I was reading that just a few days ago a couple won Minnesota’s largest lottery jackpot of $180mil and opted for the $60mil payout. They are both in their mid 50s.
And there’s that phrase again that always seems to come up when interviewing lottery winners of multi-millions:
He’s a heavy equipment operator. She works at an agricultural research institute.
“We have no plans to retire any time soon.”
SAY WHAT!!
Are there that many people out there that love their jobs so much that given the choice to leave it for good and spend their time how ever they want with no worry about money would opt to keep their job? The mind boggles.
Maybe if you were in the arts and it was your passion/hobby/job to paint/act/sing/create every day but even then wouldn’t you just do it on your own time at your leisure?
I know some people’s entire social life revolves around the people they work with but still, throw a party once or twice a week and have them all over.
So what say you?
How fast would you leave your current job if you just won and instant $60mil?
I’d probably stop by to say goodbye and that’s about it.
I’d be out the door faster than you can shake a stick at.
I would continue to work but it’d probably be at an independent record store. I’d be Jack Black (or that other guy) from High Fidelity. It would give me something to do and let’s face it, hanging out in a record store is barely work.
I would quit my current job and find something part time or volunteering just to keep myself busy. I can’t see myself streched out on a cruise ship for the rest of my life or anything like that. I would go nuts without having a job to go to at least semi-regularly. Besides that, with that kind of money and no grounding to the real world I would end up weighing 700 lbs very quickly…60 million dollars buys a lot of pizza, you know!
If it is $60 million after taxes, no question, “Goodbye, and thanks for all the fish!”
BUT - A lot of lottery payouts, even though they sound like a lot initially, don’t add up to much. Win $1,000,000, paid out over 20 years, with taxes taken out = approx. $35,000 a year. Can you quit your job for $35,000 a year? Some can, but not me!
Well, I only work part-time from home with a computer-based business, but would have no qualms about giving that up! And my hubby works full-time as an IT guy for the feds, and I know, even though he likes his job, he’d quit in a heartbeat.
We would move to a large hunk of land (at least 100 acres) in the country, with a ~3,000 square foot house, and he would have the most awesomely outfitted wood working shop this side of a TV show, and would sell the stuff he makes, just because we’d run out of room in our house.
Just parenthetically, I have a friend who is very wealthy. He says the best thing about being rich is that when there’s stuff you don’t feel like doing, you can pay someone else to do it! I wouldn’t want anyone else to raise my kids, and I enjoy meal-planning and cooking (and would enjoy it even more on an unlimited budget), but would totally pay someone to clean for me!
I would notify my supervisor that I quit within an hour of learning that I had won. I work for a corporation that employs over 100,000 people…they can afford to replace me.
I can see it. It seems like I’ve read lots of sad stories about people who win a big jackpot and then have their lives go to pot after they quit their jobs and start living the high life. I think I’d enjoy my job a heck of a lot more if I didn’t have money worries hanging over me, anyhow.
That said, I’d probably quit the job I have now and try to make a go of life as a full-time printmaker, but I’d do it in a professional, businesslike way, trying to actually create and market my work consistently, just like I would if I did it “for a living.” If I didn’t have something to work for, “job” or not, I’d probably end up watching TV or movies 8 hours a day and Doping for another 5. Hello 650 lb, clinically depressed Margo Lane! (Not to imply that being 650 lbs or clinically depressed are due to laziness, just that that’s where I could see myself ending up. YMMV)
on preview- what pbbth said.
And, as norinew pointed out, work is more fun if you come home to clean dishes and a full fridge, in a really nicely appointed home! I could live like a Wall Street wizard, without the stress or long hours.
I wouldn’t quit my job. I love it–I couldn’t even go part time, because I’d have to give up one of the courses that I teach and I love all three. I would, however, pay people to do EVERYTHING else. Cleaning, cooking, bookkeeping, car stuff, shopping–I’d pay someone to be my keeper. That would free up so much time, the work would be easy.
I own a small business. Whenever we have the “what if we won Powerball?” conversation I start out with what equipment I’d upgrade, and the full color half-page ad I’d run in every issue of Baltimore Style…it would be so nice to run the business (for at least a little while) without having to juggle the finances.
And then my husband says “so you’re going to keep working, then? I’ll call you from whatever island I go to.”
eta Oh Yeah! What MandaJo said! I’d hire people for assorted services, and also an assistant to do things like take my car to get inspected and other time sucking errands like that.
I wouldn’t quit right away, either. My job isn’t anything earth-shatteringly special, but I like it (most of the time), and I love my co-workers (most of the time). I’m not a very social person outside of work, so I think it would be very important for me to stay on the job for at least a few years until I figured out what to do. At least that way, I would be assured that I still knew some people who didn’t get all chummy with me just for the money. Otherwise, I think the instant transition from regular struggling-to-get-by gal to stinking rich would be too jarring and not particularly good for my mental state (although I do assume that there would be some resentment of me at work for sticking around and “keeping a job that someone else needs more.”)
I’m pretty sure it’s possible to make those decisions without getting up and going to work every day.
My first thought when reading these articles is “wow, there’s a job going to waste…” I’m sure they’re very down to earth folks, but why keep a blue collar mid income job tied up when you don’t need it? The economy sucks, and there are plenty of people who want to work. Give my job to someone who needs it; I’ll be in Tuscany. Possibly Lake Como. Hong Kong? Somewhere way more interesting than here, anyway.
I really like my job, but I’d really like to have my own coffee shop somewhere around here. The only reason I haven’t already made the jump is that because no matter how I run the numbers the best I can come up with is to almost break even.
But with 60 mil in the bank I’d start looking for real estate close to the college. Not retirement per se, but definately not something I’d be making money at.
I’d be peeing into the Superintendant’s “In” basket before the end of the day. Then I’d go to Disneyland. I mean, I really, really love my job, but I’ve been doing it for 21 years. My Debate kids might be a bit miffed, but offering them a stack of scholarship money would take care of any residual hard feelings or guilt on my part.
I wouldn’t even go back to the office for my coffee mug.
I’d wait (maybe a year as suggested) to give myself time to get used to having all of that money. During that time I’d be consulting with financial advisers, etc. about ways to manage it, figuring out for whom and how I’d set up trust funds, etc.
Part of that consulting would be how to set up different foundations because part of the fantasy I immediately go into when I think about winning a large sum of money is going around the country (world?) helping people. One vision I have is to seek out people who desparately need help where small stipends would save the day. This could range from medical and financial crises to something more sinister.
For instance, there was a story about several poor people in Texas who were railroaded into pleading guilty to drug charges based on false information supplied by a confidential informant. Once the falsehood was discovered, however, the parties couldn’t retract their pleas and were on the hook for fines and court costs. I’d swoop in anonymously and wipe those out.
I guess at that point my job would become (along with staff) researching and deciding on which people to help. I know I can’t help everybody but I’ve decided that, if I ever won that kind of money, it was ordained that I use to help as many people as I can.
I’d still have several cars and houses in a couple of places though. I ain’t crazy.