*(This isn’t a “How would you spend the money?” thread - we have plenty of those threads.)
*
First, I would sign the ticket.
Hyperventilate, probably.
Draft emails to my family with a photo of the winning ticket. They can keep secrets well.
Cancel an upcoming vacation trip - must postpone it by several months. Cancel most things on my schedule, in fact.
Research financial advisers and lottery advice online.
Write up a financial plan.
How about you guys? What’s your first 48 hours?
Re read those threads like “Can you actually hire a hitman?”
Start doing research on what local land costs and what it cost to start up a pig farm. Because some other asshole I know is about to have his small farm surrounded by the biggest damn pig farm I can afford. Or maybe chicken houses (also need to research which one actually smells worse).
Just kidding.
Probably do nothing, besides maybe just throw a bunch of “keeping it because I might need it and don’t wanna pay even a bit to buy one again” kinda stuff. Throwing crap away is kinda relaxing once you “let it go”.
I’m now rich? There is now a bunch of stuff that I can “let go”.
Since the big drawing is on Saturday, I’d spend the first 24 hours locked up in the house, just staring at the ticket.
Sunday night my wife and I would go out to dinner, where we’d spend the entire meal looking at each other, numb.
Monday morning I’d call my lawyer.
Monday afternoon I’d tell the kids.
It would take at least 48 hours for the news to sink in.
Research research research
I would call together a family meeting. Just brothers and sisters.
After a quick trip to the store to buy a fire/water proof safe to hold the ticket, hunker down in the house and start researching. Find an ace accountant and lawyer, then sit with my wife and start making lists; who to tell, who to provide for, what we want to do for us.
Call the boss and tell him I won’t be coming into work tomorrow or ever again.
Wait until morning.
Drive to the head office of the state lottery commission (a half mile from my home) and present my ticket.
Perform whatever perfunctory PR things the state requires of me and arrange for the first installment to be deposited in my bank account.
Pick up a bottle of expensive scotch, go home, and start looking at real estate listings.
Tell no one who doesn’t need to know.
Sign the ticket and put it in a safe place.
I do not have any family I would trust to tell.
I would find a close restaurant and get some super expensive take away and get the dog a steak or something equally fun to eat that would be safe for him to enjoy.
In Oregon you can’t turn in a ticket anonymously, which can(and usually does) create a mountain of headaches right off the bat. I would quietly form an LLC(Limited Liability Company) with an innocuous name that nobody would associate with me or my family, sign the ticket over to the company, and have the ticket turned in the company’s name.
Are corporations allowed to win the lottery in Oregon?
I was recently chatting with a lawyer friend who mindlessly said she would love to manage the proceeds of someone’s lottery win. She’s a bankruptcy lawyer so I guess that would be a nice opposite for her.
So, I’d sit tight until she can get all the paperwork and money together. Then a meeting with my parents and brother. Then, the writing of the checks!
Unfortunately, I did not buy a ticket so…gotta be in it to win it 
After the signing and making copies stuff. And assuming this payout is over $10 million. Less than that is not such a big deal, especially if we get it in little monthly payments.
We already have a good financial adviser. Seeing him immediately is job one.
Calling up the tax CPA we used to use is job two.
They’d tell me if we need a lawyer.
I’m going to retire in a few months anyway, so while I’ll take some vacation to clean this up, I wouldn’t pull it up.
We already have a trust that the money would go into.
After that, tell the kids and get the money. We don’t have enough relatives left to be a problem. But being anonymous is good if possible - I think it is here.
After a week or two we can think about how to spend some of the money.
Step 1 - deep calming breaths…
Step 2 - figure out what professionals we’ll need to manage our finances, etc.
Step 3 - more deep calming breaths…
Step 4 - start giving serious thought to where we want to live
Step 5 - go out for a nice dinner - I ain’t washing dishes!
Step 6 - decide where we’ll hide for the first few months
After I was released from the ER…
I’ve sometimes mulled this question. Of particular interest is the period between winning and the time when you can cash it in. Those people above who said they’d go for a meal Sunday night or they’d go to the store to get food - you can’t leave the house. What if you were burgled or the house burnt down? You can’t let the lottery ticket out of your sight for a second. And you can’t take the ticket out with you - too risky, you could lose it somehow. You just gotta sit there looking at it until it’s time to cash it in. You’d even have to be careful whereabouts in the room you put it - you don’t want to leave it on a table where you might spill something on it. You need to put it high on a shelf.
I’m wondering how you get the ticket to the lottery centre (although maybe they come to your house).
I think I’d order delivery food from that point on. Not going out to a restaurant.
Spring for that Ancestor dot com deluxe package. Figure out who is coming for the money and start planning defensive maneuvers.
Around here anonymity is the default – wisely IMO, in the face of such publicity increasing the likelihood of ripoffs, extortion or kidnappings for ransom. In many states the requirement for the winner’s identity to be public record is not just a promotional deal by the lottery operator, it was legislated when the various lotteries were approved as a way to ensure transparency in the payout.
I would try to get to the Lottery Central Office ASAP so I can turn the ticket in and have my winning status legally certified; I know that the actual payout takes a bit longer and I have time to talk to the money manager to set up accounts into which to park the cash securely while we come up with the actual uses to be given to it.
*I’ve seen shopping addiction. I know it doesn’t bring happiness. Once you’ve got enough money to live securely, if you want long-term happiness, shopping isn’t going to get it for you…therapy would be of much more use.
Start to sign the ticket.
Calm down, relax, cool it, damn it Frank! cool it.
Sign the ticket.
Think of somewhere safe to keep the ticket until I can get to Columbus.
Decide there is no place safe, and keep it in my pocket, or possibly underwear, until I can get to Columbus.
If I were younger, I’d worry about a trust, and investing, and minimizing taxes, and all that. At my age, I’ll just take the money.
Speaking of age, I’d think about how to divvy things up in my will.