Just for fun- winning the lotto

orangehills · January 2016

So, there is a huge amount of money in the lotto this weekend. If you won, what would be the first things you would do?? (These thoughts entertained me the whole way to work today ha)

I would buy our dream home and cars, set up my kids for their future, set up our parents so they could retire easily and help our siblings. I'd give a big chunk of change to our church and start giving monthly to a ton of different charities I like. And I'd quit my job to stay home with my kid and start traveling more! But I think I'd still live a relatively normal life, I'm just not that fancy haha.

jessica490 · January 2016

Ha! I've been thinking about this....we are buying some tickets today

1. Pay off the mortgage and my new car

2. Buy H an SUV that he will keep for years to come

3. Fence the yard

4. Finish all indoor/outdoor projects

5. Heck, I wonder if I would even buy a bigger house with all that money...or maybe we'd move to California?

6. I'd give all my family members $1 million dollars

7. We'd both quit our jobs and pick up something part-time later on if we are that bored

8. Travel a few times/year

9. Stash the rest

CuriousKiddosMama · January 2016

I can't even fathom that amount of money to be honest.
Dh would quit work, we would probably move or at least buy a house in Texas hill country, on the lake with land. And maybe a condo/vacation rental in some exotic location that would be fun to visit often and rent the rest of the year.
I think I would honestly invest a ton of the money so that we can live off it forever and give an insane amount of money away! I think it's at like 700million, after taxes or so, what would even 6% (crappy returns) be off that every year?!? I would travel and volunteer with my time and give away most of the money to local, national and international organizations that we would choose to support.
I would also buy my parents a house by us, and set up an account to find my in laws plane tickets every time they wanted to come visit (could never see them moving!)

Actually, the very first thing I would probably do would be to have dh quit, and then to book that year long around the world cruise!

FabulousMrs.P · January 2016

The first thing I would do is consult our financial advisor. If he thought it would be smart,
1) pay off mortgage
2) set money aside for our daughter so that her future would be secure (college, wedding, money to get started in life)
3) do an addition to our home and fix it up the way I really want to
4) help out the rest of the family with bills
5) Buy husband a new car...his is getting older and has the mileage up there.

I think I would still like to work although it would be nice to know that I didn't HAVE to in order to cover the bills. And it would feel good to know that I will be able to pay for whatever college or trade school my daughter will one day want to go to. And maybe we could do a few of the trips that we would want to. We aren't fancy people...I would honestly just be happy to share the money with my family and have our bills covered.

simplyelise · January 2016

I started an office pool, so for $2, we get about 1/16th share of the lump sum if we win.

I'd do a tithe off the top to our church which would be amazing because it would be plenty for them to buy land and build or just buy a church that's for sale right now in our town. And it's cool because our church tithes on all the money it receives, so that would also really help out some missions in Brazil that help homeless youth.

Next...

Pay off all the student loans the minute the money hits our account

Buy a house - still wouldn't go crazy, but maybe something in the 250 range instead of 150

Buy a better car for DH - would probably look to give away his car to someone in need

Buy new wardrobes - each of us could totally use this - it would probably only cost a couple thousand lol

Maybe set up college funds for all the nieces and nephews?

Not sure what we would do for parents... maybe pay for vacations for each set (3) they would not want help otherwise... so maybe just be ready to pay for long term care?

If our work pool won, I would not quit my job. I'd probably wait and see how I felt about staying home full time after kiddos are born. I try not to be too declarative about being a SAHM, because I don't have kids yet and don't know if I'll want to do full-time SAHM when I have them! But it would be SO nice for the conversation not to be "can we afford it" and instead for it to be "do I want to".

As for giving... We'd love to be able to give more. Definitely NPR and our local food bank and homeless veterans programs. There are just so many worthwhile charities locally and internationally. DH's favorite thing would be to swoop in anonymously when someone we know or hear about has a catastrophic event. It would be so rewarding to be able to contribute 10k anonymously to a family who just found out the experimental treatment for their daughter's terminal cancer isn't covered by insurance.

Travelling... We'd definitely let ourselves dream more on travel destinations. Right now it's not about "having the travel bug" vs not, it's about not allowing ourselves to get carried away when we can't afford to do a trip. But it would be awesome to be able to do international travel and expose our future children to more of the world.

