Powerball lottery

[Lucille]

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

 

[snowgyre]

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.

 

[bcr229]

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.

 

[Lucille]

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.

 

[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........

 

[WebSlave]

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

 

[Casey Hulse]

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!

 

[sschind]

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

 

[sschind]

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.

 

[OR Hill]

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.

 

[Big Borg Reptiles]

I'm sad to say that I would use the money for evil. I'd build a secret lair equipped with defense turrets, anti-aircraft turrets, etc. Hire a whole crew of goons to pace back and forth the compound with large guns. Lot of sinister deeds can be done with a billion. Oh, and I'd buy a Maine coon kitten because those are baller.

 

[WebSlave]

Sad to say, I will never really know. I don't even bother playing games of chance. I know what my luck is like, so why bother.

As an example, I have four locking rollup doors on the garage, with two different keys. So two doors have one key, and the other two a different key. The keys look nearly identical. Whenever I am grabbing a key for the first door, either to lock or unlock it, I have a 50/50 chance of getting the correct key the first try. Fully 80 percent of the time, I will pick the WRONG key. I think that if I flipped a coin 100 times and WANTED it to land heads, it would land tails also 80 percent of the time.

So maybe I just need to go into gambling really WANTING to lose.....

 

[Lucille]

There are actually little plastic deals to put on keys in different colors to distinguish them. Unfortunately, no guides to the right lottery number.

 

[bcr229]

I'm sad to say that I would use the money for evil. I'd build a secret lair equipped with defense turrets, anti-aircraft turrets, etc. Hire a whole crew of goons to pace back and forth the compound with large guns. Lot of sinister deeds can be done with a billion. Oh, and I'd buy a Maine coon kitten because those are baller.

1) The first rule of secret lairs is... you don't talk about the secret lairs.

2) I will never win the lottery because I don't play, ever. It's a tax on people who failed math.

 

[sschind]

I may have to decide after all. I don't buy them myself but my boss bought me and our secretary one today. Funny thing is if I win tonight he doesn't know I'm quitting tomorrow.


Nick- Don't forget the sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads.

 

[Lucille]

2) I will never win the lottery because I don't play, ever. It's a tax on people who failed math.

If one looks at a ticket primarily as a way to make money, you have a point. But for many, it isn't an investment. It can be very much a social thing, especially when a group buys tickets, or, like here, people discuss their dreams.
Some permitted raffles, classed as lotteries, are a fun way to raise money for good causes.

 

[Casey Hulse]

I wish we knew where the profits are going? They are supposed to help our schools, but I have NEVER heard of any Lottery proceeds benefiting the local school districts.

I see right now Detroit teachers are staging a "sick out" due to the disintegration of the schools there.

 

[bcr229]

Some permitted raffles, classed as lotteries, are a fun way to raise money for good causes.

Those are different. I don't mind participating in lotteries for charities like USARK because that's money I would usually donate anyway.

OTOH I refuse to participate in the state lottery as I shell out enough in taxes as it is, and the voters were sold a bill of goods on them anyway. Yes, the money is supposed to go to education, but we all know funds are fungible, and most lotteries don't bring in enough to cover what the state was already spending in the first place.