Let’s say you win 600 million dollars.
Make a list of all you do with it and what you spend it on.
I take about 10 million and pay off all my debts, restore my house into pristine condition, get a couple new economical and safe cars, and pay all the deferred medical care I have been putting off (cosmetic dentistry, that kind of thing). The rest of the 10 million I live on the rest of my life.
The other 590 million (well, whatever is left after taxes) I spend researching cryonics and digital emulations of humans, to maximize my chance that my natural life doesn’t end after a mere 80-100 years but instead continues far into the future. It might not work, but kids who try to be astronauts don’t succeed either - all you can do is try, and 590 million would help make a lot of progress.
It isn’t just selfish, the research would be available to others as well.
I’d travel the world whenever I felt like it from there on out.
Buy 1 or 2 properties.
Give half or more to my parents.
Not sure about the rest.
Just for myself, a new Prius, new laptop and desktop computers, and all my bills paid off, of course. And a completely custom home for my mom and myself, designed to accommodate our desires and our various disabilities, with solar and wind power, geothermal heat, and other green features. Then I’d set up accounts to ensure a solid monthly income for myself and a nest egg to pay for care my mom and I might need in the future. And me and my mom take an around-the-world cruise.
I buy a house and car for my sister and her kids. Her husband isn’t invited. (She’d be okay with that.) I pay for her to learn to drive. I fully fund her kids’ education through college. I buy a house for whomever is raising the children of my late brother. (Their custody is in flux.) I fully fund their educations through college. I put money aside to pay for rehab for their mother, if she ever gets to a place where she’s willing.
I buy a nice house in a good neighborhood for my cousins to rent-to-own from me. They wouldn’t take one for free but they can pay me well below market rental rates. 
Even though we don’t really talk any more, I’d probably buy a house for my former best friend and her kids, too. I also offer to buy a house for my mom’s best friend, on the condition that her abusive, horrible, violent husband may never, ever cross the threshold. (She probably wouldn’t accept.)
I’d top Lemony Snicket with a $10 million check to Planned Parenthood. Another $10 to Pathfinder International for their international reproductive health work.
Then I set up some funds for LGBTQ people, with money that has some investment backing so that it can self-perpetuate. One a scholarship fund, one a safety fund to help people out of unsafe housing situations, and the last to help trans people access medical transition care.
I’d build a decent deep-sea submarine, equip a lab base ship, and do seabed geological research.
My wife and I did buy a powerball ticket yesterday and discussed how we’d use it if we won.
We’re retired and pretty financially comfortable. We would, however, keep a million for ourselves.
I would want to give the rest to the Humane Society. I’d want them to agree to use the money for supplying cat heartworm meds to shelters in the southern states and also to support spay-neuter programs.
My wife thought that we should use some to help humans too. We’d have had to discuss it further. But, as was thought, no need now. I just hope the Michigan person uses it wisely. But, based on history, it’ll probably just ruin their life.
[ul]
[li]A house on the water in Maine (with a mother-in-law set-up for my parents. Is it still a mother-in-law set-up if it’s for your own parents? Questions for the ages).[/li]
[li]A new vehicle, natch[/li]
[li]A house, vehicle, lump sum and trust for my son[/li]
[li]A lump sum for all other family members[/li]
[li]A fully staffed and funded dog rescue, on property near my own[/li]
[li]The tens of thousands of dollars worth of dental work that I haven’t been able to afford to have done[/li]
[li]Travel, travel, travel[/li]
[li]A charitable foundation, primarily to fund research[/li][/ul]
I may have given this a moment or two of thought before. Mostly, I would enjoy the deep and abiding sense of peace that comes from financial security.
What I do is invite my two closest friends to redeem the ticket with me and we split the jackpot. I’m of the opinion that the only way to remain happy after winning Powerball would be to elevate my best friends and their families to the same superwealthy status that I’m about to enjoy. Otherwise the only way they hang out with me is on my dime, and I can’t see that as breeding anything but resentment over time. I think loneliness is what’s at the heart of all the lottery tragedy stories you hear about.
Aside from the regular travel and toys, I want to set up a foundation to give out entrepreneurial startup grants in my town, especially in low-income areas. I also buy out all the game stores in my town and open up one of my own.
Well, of course, I would first pay all applicable State and Federal taxes; and then find a reputable Financial Advisor to help properly manage my fortune.
Then? Disney World. For about a week. No question.
After that, I think…space. I’ll see what space tourism options are available, and pick one or three. Maybe see if that DSE-Alpha circumlunar mission is still on the table.
'Mostly patronizing the arts, after that, I think. Fund some Kickstarters, maybe see if I can get some never-completed film or comic projects running again—definitely bankroll some software/game mods and plugins. Hell, maybe even shell out the money to official license some old properties to port to a new(er) engine, and a modern release. No, I don’t care if no one else actually wants to play it!
Maybe open up a couple of bookstores—re-open, really. The Borders that I always loved spending time at, and…well, there was this Crown Books at a local shopping center when I was a kid. I was there opening night, as a matter of fact. They’d hired a quartet. Beautiful place—I have a lot of fond memories of it.
It closed years ago, when Crown went under. It’s now a Ross. But if I had the money to spend, and I didn’t really care about making a profit, I’ve always thought I’d like to take it back. Rebuild it, just the way it was on that opening night. Same floorplan, same decor, books in the same sections (I can still remember most of them)…
I don’t really want a mansion, or limos, or people remembering my name with fondness or gratitude…I just want my old bookstore back.