But for the most part, we'd stick that money somewhere it couldn't be touched and try to forget about it!

I'll let you guys know if we pull down a winner at work lol!

orangehills · January 2016

I love how money matters we all are!! Not wanting anything insane, just wanting to help family and charities and travel a bit and pay off debts. LOL love it

cbee817 · January 2016

1. Pay off debt (mortgage and car payment)

2. Pay off all family's debt

3. Quit jobs

4. Put the girls in the best local school. save for college, set up funds for them. Be able to get them off the school bus every day!

5. Figure out where we want to live, buy land, build dream home. Also buy a flat in NYC for visits

6. Travel with the girls- take them anywhere and everywhere

7. Donate to local charities

8. Buy a long arm quilting machine for my giant sewing room in the new house

9. Upgrade the vehicles and buy a few pieces of jewelry (first up- upgraded engagement ring!)

10. Get a trainer to kick my butt and maid service to clean my house

AprilZ81 · January 2016

Assuming I only got to keep $350 million after taxes and such...

1) Pay off the house ($240,000ish)

2) New driveway and front landscaping ($25,000ish guess)

3) New windows ($20,000ish)

4) New car for DH ($20,000ish)

5) Set up college funds for my nephews and niece ($100,000 each invested for at least 14 years should do it).

6) Set up college funds for our future children.

7) Give my parents $5 million so Mom can retire now without stressing.

8) Buy a house/condo on Sanibel Island for a family vacation spot.

9) Travel. A lot. Just about everywhere.

10) Give a bunch to our church.

11) Give a bunch to charity

I can't fathom having that much money and I wouldn't want the pressure of people knowing I had that much money. We don't even play the lotto so this is a moot point. lol

I know that if I ever did win I would be going straight to a lawyer to set up a trust to do my best to have the trust claim the winnings and keep my name out of the press. I don't want every distant cousin and elementary school friend contacting me wanting money.

jtmh2012 · January 2016

We'd disappear. Don't need people knowing we had that kind of money. Probably setup both our parents so they could live in retirement and not worry about money. Beyond that, pay off the mortgage and see the world. Maybe a slight house upgrade.

orangehills · January 2016

Yah I would want to be as anonymous as possible as well. We only play for this big ones, though you have a better chance at winning money with the smaller ones I think. Though I've been rewatching Lost, and if I won, I wouldn't fly to Australia.. heh

jtmh2012 · January 2016

orangehills said:

Yah I would want to be as anonymous as possible as well. We only play for this big ones, though you have a better chance at winning money with the smaller ones I think. Though I've been rewatching Lost, and if I won, I wouldn't fly to Australia.. heh

Your odds of winning don't change with the size of the jackpot. What changes are your odds of having to share the jackpot and how much you'd get assuming you won in the first place.

smetter04 · January 2016

H and I actually talked about this yesterday lol. Wouldn't it be nice? First we would buy a new car and pay off the mortgage (and would look into building a house). Then we would gift a large portion to church - this would be just what our parish needs because it struggles financially. Then we would help out MIL with her debt and set her up for a comfortable retirement. Would probably give some to my parents, too, to be fair even though they are financially savvy. The rest we would use to travel, invest, put away for children's education, etc. Pipe dream but fun to think about

blondie42107 · January 2016

I would invest, give money to family/friends, charity close to my heart, buy a bigger home/property (already on our to do list), vacation more.

I'm not sure I would stop working all together. My H has commented the same. Maybe I'd work per diem or part time or just take a break until my kids are a little older. Definitely retire early.

splotch716 · January 2016

DH has been convinced over the last 2-3 weeks that we were going to win it. He is a big fan of The Secret and the law of attraction. He has been planning everything with details since. Each time we don't win he gets a little upset/down.

The first thing we would do is pay off all of our debt, about $35,000, then quit our jobs. I would give my two weeks but he probably wouldn't. He has talked about giving his parents $5 million just because. I would help family pay off their debts, and get my mom a house that she would still be able to afford the taxes and utilities on. I would set up a college fund for my DD, sister, and my nieces/nephew. Then we would travel as much as possible. We would also be able to have three children eventually. Right now we know for sure we want two but three is what I really want. We would also find a house locally, then one in NYC, and probably at a beach somewhere. Then of course upgrading our car(s) as we are currently a one car family and it is becoming more and more difficult. Of course investing so that we are set and our family for generations is set up well.

