I saw this couple on the news tonight. They look like nice people, and for once, winners who aren’t in their 80’s! I got the impression that they planned on spending some of that money on education about a disease that took their 2-year-old granddaughter five years ago. I didn’t catch the name of the disease.
I’d quit, for sure, but I might feel differently if I was self-employed, owned my business, if people were relying on me, etc.
Not long term but I probably would quit my job for a while to finish my degree full-time instead of taking night classes for the next umpteen years. Maybe reverse the situation if I had to and work part-time while attending classes full time.
I’d make sure3 my current projects were wrapped up and then I’d quit my main job. I have a second job coaching rowing and I’d do this more, probably taking over the head juniors position which doesn’t really pay enough to live on but sucks up mondo time. I’d also start volunteering for ESL tutoring more and attending more local community involvement meetings. And pay off my house, buy the house behind me, and expand upward while hiring maids, landscapers and maybe a cook to bring me meals.
Sure I’d quit! I wouldn’t not work forever, but I’d hold out for a much better job. Or at least a lot fewer hours.
[QUOTE=Hampshire]
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.”
It is easy for them to say that they have no plans to retire. Check back in a few months. Check back after they have dealt with some jerk on the job, it always happens. Check back after they wake up one morning, as we all have, and say I don’t feel like going to work today. Wait a minute I don’t have to.
Once you have money many of your relationships change, especially with
co-workers. You are no longer an equal. Your friends are struggling with the rent payment and you are flying first class to Paris. You won’t last long in the old job.
However you will find plenty of things to fill you day. If you get tired of one thing you can do another, it only cost money and with $60 million you have plenty. I haven’t worked for 10 years and I am rarely bored and never enough to go back to work. Each day I do exactly what I want to and on my own schedule
People I know of set up an education fund for any one in their extended family. They won $20 million.
If you want to work you can. Bill Gates does. But it won’t be for the money. It will be to satisfy you.
Along with running the coffee house I do have an altruistic side.
I would fully fund the home for wayward centerfolds. 
I’m a nurse. It’s what I do and it’s what I am. I might choose to work fewer hours or take a less stressful position but I worked too hard for my RN to ever just give it up. I’m a nurse all the time, too. I can mute it a little but I can’t turn it off. That’s why most of my friends are nurses…who else can stand us?
I’d quit. That day. For one thing, it would be too awkward. I’ve got coworkers who sell plasma to make ends meet…would they come by and hint for a handout? It would be even tougher to scrape up the gumption to get through mandatory overtime than it is now. After all, what’s time-and-a-half when you have millions? And how can I travel around the world when I only get two weeks’ vacation? Maybe I’d buy a monkey that they can train as my replacement.
I’d stay on the job until November 5th. I think highly of my coworkers, and would not bail on them when they will really need me and I’ve already promised to be there.
There’d be the usual mad-money spree, but it wouldn’t be noticeable out of $60m.
I’d set up trusts for those in my life who need them. Enough for college, or a down payment on a house, or just to face the world without the desperate fear I’ve always known.
And college: Hello Academia! This time, I don’t need no steenkin’ required courses!
And get some needed medical care. 
I’ve always said that the only thing I hate more than my job is not having one.
Seriously; I’ve been out of work for five weeks due to medical reasons and even without the financial worry, I was going bananas.
I love photography, and do it part-time now; I would do it full-time. And travel in order to pursue it. It wouldn’t matter if I made money at it.
The main thing is that if my alarm went off I wouldn’t have to get out of bed.
That would be a nice feeling.
Or, at least looking at a few celebrity mags, rich people. Let’s ditch the “poor people are defective” trope, please.
FWIW, I’d stay here (Peace Corps Volunteer) and try to find a way to continue this kind of work. I’ve got the best job in the world right now.
I gave up work 12 months ago and have never looked back (never won lotto either). If you can’t find enough to fill your time you are difficult to please.
Now see, I didn’t read that statement as “poor people are defective”, I read it more as “the kind of people who hit the lottery are often poor and defective” because that’s the type that tends to play the lottery most often. But of course, I didn’t write the sentence in the first place, so I can’t say for sure what he meant.
Me: Hi Boss. Did you hear there was one winning ticket in the bajillon dollar lottery yesterday?
Big Boss: Oh?
Me: Yes, and I’m holding it. I’ll leave a copy, the office cell phone and my keys on your desk. Goodbye.
I would never speak to her again.
ETA: With all the organizations desperately in need of volunteers and all the people desperately in need of paying jobs, I’d donate my time and let someone who needs the money have this job.
See, I don’t get that at all.
My husband makes more than enough money for us to live on comfortably. And yet I work. Because I like to. Because I like the security of a two income family. Is my job ‘wasted’ because I don’t need it? Who gets to determine that?
Most people recommend that when you go through a big change, you try and minimize the associated changes while you see what the effect will be. Seems wise. In six months they may say “I’m outta here” to their bosses. But they’ll have six months to think about winning the lottery in more than just an abstraction. Lottery dreaming turned into lottery reality seldom works well.
I suspect for many people, saying ‘I won’t quit my job’ is like saying ‘The money isn’t going to change me, I’m still going to be the same person I was before I won the money’.
Plus a lot of peoples’ identities is wrapped up in their occupations.
That comma placement is probably wrong.
Yeah, I’d definitely stay at my job…but I’d do it for no pay!
Being a telefundraiser, occasionally we get the odd snarky fart who demands to know whether we’re being paid for our fundraising efforts…to which I always reply in the affirmative.
It’d be worth hanging out here for NO wages, so that the next time somebody asks whether I volunteer my services, I can tell them with absolute impunity that I DO!!
But anyway, I really like the people I work with, and I couldn’t imagine NOT hanging out with them during the day. That alone would keep me working and not retired.
There’s a lot that could be done with $60 million after taxes. Acid Lamp and I would probably continue to work, but I’d be a part time librarian and he’d set up a professional studio for his art. We’d probably get vacation homes in Reykjavik and Hokkaido or Kyoto and have regular visits there. Of course, this would require some language tutors for Icelandic and Japanese until we get the hang of the nuances of each language.
We’d build that house we keep talking about having someday, and Acid Lamp dreams of having a butler. (<---- I keep imagining Tim Curry as a butler and mentally go a little wonky.) I’d probably pursue another master’s degree and fulfill my pursuit of hobbies. We’d pay off my brother and SIL’s mortgage, and buy the other brother a condo if he wanted. There’s a lot we could do, but I’d invest a substantial chunk of the money in interest earning accounts.
My job (private tutor of all ages) sustains me; while I’d probably take 1-3 months off here and there, I likely wouldn’t completely quit it.
Sure. It’s a subjective thing, I’m thinking. I don’t expect my opinion to apply across the board, that’s just how I personally see it. I’m a nurse. I love what I do. But when it comes right down to it…I’m still answerable to other people. I still have to get up earlier than I’d like, I still spend way less time with my kids than I’d like, I still have a list of things I’d like to do that I will probably not get around to doing because I’m supporting myself and two small people. No regrets, and I certainly wouldn’t change my decisions…but if I had the cash to be doing otherwise? With all the love to my patients…I will be doing those other things. I see no reason to put them off just because others who came before weren’t smart enough to speak with a financial advisor and refuse to admit they have no clue as to how to handle that huge pile o’ cash.