I’d buy an island and a helicopter and come up with a cunning plan to take over the world.
I’d give 250 million to my brother.
I’d take 50 million to an investment house along with a list of names of relatives. The IH is to invest the 50 million and send each of the people on the list an equal share of the profits each quarter. The check will include a note not to ever ask me for money or the quarterly checks will stop.
I have three or four coworkers who I would give about 5 million each so that they can retire right now along with me.
I will take another 50 million to the investment house. My present employer, a public school district, gets the profits with the proviso that the money must be used toward payroll.
I will move someplace warm and be a reclusive weirdo on the rest.
This is one of my favorite things to daydream about! Here’s my list:
[ul]
[li]Pay off all of my debt (duh)[/li][li]Buy a new, lavish house[/li][li]Buy my mom a new house[/li][li]Hire a cleaning staff[/li][li]Hire a chef[/li][li]Buy a 1987 Porsche 911 with the whale tail so I can finally have a full sized version of my favorite Hot Wheel[/li][li]Buy a new Porsche 911 for track day fun[/li][li]Buy my wife a Land Rover (we could finally afford all of the repairs!)[/li][li]Buy myself a Tesla P85D for daily driving[/li][li]Donate to as many Democratic candidates as legally possible[/li][li]Fully stock the local food pantry and shelters[/li][li]Donate a scholarship fund to the university I went to[/li][li]Donate a scholarship fund to the urban high school I taught at[/li][li]Spend my time learning about computer science and astronomy[/li][li]Possibly send my kids to Cranbrook or Detroit Country Day, although I worry about them becoming sociopaths if they go there[/li][/ul]
I’ll set up a kick-ass outdoor Prehistory museum beside a huge tract of pristine woodland, fund much-needed archaeological & ecological research in the area and publish lavish coffee-table books on the subject, all without a moment of thinking about money. 100 years from now my investments / money holes will have ever-increasing value from a scientific / preservation point of view, dystopias excluded.
OK, I elect to take the lump sum payout, which will be half the stated amount, and half of that will go to Federal and state taxes. If I moved to New Hampshire, which doesn’t have a state income tax, before the end of the year, I could save a few million more, but, with $150 million in the bank, who cares?
Buy a large boat.
Sail west.
Keep going.
Buy a more fuel efficient car to get to work.
600 million?! I can barely even conceive of what that means.
Step 1, get a good financial planner.
Step 2, buy my dad a freakin house in Michigan, making the decision for him.
Step 3, probably give some money to his relatives, we’d have to discuss how much.
Step 4, buy a modest house in the country somewhere, wherever we wanted to move.
Step 5, buy a new car for him.
Step 6-1 bazillion, TRAVEL THE WORLD
I would buy several rooms on a large cruise ship, have them made into an apartment, and travel for the rest of my life.
I’d go to my ex-real estate broker and tell her I want to buy a million dollar house and could she show me some. And when I find the one I want, I’ll be sure to give her a “few” extra bucks on the side. Say $500,000.
After she shows me about five hundred places, I would buy from someone else. And fuck you on the cash, sweetie.
The most you can win here in Canada is $60 million, the top possible prize in the Lotto Max. (About $45 million USD at current rates.) Of course, it’s tax free and paid immediately - they literally hand you a check for the entire amount upon presentation of the ticket - so that’s cool. Anyway, at the numbers we’re talking about $45 million or $300 million however it’s paid is all the same to me. It’s more than I need. So
- We would quit out jobs.
- All the money would be put into savings accounts split between three different chartered banks.
- All debts would be paid off, though that amount would be a miniscule fraction of the jackpot. Not my car loan though, there’s no point as it’s 0 percent.
- We would not spend a lot of time around the house. Vacations would be taken, albeit nothing ridiculously glamorous and nothing that takes the kids out of school for too long.
- Although they do publicize winners we’d try to limit this information to close family and friends.
For a few months, basically our full time job would be financial planning. Most would go into interest-generating investments across a balanced spectrum of risk levels - everything from higher risk speculative stuff to GICs to index funds to a few hundred grand in actual physical gold hidden in a safety deposit box.
We would then consider how much to give away, which falls into two categories:
-
Basically there are eight families close enough to us to merit being given money. All would be given the same amount, probably $500,000 each, which is life-changing money to all of them. Not enough to retire on for those who’re still working but it would sure make their lives easier.
-
All our nieces and nephews would have education funds.
-
We’d begin setting up a charitable trust to invest money and funnel cash to charities of our choice.
In terms of how we’d spend money on ourselves,
-
We would move into a bigger house. Nothing ridiculous, but certainly larger than what we have now; something larger enough to have a comfortable guest room, an office and a pool. (of course selling our current house would pay for most of that.)
-
We’d get nicer cars. My true love is a huge car girl. I’ve never had a nice car. What the hell.
-
We would take epic vacations. Really, we aren’t very materialistic and there is absolutely no chance at all we’ll blow any money on designer clothes, antiques, jewelry or $8000 espresso machines, but major league travel is something we have always been determined to do. A luxury African safari, a trip to Patagonia, the Far East, the works. It would ne nice to expose the children to the world.