I haven't discussed it with DH but I would like to donate enough to my previous employer to fully fund the chemical dependency program for years to come. Also, enough to my current employer for them to build/buy another house for the long term shelter and keep it sustainable to their budget. There would probably be a lot of investing done with my donation to make sure this would happen for both non-profits. I also couldn't see myself never working again. I would probably, eventually, open my own non-profit for domestic violence survivors.

If only! I'm not sure how many tickets DH has bought but it would be nice!

hoffse · January 2016

orangehills said:

I love how money matters we all are!! Not wanting anything insane, just wanting to help family and charities and travel a bit and pay off debts. LOL love it

*********SIB**************

You haven't heard my answer yet...

vlagrl29 · January 2016

did you hear the guy on fallon last night that said he would get a bunch of hookers and cocaine with a total straight face and I believe he was very serious. That cracked me and DH up.

Pay off SL's and DH's studio loan, go to hawaii, all home projects completed but I would be temped to buy a new house that already had everything I wanted lol

hoffse · January 2016

It's up to $800M isn't it?

OK, figure you take the lump sum, which is about $500M.

I would estimate losing half of it to taxes - so we're at a solid $250M. I can work with this, lol.

I would do the following:

1) Pay off our debts and flip our house.

2) Quit my job (though H says he would go to work on Monday and pretend everything was normal).

3) Engage in some dynastic trust family planning - I'd want trusts that shelter income for us, our kids, our grandkids, and into perpetuity. And if any of them turn out to be little spendthrifts, I would have that money so tied up they won't be able to deplete it.

4) Also set up trusts for our parents and hypothetical nieces and nephews. I would not give this money to them directly because it would incur massive gift taxes.

5) I would obviously give some away to charity

6) And then I would put aside some money to buy the following:

a. An estate in the south of France or on the Amalfi coast

b. A few pieces of really expensive art - I'm thinking Kandinsky

c. I would build a library in my estate (if it doesn't already have one) and probably become a rare book collector

d. If we're in Amalfi, then obviously you need a nice boat. I get seasick easily, so it would have to be a big boat.

e. I would never fly economy class again. And if I had enough left over, I would probably run the numbers on chartering flights vs. buying or leasing my own jet. I work with a guy that does private jet leases.

I think we would tell people we inherited it from a long-lost European relative of H...

hoffse · January 2016

Side-note - I actually have some clients worth quite a bit more than this. They are surprisingly normal people. One comes to all of our meetings wearing a flannel shirt and worn out blue jeans. He is always complaining about the prices at Walmart. Worth half a billion.

orangehills · January 2016

hoffse said:

Side-note - I actually have some clients worth quite a bit more than this. They are surprisingly normal people. One comes to all of our meetings wearing a flannel shirt and worn out blue jeans. He is always complaining about the prices at Walmart. Worth half a billion.

Does he need a mistress?

Just kidding..

jessica490 · January 2016

hoffse said:

Side-note - I actually have some clients worth quite a bit more than this. They are surprisingly normal people. One comes to all of our meetings wearing a flannel shirt and worn out blue jeans. He is always complaining about the prices at Walmart. Worth half a billion.

Ha! That is funny! He's like the "millionaire next door"

hoffse · January 2016

Oh one thing I forgot. I plan to kick off retirement with a round-the-world cruise.

Technically I would be retiring on Monday. But there's a boat that leaves for a 120 day cruise from London on Sunday. I think I could be on it.

dragonstarjk · January 2016

I can't really imagine that large of an amount, but I do play our state lottery occasionally. Way less players so there are better odds of winning, although the payout is way smaller--under 1 mil. Anyways, assuming we won the big one.....

In a small town and the least-populated state, I really don't want the whole world to know I just won the lottery. I'm not sure if Wyoming allows you to remain anonymous, but I would definitely try to be low key while I make arrangements.

