Powerball lottery

I bought a ticket today. Not much chance of winning, but worth $2 so I can daydream of how to spend a billion dollars

Just to make this fun, what would people do with that money?

I'd personally hire a financial adviser and attorney immediately. I might start a LLC to separate myself from the funds to simplify taxes and privacy issues. I probably wouldn't change anything in my personal life for at least a year until the mess is sorted. Then, playtime! Pay off the school debts of myself, friends, and family, give each family member a set amount as a gift, buy some property somewhere that needs conserving, buy a Tesla Model S, and probably travel to a different place in the world every year.

Most would get invested. I'd definitely need a CPA/tax attorney and a financial advisor.

I would also make heavy donations to some 501c3's (USARK and the Heller Foundation to start).

I would set up endowments for research into reptile diseases and vaccines/treatments. My herp facility would be insane, heavily biased toward preserving threatened and/or endangered species.

I'd take care of my family. Do some silly spending and put up enough for the future, but I'd give most of it away. A billion dollars makes one a target. I don't need a billion dollars.
I'd give some money to a couple of educational institutions I have attended, but also give to a bunch of friends and people I admire as well as helping some people I know that are in need.

It's the silly spending I daydream about, though. A condo on the seashore. Lunch flown in from Zabar's. A fishing trip. An expensive road bike. A few pricy handbags.

But after daydreaming for a while, I always end up realizing that I'm happy now. I'm grateful for the things and opportunities I do have, and mindful that many people all over the world live in dire circumstances. I wish good fortune would come to them.

The first thing I would do is employ an attorney, and an accountant/financial advisor, this is before I cashed out. I would consider taking the annuity option because the stock market has been so screwed up lately. you could take the cash, and have 600,000,000 one day, and you could lose 50,000,000 overnight 300,000,000 in a month!!. If you invested in a good bond fund (no guarantee) with less risk, maybe 4% return you could expect to double your $$ in 18 years (4% into 72) so the annuity would be about the same.


With the cash, I would have the attorney set up a trust for all of my family and friends, and give them all an allowance (I hate to call it that) over there lifetimes, and they would be allowed to give the $$ to there heirs. So many lotto winners have declared bankruptcy, if you gave them all 1,000,000, they might be broke in a few months.


Then I would start a charitable foundation for my favorite charities, one or 2 of my children would be the administrator/s.


Then I would spend my life traveling, first to the Galapagos Islands, the Australia and Madagascar and the South Pole, I would also hire lobbiests to convince Japan and other nations to stop killing whales, even if I had to pay them. I would fund "no kill" shelters around the country as well.
I could go on and on........

Do any of you remember the old TV series called "The Millionaire"? Now I think THAT would be fun to do..........

Originally Posted by WebSlave

Do any of you remember the old TV series called "The Millionaire"? Now I think THAT would be fun to do..........

I think so, it was black and white wasn't it? When I was a kid, everything on TV was black and white, a massive 10" screen also!!
That would be fun, but I do not know if I'd have the time. My lawyer would have to act for me, ...It would be a hit reality show also!

Originally Posted by Casey Hulse

The first thing I would do is employ an attorney, and an accountant/financial advisor, this is before I cashed out. I would consider taking the annuity option because the stock market has been so screwed up lately. you could take the cash, and have 600,000,000 one day, and you could lose 50,000,000 overnight 300,000,000 in a month!!. If you invested in a good bond fund (no guarantee) with less risk, maybe 4% return you could expect to double your $$ in 18 years (4% into 72) so the annuity would be about the same.


With the cash, I would have the attorney set up a trust for all of my family and friends, and give them all an allowance (I hate to call it that) over there lifetimes, and they would be allowed to give the $$ to there heirs. So many lotto winners have declared bankruptcy, if you gave them all 1,000,000, they might be broke in a few months.


Then I would start a charitable foundation for my favorite charities, one or 2 of my children would be the administrator/s.


Then I would spend my life traveling, first to the Galapagos Islands, the Australia and Madagascar and the South Pole, I would also hire lobbiests to convince Japan and other nations to stop killing whales, even if I had to pay them. I would fund "no kill" shelters around the country as well.
I could go on and on........

No kill shelters for whales. That would take a lot of money

I would sell the ticket to an investment group for something like 200 million in small unmarked bills and bury it in my backyard. After squirreling enough a way in my mattress for easy access of course. Then I would sit back and enjoy the bedlam as the world descended on the holder of the winning ticket. Obviously severe nondisclosure agreements would be a necessity.

I'm not sure what the lump sum payout would be after taxes or what kind of return on their investment a group would require so the 200 million may not be realistic. It may be more it may be less. Say I could only manage 100 million. I think I could live with that. Even that paltry sum would allow me to significantly increase my standard of living and that of my family and a few close friends. It wouldn't take much (heck, just finding a $20.00 bill on the sidewalk means I get to eat for another week) Of course I would have to avoid the sort of lifestyle that would draw attention to myself but I think I could handle that.

On the other hand, winning that much money would probably allow me to simply hire someone to take care of all the problems that come with winning that much money so I might just take the ticket in myself.

First thing I would do in that case would be to open an annuity or something like Casey mentioned. Something that would deposit say $5000.00 a week into an account for the next 20 years. In an interest bearing account that would take about 5 million dollars and if I made it difficult to touch the principle that would give me about $250,000 a year for the next 20 years regardless of what else I did with the rest of the money.

I'd blow a bunch of it hiring Van Halen to play at my next birthday party and for sure I would buy a bigger mattress.

My silly thing would be to start a RaceHorse Ranch for Retired Thoroughbreds. I would use a lot for low fee microloans so working folks could get out of debt.