My first instinct would be to put it in the bank and live off the interest for the rest of my life. But, interest rates suck right now and I ball park $30 million @ 2% equals $600K, minus 50% taxes is $300K/year for life. Not a bad living, but I think with $30 million in the bank my life should be cooler than that.
How long do I have to live? Do I want to die with $30 million in the bank? No! I don’t know anyone I want to leave that kind of money to.
I could spend $1 million/year for 30 years. That would put me at 75 years old. Barring some surprising medical breakthroughs, I’ll be lucky to live that long. Actually, the money would be earning some interest over those 30 years so I’d need an accountant to tell me how long $1 million/year would last.
I could live a pretty cool life on $1 million/year.
Anyway,
If I managed to not have a heart attack before signing the ticket, I’d sign it and consider having the police drive me to the lotto place. If they balk, I’ll sweeten the deal with the promise of a new patrol car or some shit.
Attorney office that specializes in taxes & accounting, yup. They’d help me decide lump sum or annuity before I get to the lotto place and claim it.
I’d claim it privately if possible, but if not I immediately get a second, unlisted cell phone.
See number 2, and again, how long am I probably going to live and what gives me the most money to play with without dying not having spent it.
“What kind of financial advice do I seek out?” I’d be making friends with old wealth, and see what they do. To the extent I’ve brushed shoulders with those types, I do think they’re privy to investments that are largely kept “in the club,” so to speak. People who have had money a long time know how not to be stupid with it.
“What about all the friends and families that come out from the woodwork?” That new, second phone. Old number can ring silently off the hook. I won’t be checking the messages. As far as everyone is concerned, all my money is carefully invested long-term and I don’t have access to much of it. Do your begging publicly on Facebook or something. I might check that once in a blue moon.
“Finally-- smart investments?” I dunno, but I’m buying lots of land. Some that can be developed as I see fit, some meant to be kept natural. Otherwise, see number 5.
I might set up an alternative community of some sort. Gays, lesbians, tree-huggers, medical marijuana pot growers, a few artists, etc. I have a fantasy of a large enough piece of land I could more or less populate it with people who would insulate me from anyone I don’t trust or want to deal with.
On a practical note, you get 3 or 4 or a dozen of EACH depending on your windfall amount. The money is “broken up” among those different groups. That way, no matter what, you still have enough money to at least live comfortably.
Re keeping it secret. A good friend’s sister-in-law won $250,000 in the Ontario lottery. They asked her, did she want publicity. No, she said, keep it secret. Five minutes later the phone started ringing and didn’t stop till she got an unlisted number. Maybe US states are better. Now $250,000 is not $100,000,000, so it would be even worse. the first thing I would do is cancel my phone, get a new cell phone and give the number out only to people you want to have it.
I know someone who has (or used to have before Google) $100,000,000. He was an early investor in Sun Micro (and later became an early investor in Google, so he might have doubled his wealth). He paid a financial manager, bought a nice house with three Mercedes in the garage and always paid for dinner (although on one occastion he allowed me to buy him a $4 lunch). Outside of that, as far as I can tell he didn’t change his lifestyle. He continued his job as a CS professor, he remains interested in research in that field (and we still correspond regularly on issues mathematical) and he mainly acts like he isn’t rich. If I won $100,000,000, I would try to emulate him.
This is where I was going with my comments about contacting a few large wealth management companies. UBS is the first brand name that comes to mind. I’d more easily trust a large company to not swindle me than any independent business owner or lawyer. By contacting 4 or 5 of them, here in Chicago you could walk to all their offices in about 30 minutes, you’d create the type of competition you’d hope would ensure fair treatment.
Then, in the first 2 or 3 years, I’d spend a lot of time and energy educating myself on the nuances of the financial markets. Perhaps even putting myself through B-school (and enjoying the college life one more time!) in order to take the reins from the company and managing the money yourself.
With $50M I simply wouldn’t trust anyone who had less to lose than that, any private lawyer or independent financial professional has too much incentive to skim off the top. With the recent bank and stock market meltdowns I’m not sure I’d trust my money in traditional investments for the previously expected 7% annual return either. The idea of letting someone else handle the money while you cash checks blindly is a scary one that I couldn’t abide.
Let a big firm handle the money, let them use their own attorneys and analysts and let them compete for my millions. After year one, we see how successful they were and we take my money elsewhere if needed. Then little by little I start taking control of more of the decisions and investing a percentage of the money privately outside of the financial markets. The end result is about a 50-50 split between the money being handled and diversified by the company. Lots of safe investments like gold and bonds. Some riskier technology investments. Some currency trading and speculative ventures all managed by the big company. The rest would be tied up in real estate and small businesses as part of my personal corporation entirely managed by me.
Nah. It’s all in the proportions. The hooker and booze budget and and initial partying would probably not even amount to 1% of the take. If you chose the annuity you’d have a built in cap. All the spontaneous travel is chump change in comparison. I’m not talking private charters and an entourage, just a first class ticket and a nice suite by the beach.