I would not quit my job until everything was in place as far as accounts, investments, etc. And then I'd give two weeks. Again, just to give the appearance that everything is normal. H would want to quit his job right away but I'd encourage him to give two week's notice. Honestly, I'm not one to say 'I just have to work'. If I didn't have to work, I'd be just fine not going to work. I'd spend my days volunteering for various organizations, taking courses at the college just for fun, planning our next big trip, and just taking care of myself.

How we would spend the money:

-Pay off all of our debts; this would only be approx. $100K including our mortgage

-Hire contractors to do all of the projects to the house that we want to do, live in it while our dream home is being built, and then rent it or sell it.

-Buy land near town and hire somebody to build our dream home

-Purchase a vacation home in California or Hawaii. Heck, with a few hundred million, maybe both!

-Make sure we have enough invested to live comfortably off of for life. Very comfortably.

-Hire a housekeeper

-Give large gifts to our parents, siblings, and nieces/nephews. The MM side of me would want to tell them how to use it since my family is really bad with money. Like, maybe instead of giving them money, I would buy them houses and start savings accounts. I don't know.

-Make donations to our favorite charities

-Plan lots of trips all over the US and the world, starting with the around the world cruise.

julieanne912 · January 2016

It's such a huge amount of money right now, I don't see how you could completely squander it, but I suppose it could be done.

Here's what we'd do:

1) Pay everything off, and then quit working once we had the money. I wouldn't quit right away because that's not fair to co-workers.

2) Consult with a financial adviser and lawyer who deal with high net worth to figure out where to put some of the money to let it continue to grow, while still giving us plenty of spending money.

3) Pay off my mom's house, H's mom and stepdad's house, and his dad's house. Probably even buy my mom a new one wherever she wanted and set them up so my stepdad can retire (she already is, he's only 53). Probably do the same for H's folks.

4) Probably give my brother enough for at least a downpayment for him and his gf to buy a nice house, and pay off his student loan. He's uber-frugal so I know he wouldn't buy anything extravagant.

5) Set up some trust accounts/college funds for H's nephews (one that his sister can't get to, I don't trust her to be responsible with it). Maybe give her enough to buy a little house somewhere.

6) Buy some other homes and furnish them in other locations. We would keep our current one as our Colorado home maybe, but it'd be nice to have a place in the mountains here, a hobby ranch in Montana or Idaho or somewhere pretty like that, another somewhere warm, and then maybe a condo in a large city like Chicago.

7) New vehicles, y'all know how much we like our fancy cars

Not sure what H would get, but I'd get a Range Rover. Also would get some kind of comfy sedan, like a Tesla, or an Audi A8, or a Porsche Quattroporte. Probably a fun little sports car too. I like cars. Oh, and we'd get a huge awesome 5th wheel, and a smaller one in case the big 5th wheel won't fit where we want to go.

8) Not really sure after this... travel beyond camping I guess. We could follow our hockey team around and watch them play in every arena, that could be fun. Europe of course, tropical destinations, Australia, etc.

9) Maybe help out some friends. My BFF is like my sister so maybe I'd give her enough to pay off her debts and her 2 properties.

10) Have a baby sooner rather than later since the costs of having one wouldn't be an issue anymore. Set up all the appropriate trust accounts etc. for hypothetical baby.

And you know, all the usuals... nice clothes, furniture, hire people to help take care of the house etc. But not tacky type stuff like you see on those TV shows... no suits of armor and gaudy furniture.

hoffse · January 2016

I think I could spend all $250M if I really had to.

I mean, it probably wouldn't buy me a sports team.

But I would have options for my own island:

http://www.privateislandsonline.com/

RosieC18 · January 2016

Yeah... I'd start with a good attorney and asset manager, and I think I wouldn't change anything (or at least nothing major) for a few months to be able to think about things calmly. Long term I probably wouldn't work. We'd buy a sailboat, a little plane for H to fly, a new house or two (here, near our parents), offer money to our siblings and definitely hire a maid service/yard service etc. Not like live-in help, but if I never have to clean a toilet again I will be happy!

I think we'd want to spend some time thinking about the most effective way to manage our giving and giving ourselves an "income" we felt good about.

dragonstarjk · January 2016

hoffse said:

I think I could spend all $250M if I really had to.

I mean, it probably wouldn't buy me a sports team.

