into the water on a whim. since all my music and hobbies can be digitized it would be a relief to live in a small but comfortable boat and move about the Great Lakes and East Coast at a leisurely pace.
I’d consult with a surgeon about options for surgically adding an additional penis. I want something nobody else has.
I think the very first thing I’d do would be to put it in an envelope, seal it up, get a safe deposit box, and put the ticket in there.
Second, I’d (with a lot of help from my wife, an erstwhile lawyer) set up some sort of trust that could receive the prize, and set it up such that the trustees are kept secret. I’d also name it something remarkably obscene, so that the news-droids would have to read that shit out loud, and the various lottery commissions would have to publish it in their stuff. I’d take the cash option, pay my taxes, and put the rest in the trust.
Third, I’d figure out the best way to invest it. I’d probably diversify like a cracked-out fiend, with the expectation that I’d actually make money, but that since I have such an absurd amount, growing my capital isn’t the total goal, but neither would putting it in treasury bills and sitting on it either.
Fourth, I think my wife and I would probably take a million or two each as “spending money”, and probably another few as the “new house/estate fund”.
With my couple of million, I think I’d get some space in an industrial park somewhere- with a big garage door, floor drains, and the like, and build it out as a sort of hyper-man-cave, with a picobrewery, a tricked-out wood shop and a general workbench area. I’d also have an air-conditioned part with a little kitchen, some fridges, a big TV and sweet sound system (basically a home theater), as well as my Xbox One, a much more spiffy PC than I have, and rig it all up so I can play Xbox or PC games in the home theater with my buddies, drink beer and eat snacks without bugging the wife or children.
My wife would probably do something similar, except that it would be the world’s most awesome paper-crafting/scrapbooking lair, as well as a fully tricked-out jewelrymaking shop.
Other than that, I’d probably not quit my job until we had the trust all figured out. Then, I imagine I’d probably just loaf for a couple of months and then we’d probably do some traveling- visit our parents for extended periods, go to visit places we haven’t been, etc…
I don’t see myself cutting into the principal winnings, but I’d probably donate a good chunk of whatever gains I made from it to various charities.
Travel. Lots of travel.