On a whim you buy a Powerball ticket (or the equivalent in your country). To your great surprise it wins the jackpot, a cool one hundred million dollars. Not one cent more and not one cent less.
The money is yours to do with as you see fit. How much of the sum do you simply…give away? Excluding friends and family, including donations to registered charities only (all they need is a pint a day).
10% to charities, 10% to close family members, 10% to slightly more distant relatives and friends. 30% to my pet non profit experimental organiztion set up in a trust. I would spend less than a million on a new home and probably just blow about 10 million. The remaining 40% might be distributed partially to charities over the years but be in a family trust with strict specification on how and when it may be used.
First I’ll donate enough to charity to maximize my post tax net. After that some large portion for charitable purposes though not necessarily given away. I want to make sure the money is doing some good, not simply a tax write-off. I’d rather start a money losing business hiring people in a depressed area than giving it to established charities. It may seem silly, but I’d give a lot to Secret Santa and similar programs that brighten the lives of underprivileged children.
I’d bank it and retire, continuing to support the same charities I currently support on the same annual basis but at a higher level commensurate to my annual budget. I wouldn’t just blow or give away millions of dollars for shits and giggles.
Eventually most of of it, since I am not likely to ever have kids(and even if I did I wouldn’t want them to be entitled shits). I said 10-20 because that it what would go within the first year or so.
I’d pay off my student loans, get started on a house, start a college fund for the kiddle, and get something going for retirement. I’d set aside some money for family members, but only plan to use it for emergencies.
I would tell nobody about the money. I live a happy life, and I have no reason to believe that kind of money would do anything but disrupt that.
Probably a fair bit. I don’t have any kids, so don’t need to plan for them. I’d give a bunch to my parents and siblings, but really, who needs more than a few million? I’d keep enough for myself that I could travel and probably start a business or set myself up as a philanthropist. Whatever was left, which I’m guessing would be the bulk of it, I’d give to various charities.
I wouldn’t go giving away a huge chunk, I would invest it and donate a hefty chunk of the revenues and get invited to all the cool parties, see if I can buy myself a city councilman or two via election donations and see if I can go all power broker, once that gets boring, move up to state government.
That would be zero, wouldn’t it? How would it be anything other than zero?
For me, I think maybe a million on a nice house, another couple of million invested so I never need to work again, the rest’s gone, one way or another.
Apart from anything else, I need to think about my kids. Inheriting too much money straight up isn’t good for anybody. I can’t imagine spending your childhood watching your parents blow large chunks on fast living would be all that good for you either.
This is why I answered zero. I will be the person who decides if someone gets something, not some organization that thinks it knows better than me. Random waitrons get $10K tips. Pull a Steve Wynn and buy a shit-ton of $5000 gift cards just before Christmas. Pick a random kindergarten and pay the tuition of any of them that graduate high school.