But I would have options for my own island:

http://www.privateislandsonline.com/

Oh yeah. I could definitely spend all $250M. I mean, I'm financially savvy enough to make sure it lasts the rest of our lives, but after that I don't care if there's any left for somebody to inherit. I already gave them all money, right?

A couple more things I've always wanted to do: randomly gift some of my friends and acquaintances with a few grand. Like, even people that I haven't been in touch with. I know this girl I worked with at my last job 10 or so years ago that has three kids and works hard to take care of them. Bam! Have $5K just because...

And leave $100 tips at every restaurant we go to.

BlueBirdMB · January 2016

This is my favorite game! Seriously, it's our first time buying a ticket, yet we have this conversation constantly.

We would give our parents each enough to retire right now to start and buy them all new cars. Pay off our house. We'd go on a long vacation and have our house remodeled while we are gone including building a studio in our basement. Then I'd start to teach from home and H would start a consulting business. Then we'd go to an awesome asset manager and figure out how to handle the rest. I would actually want to keep our house... I love our house. I would totally hire people to do everything around the house though.

OHH and I'd record an album... just cause.

Erikan73 · January 2016

Pay off all debts/loans/mortgages
Set up retirement
Do some repairs around the house (so next home owner won't have to deal with them as we plan to give the house to our neighbors who are currently renting that home which isn't in great shape)
Go on vacation
Pay off in-laws mortgage
Pay for my parents to go on River Cruise in Europe
Buy land to build dream house & build house
Build our vet a new office. He does so much for the local community and rescues and the building he is in is so out of date and the layout isn't the best for the business, and it's dark. And he doesn't believe in running lots of tests that aren't necessary just to get more money out of you. He does work for the local Policy k-9 groups too. He's all around a great person. Would love to be able to build him his dream vet office.
Set up college funds for the 3 nieces and nephews that still have college ahead of them
Set up trust funds for the other nieces & nephews who are done with college where they would get an annual payout. They are all still in the 20's and want to make sure they work hard for what they get, but the money they get annually can help them go on a nice vacations, do home improvements, etc.
Repair & update SIL house, at least enough to make it more marketable to sell (she would love to get out of house, it's one she had bought with ex)
Make hefty deposits into retirement accounts for my sisters

PurpleBookmark · January 2016

I would pay off our car loans, purchase a home, take a yearly "income" of $100k and multiply by 80 then put it into a savings account for DH and I. Put $1 million for each child in a trust, then give $1 million per household to parents and siblings and a smaller amount to each extended family member, a large donation to our church and the remainder to charity.

ETA: DH said today that he would open his own theme park, I guess he is the bigger dreamer in our family lol!

jtmh2012 · January 2016

PurpleBookmark said:

ETA: DH said today that he would open his own theme park, I guess he is the bigger dreamer in our family lol!

Lol. It's funny. I found out somewhat recently that a local theme park I used to go to had closed some years ago and had essentially been ravaged by years of owners who had other interests. I'd love to be able to go in there and restore it to what it once was, but I don't have that kind of money.

abrewer5 · January 2016

Well this is going to be an incredibly long list..... Because if I won 1.3 billion or whatever it is up to now I would go a little crazy.

1. Pay off my student loan

2. Sell H's truck to get him a new one and buy me an SUV. I can't part with my Corolla, it's just too economical.

3. Pay off the mortgage on our house, but keep it as a rental property (if this made financial sense)

4. Build a new house with a big garage for our boat (nothing too crazy but I would probably spend about 500K on a house)

5. Give all of our parents an equal sum of money to pay off their houses/debts (with the caveat that my parents must see a financial advisor to avoid getting into debt ever again)

6. Give some to my sister

7. Savings accounts for all my current and future nieces/nephews to cover them thru college and possibly their weddings

8. Build a no-kill, kick @$$ animal shelter. My hope would be to shut down the crappy county shelter that has an over 50% kill rate and start a spay and neuter program, especially for feral cats. I would quit my job and work here full time.

ETA 9. H would want to open a bar in FL, so we would probably buy/open a bar there and then also need a house in FL

Any money that is left over I would love to do a combo of donating to animals, investing (most likely real estate), traveling, and enjoying life!

Just for fun- winning the lotto

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