My folks couldn’t piss away that kind of money if they tried and if a screw went loose I’d just cut them off. And giving away money to people close to you as opposed to making them justify it via a business venture and real estate purchase seems like a much slipperier slope. Obviously investments that aren’t scrutinized and business arrangements without wisely written contracts are stupid, but it goes without saying that I’d be protected from dramatic losses. If a friend gets a $100k investment and pisses it away in 3 months, then I know not to try that again.
I’m at a loss to understand how giving away big chunks of the money with no strings attached and no ongoing oversight from me and my people is a safer tactic. Are you arguing that real estate investment is liable to leave me penniless? Putting it in the bank and earning the 5% while sitting in a big house buying things is more productive than investing in small business? Even if those businesses fail or lose money, if I’m feeling occupied and fulfilled by work instead of consumption and sloth they are a raging success.
Over here, you pay the tax on the ticket, not the winnings, so if you win €100M, you get to take home €100M.
I’d opt for privacy and won’t tell anyone other than my parents, my brother, and close friends. Definitely no publicity. Pay off the mortgage, get the house fixed up, then get it let out. Pay off my brother’s mortgage, set him up to be comfortable. Buy a house near my brother to use as a base, but I’ll go travelling. I do enjoy good French wines. Longer term, I’ll go to America to learn to fly. Then I’ll buy or hire something like a Cessna and travel around North America. Once I’ve got a good few hours in the logbook, I’ll buy me a warbird. Have it nicely restored. Then go round the world showing it off at airshows.
The financial management side is initially relatively easy: over here, you get the money as a lump sum, and they have financial advisors on hand to suggest what to do.
No it’s not. It really does depend on your lifestyle, expectations, and i’m sure a host of other factors. Although I highly recommend it to people who have no clue about money, which works great because when you run out the first year (and MOST people will), you get another next year.
If you have a clue, the lump sum is the way to go.
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.
I’d immediately deposit the jackpot in four equal amounts in checking accounts in the four major chartered Canadian banks. That way an unexpected bcaollapse of a bank won’t break us.
We’d then retreat to a rented home, with new phone numbers, while we planned out the spending.
Half the money goes to low-risk, secure investment instruments.
We build a new house, max $2 million. You don’t want a house that breaks you. Two new cars but not Ferraris, just good safe cars.
About $10 million would be carefully allocated to family and friends.
Then a cooling off period, some travel, while we decide what we REALLY want to do.
What do you mean? I know there’s a Bentley dealer in St. Louis (or there was, before the recession), and I’m sure suburban Chicago has all the luxury goods you could ever want.
I like Cisco’s idea and I’ve never played Sims or anything like it.
I like to dream up towns and villages.
Dreaming up What I Would Do If I Won The Big One is pretty much a daily thing.
Take care of Family and friends first. (IRA’s will be stuffed. Homes and cars and loans paid off. braces for kids paid for. Kids college paid for. )
Pay off our debt.
Buy Real Estate and just sit on it. Especially waterfront.
Invest in Michigan.
I’ve always had this little dream to create my own private high school that is AWESOME and like a british prep school ( what I know of them from movies/books and TV.) Heavy focus on science and math.
Get a tummy tuck and boob job.
Set up scholarships for the kids in our little community, based on grades and behavior in the school. Chess club kids all get full rides. ( I’m not that great of a chess player, but I think dorks, dweebs and nerds should be highly rewarded.)
Or I just blow it all at once and start World Dodge Ball League..
3-day takeover of convention center, total Cecil-Adams-Geekout – seminars with SDSAB members, LIVE Great Debates with your best-loved and worst-despised Dopers, Keynote Address by Ed Zotti (with heckling), people wandering about packing simulations of 1920s Death Rays and bringing pies, reenactments of classic columns/classic thread meltdowns, mondegreen karaoke, Jack Chick art exhibit, gun show, cat show, Gay Wedding Chapel, nightly Doper Gentlemen’s Club Hour featuring our ecdysiast members (OK that one may be tougher to arrange), live Pit where you can just stand and rant and rave all day, solemn tributes to departed Dopers, closing night formal ball.
OTOH like hell I’m covering ALL expenses for THIS crowd. I cover rent, speakers fees, licenses and supplies. You’re gonna be hit with a reasonable nominal fee to cover at least the insurance, and if you want me to pay your airfare, or your room, or your drinks, or a combination you’ll have to write an essay in the registration form explaining why you’re worthy :p.
I’d set up a retreat for musicians and hire someone to run it. Then I’d spend my days researching history.
I wouldn’t mind 2 modest houses that take advantage of the Winter/Summer seasons. Nothing fancy. Something eclectic with a garage/shop I could play in. It would be cool to buy a farm and rent out the fields so I would have the space to put down a grass landing strip next to the house. The plane would be a Storch or something similarly fun to knock around in. A couple of cars to tinker with. A garden and a place to kill flowers would be great.
My rule of thumb is that the amount you’d actually get is the advertised jackpot divided by 3, assuming you take the lump sum.
I would buy four houses, one in each of the four corners of the US. Portland, my hometown, would be my northwest home. My home in the southwest would be in Vegas; New York, my northeast; and somewhere in Florida, my southeast. I’d also buy a fifth home abroad.
(OK that one may be tougher to arrange), live Pit where you can just stand and rant and rave all day, solemn tributes to departed Dopers, closing night formal ball.