You win a large sum of money in the lottery, what do you do with it

In My Humble Opinion
1

I was talking to one of my old college freinds tonight, and he remarked how he had purchased a lottery ticket (something he usually does not do, he’s highly intelligent, and sees the lottery as the “Redneck Retirement Plan” (to paraphrase Jeff Foxworthy) )

the total’s around 120 million, so we got to discussing what “crazy” things we’d do with the money (speaking purely theoretically)

here’s what we came up with…

purchase a warehouse, fill it with pc’s and microsoft products then blow it up (my idea, obviously :wink: )

buy some ultraexpensive supercars (Ferraris and Lamborghinis, for example), put a brick on the accelerator and crash them into each other to see what kind of crashing noises they make/if they explode

hop on a plane and fly down to New Zealand/Australia for a nice refreshing lunch of Grilled Koala/Kangaroo Kebabs

deep-fry a bald eagle

y’know, crazy, impractical stuff that no one in their right mind would do…

in all reality, if i won a superlottery, i’d pay off all my bills, get a nice, simple house and car, put aside enough so i wouldn’t need to work, and give the remainder to charity

with what’s happening along the Gulf Coast, i’d probably use the remainder to build a housing complex for the hurricaine survivors…

what crazy things would you do with a superlottery jackpot?

2

First off, I’d pay for every piece of shareware I’ve ever taken an interest in using. Then, if there’s anything left, I’d probably use it the same way you would.

3

Take half of it and donate it to medical research. The other half will be split amongst my family, my fiancee’s family, and our few close friends. I will buy a nice house with a pool and a nice car. I’ll take a few months off from real life. I’ll travel a bit and decorate my new house. In January, I’d start school again full time but change my major from Education to a double in Bio and Chem. Then, off to medical school with me. After graduating, I’ll either work as a medical examiner or a reseacher. I’d like to work for the CDC. No being lazy and spending lost of money. I want to actually do something important with my life - just without the stress of worrying about paying the bills.

4

Buy my house and a car for husband.
Get a bigger kitchen.
Take all friends to very expensive dinner.

Get a hold of those really big checks and start delivering them to my favorite charities.

5

I’d donate a dollah to the IMHO mods when I move this thread over there.

And maybe buy 'em a beer with the leftover moolah. (Maybe.)

6

I’ll tell you what I’d do, man - two chicks at the same time, man.

Of course if I did that, no one would walk away happy. But I wouldn’t care.

I would make sure everyone close to me would never have to work again. I, for one, would never work again, but I would be knee-deep in hobbies that would probably never get finished. I would setup some local charity stuff, but at the same time make sure the money I had, gets used to make more money, for more charities. Simply giving it I’m sure does a lot of good, but I think it’s better if it’s used to make more and more, so I can give more. And I’d travel like a motherfuck.

7

I love the idea of playing Santa Claus with various local charities, i.e. “What do you want? How much will it cost? Here’s the money.” I’d also buy myself a convertible, maybe one which seats four, not two this time. I’d make a list of all the Mensa RG’s I’ve wanted to check out but couldn’t and go to them. I’d also like to travel the world and meet some of my favorite Dopers. That I’d retire goes without saying. With friends and family, it’s be the same thing as it would be with charities – What do you want? How much will it cost? Here’s the money." I particularly like the idea of taking my younger brother, who’s got a history of buying sporty looking cars which don’t run to Jaguar dealerships, Lambourghini dealerships, etc. and saying “Pick one. It’s yours.” (One car total, not one per dealership or one dealership.)

When the local massive lottery is up to some ridiculous number somewhere in the millions of dollars, I do buy myself a ticket now and then. It’s buying a dollar’s worth of dreams, and they’re worth the dollar, even if I never do win.

CJ

8

We used to play the lottery fairly regularly in Florida - won as much as $7 one time!!! And while we were plotting how to enjoy our millions, we came up with: Give a chunk to each family member, set ourselves up so we didn’t have to worry about work any more, and set up a scholarship fund. We’re both big advocates of education, and we’d do what we could to make it a reality for as many as we could.

Oh yeah, and buy a big boat.

9

I’d hire a personal ball washer.

10

…that’s 120 different things I could blow $1 million on! :eek: Hmmm…lemme think…

…a house in Canada for the summer
…a house in Texas for the winter
…a massively honken IRA for a rainy day
…my very own personal 1933 Double Eagle $20 gold piece
…a sharpie lawyer for when the feds come to get it
…divers and sundry charitable and cultural endowments under the aegis of the Beware of Doug Foundation
…deep-fry a Republican Congressman

…and like that

11

after the money gets split amoung the lottery pool people… put half of it into a trust so i have a nice salary every year. the other half gets halved and 1 quarter to charity, 1 quarter for me to have fun with.

our pool did hit for 4,000 once. we each ended up with 200 something. i had a spree on amazon.

12

Let’s see, it’s September, so…

  1. Skip town for privacy and reflection. Send immediate family a short letter of apology containing gasoline credit cards with $1,000 limits as a pay off to leave me alone for awhile.

  2. Pay off all outstanding debts.

  3. Consult with wealth managers about ways to invest at least 3/4 of remaining winnings and exploiting every loophole in the IRS they can think of.

