# You have won $100 million. Now what? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 29, 2009, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-won-100-million-now-what/498017 "2009-05-29T12:37:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2009, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-won-100-million-now-what/498017/61 "2009-05-30T17:52:36Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > 3a. How long from the day I claim until the day the money is in my hand? > > 3b. Do they just send you a paper check in the mail, like how I get my tax refund? What protections are in place against, say, a neighbor stealing the check? > > 4a. How do those of us in the Midwest by ultra-high-end luxury goods? I guarantee you there is not a Maybach or Maserati dealer anywhere near Illinois. 3a & b: They don’t give you a cashable check. It takes about 2 weeks to get the money, which will be transfered into an account you designate. (I’m talking about for a large amount of money, smaller amounts get paid right out.) They advise you to go home and seek financial advice as to where to put the money. If you just have to start spending the money right away I’m sure you can get a short term loan. 4a: You can now fly anywhere in the world to do your shopping. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2009, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-won-100-million-now-what/498017/62 "2009-05-30T18:32:42Z")
> [@ghardester](#): > > 4a: You can now fly anywhere in the world to do your shopping. :smack: I meant this more as hyperbole and as an indictment against the remoteness of where I live, rather than an actual query. Yes I realize I can fly anywhere in the world. I guess my attempt at humor fell flat. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2009, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-won-100-million-now-what/498017/63 "2009-05-30T18:49:23Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > 4a. How do those of us in the Midwest by ultra-high-end luxury goods? I guarantee you there is not a Maybach or Maserati dealer anywhere near Illinois. Maybach Orland Park 8430 West 159th Street Orland Park IL 60462 There’s also a dealer in Wisconsin and two in Ohio, according to the manufacturer’s website. Maserati: Lake Forest Sports Cars 900 North Shore Drive Late Forest IL 60044 There’s another dealer in Hinsdale IL, and others elsewhere in the Midwest. In other words, there are lots of places in the Midwest to buy expensive stuff, and as others suggested, rich people can also fly elsewhere to spend money. (I’ve never been to Chicago, but I’ve seen enough John Hughes movies to know there are lot of rich people there.) ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-won-100-million-now-what/498017/64 "2009-05-30T19:01:54Z")
> [@spooje](#): > > I would wander the earth like Kwai Chang Caine, but with money instead of Kung Fu. So, you’d be Loose Change Caine? ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2009, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-won-100-million-now-what/498017/65 "2009-05-30T19:18:07Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > If we work it right, we die while sipping the last of a nice bottle of wine bought with the last of the bank account. That’s a terrible plan. Do you really want your last thought to be ‘Oh shit, we’re out of wine!’? ---
**Author:** ![CutterJohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/91b2a8/32.png) [@CutterJohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CutterJohn)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-won-100-million-now-what/498017/66 "2009-05-30T19:49:18Z")
Lessee… 30m lump sum. 1m - Blow on useless stuff I don’t need, but would love to have. Get it out of my system. 2m - placed in my ‘Never have to work again, ever, ever, ever stash’. to be used sparingly only if all my other money is gone. 5m - 2.5m to both of my brothers 5m - 2.5m to both sets of parents. 3m - 250k to each of the aunts, uncles, 1st cousins. this leaves 14 million… Which i would use to open up an independent game company. I’ve a few game ideas floating around in my head that I’d love to see made(and wouldn’t mind buying the IP and continuing a couple others). If it all goes tits up and i lose everything? No worries… I’ve still got my 2mil stash that I will retire on. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2009, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-won-100-million-now-what/498017/67 "2009-05-30T23:25:44Z")
Rule of thumb is that you wind up with about 1/3 if you take the cash payout. So now I’ve got $30 million. I pay off all debt, fix up the house and try to keep Obama from stealing the rest of it. ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2009, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-won-100-million-now-what/498017/68 "2009-05-30T23:47:36Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > I pay off all debt, fix up the house and try to keep Obama from stealing the rest of it. Shoot, the top tax bracket is lower now than it was at any time between 1932 and 1987. Just be glad you’re not living under that wild and crazy tax-and-spend Eisenhower, when the top tax bracket was 91%! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2009, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-won-100-million-now-what/498017/69 "2009-05-31T02:44:59Z")
> [@ghardester](#): > > So I would not take the $35 million up front because I would rather have $69 million over time. > > Sure you could be a better investor than the state, or you could loose it all in a few years of bad choices. Another reason this may be the way to go: The lottery commission can invest $50 million, because they don’t have the tax loss; while you can invest only $35 million. You are going to have to invest pretty aggressively to make up the compund interest on $15 million right out of the chute. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2009, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-won-100-million-now-what/498017/70 "2009-05-31T03:44:44Z")
I’d tell nobody. I’d stash away one million dollars for my retirement, so that I don’t have to worry about that. I don’t want to not have to work, because I’m a lazy person and if I don’t have to work, I won’t. And I recognize that lolling around in bed all day - no matter how nice that bed might be - is not the path to a happy life for me. I’d stash away a second million for my family. I wouldn’t tell them it was there. For the most part they are doing fine and an infusion of cash wouldn’t do much to make their lives better. It’d just be their old life with more money. But I want to have something for them for emergencies. The rest I’d use to create a trust to pay the school fees (about $20.00 a year) of every female student in the country of Cameroon. Anything left over would be used for building classrooms and boarding facilities in Cameroonian schools. ---
**Author:** ![PeacePlease](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/71c47a/32.png) [@PeacePlease](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PeacePlease)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2009, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-won-100-million-now-what/498017/71 "2009-05-31T06:40:14Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > The rest I’d use to create a trust to pay the school fees (about $20.00 a year) of every female student in the country of Cameroon. Anything left over would be used for building classrooms and boarding facilities in Cameroonian schools. Oh my. You made me cry. That is all kinds of awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2009, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-won-100-million-now-what/498017/72 "2009-05-31T15:53:38Z")
I would take the lump sum. To start off I would wait the 180 days to claim my money so most people would forget about it. I already know my financial advisor, a high school friends dad who only handles milionares or larger, but I don’t have a laywer since my dad’s lawyer became a judge. So I would have to find a lawyer in that time. Once I claimed my money I would pay off all of my debt and finish the remodel on both of my homes ~$450k. Then I would invest the rest of the money in very conservative investments. I would continue to live my life for another year until I earned my PE and tell every one that I don’t have any money. After 2 years of so I would quit my job and move home and go back to college and I would spend a couple of years getting degrees in how to manage my money. I would begin living on the interest somewhere around 300k/year, so I would save the excess while I was in school. So I would have almost a million saved up to spend when I graduated which would be my chance to spoil myself. Most of that spoiling would involve buying a beach house in fact I would probably buy two homes next to each other and tear them down and build a new home for about a $5 million project so I would only have my down payment. I would also start my own business since I would be bored of lounging arround, no idea what it would be though. I would be willing to invest in my friends and family but I would insist on it being good investments. Beyond that my family are all situated to take care themselves so I would only need to act as a safety net and to create the next Rockafeller family. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-won-100-million-now-what/498017.md?page=3)