  4. Donate some to charity and my alma mater.

  5. Travel internationally for a month or two: West and South Africa, Eastern Europe and the Pacific Rim.

  6. Hire artists to illustrate some children’s books and comic book scripts I have sitting in a trunk somewhere, then self-publish.

  7. Set up several college scholarships, especially books, at my alma mater and former school.

  8. Christmas would be a blast. It would start by renovating my extended families’ homes to make them more energy-efficient, rewired electrically and landscaped.

… of dubious merit…

  1. Track down and cuss out at least one former girlfriend, for closure.

  2. Become a hedonist in New Amsterdam

  3. Exact revenge. More than this I cannot say.

  4. Pay someone to literally kick Michael Jackson’s ass.

13

For shame! What has that poor equine done to you? :smiley:

14

I wouldn’t quit my job, I’d quit my LIFE–I’d hire a full time personal assistian/accountant to deal with all the day-to-day crap of living–laundry, bills, cleaning, house maintenince, car maintenince, grocery shopping, all that. They could subcontract some of that out (cleaning, laundry) if they needed to, but I wouldn’t be responsible for any of those decsions.

I’d set up scholarships.

I’d take my whole junior class on some sort of international trip every summer.

15

Same as most - pay our remaining debt, have a house built and furnished. I’d hire people to look after the lawn and gardens. I’d build a recording studio in one of the wings, outfit it with instruments and equipment, get a real audio system, like the ones I used to drool over in the stereo shops (remember those?), finish my record collection, travel occasionally. My wife could do whatever she wished with her third. That is to say, I would create three accounts: Yours, Mine, and Ours. Ours buys the house and pays the bills, etc., the rest is for wish fulfillment.

16

Tell the contractors, “Money is no object. Just show the hell up and do the work!”

I’d:

Quit my job.
Finish remodelling the house.
Buy another car, possibly a hybrid, but since gas prices are no longer an issue, maybe another truck.
Give generous amounts to our families.
Hire an assistant to help do some of my writing work (mail off the query letters I write, for example).

I don’t have any debt, so that’s not something I need to worry about.

17

Buy a really big meatball sandwich.

18

It seems to me that the OP asked what Crazy things would you do with the lottery, not what sensible things would you do. The things you think about doing, but really wouldn’t do becuase you’d be too busy making sure your future was secured and your friends and family were taken care of.

As I recall from <blanking on name of movie that I’ll remember as soon as I hit ‘submit’> at the end of the movie one of the characters got a $5 Million reward for saving Brook Shields life from drowning but spent it all having Van Halen play at his birthday party.

So the crazy thing that I would do would be to build a huge gaming complex with everything you could imagine. Anyone could join as a member at a reasonable price (and of course all my friends get in free). One floor would be dedicated to table top games, there would be a shelves of games and a reference library with loaner books to every game system there is, with racks of miniatures all painted impeccably, a variety of tables and chairs. One floor would be for LARPing, with stages, costumes, sets, halls, etc. One floor would be Live Action Combat with arenas, mazes, and such and a supply room with everything from lazer tag to boffer weapons. One floor would be just like the last but dedicated to paint ball (its too messy to share with the other games). A snack shop with everything from fresh pizza to steaks cooked to order to feed everybody. And lastly a movie theater going 24 hours a day showing an ongoing mix of Anime, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror movies where anything in a series is always shown in order from the first movie to the last sequal.

I once figured it’d cost about $25M to build and would likely loose $100K per year. (if the prices were low so that everyone could join, it wouldn’t bring in enough, and if the prices were raised, then not everyone could afford it.) But damn it’d be fun while the money lasted.

As for the boring normal stuff [post=6504577]this is how I’d spend the money[/post]

19

I’d go round to poor people and hold out a small sack and say, ‘Here is a purse of monies… which I’m not going to give you.’ and snatch it back. :stuck_out_tongue:

Seriously though, one of my private dreams is to go round helping people. But first…

I’d pay my mortgage. Then I’d have the house torn down and a new one designed and built.

While that’s being done, I’ll make a phone call to Torrance. ‘Mr. Robinson, please build me a helicopter.’ (Actually I’d have to go through a dealer, but you know what I mean.) If it’s an especially large lottery, I’d be looking for another helicopter. Robinsons are fun, but I’d really like to have my own SH-60 Sea Hawk. I’d use it for fun and the occasional long cross-country. (Hey, there are limits even to how much a millionaire can pay for fuel!) I’d use the Robinson to introduce disadvantaged teenagers to aviation.

I’d look for property in or near London. I’d have a house in SoCal too. I’d travel from Washington to L.A. to London to the Continent… all over. I love to go places.

And I’d work on building a small collection of cars.

20

–Put some of it in an IRA, insuring that I don’t *have *to work.
–Some of it to finish college without needing any lones.
–Buy a nice (not huge, just 3 or 4 bedrooms and nice) house in Sweden (for the summer) and one in Southern Spain (for the winter).
–Use as much as I need to as seed money for a cable company where you only pay for the channels you want.
–Buy a black Dodge Charger (or a red one with a Confederate flag on it…)
–Of the rest of it: 20% to charity, 80% to research on alternate fuel sources.