Buy one of these and have a blast:
http://www.cessna.com/MungoBlobs/540/207/car_amp_ban.jpg
http://www.cessna.com/MungoBlobs/540/207/car_amp_ban.jpg
If you won the lottery, what would you buy / or do?
- Thread starter Captain Pre-Capsize
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Wow, with all the kind and generous things people have been saying...I feel bad!!! I would buy a vintage Ferrari and race it until it broke...then give it to the tow truck driver I called to take it away. The rest would likely be squandered in a similar fashion as it is just money...and found money at that!!
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I have known four California Lottery big winners. Here are the stories (or as much as I know about).
The first one won the lotto shortly after it was introduced in California, about 1985 or 1986. I believe his winnings were something in the neighborhood of $2.4 mil. This couple really needed the money. They were living in small quarters behind their store in a small tourist town. It was not long before "friends" and long-lost "relatives" came calling. The husband had to get psychological counseling, he was under so much pressure. They were able to help their kids and built a nice apartment above the store. They continued to operate the store for many years, but did not have to worry about always making a profit. They are both now deceased.
The second winner, a real estate escrow officer, was told by her husband that she did not have to go back to work after lunch. She quit her job that very day. I do not know what happened next, but several years later she was working as a "floater" going between offices to fill-in where needed. I think she missed working, but this way there was much less pressure.
I met the third winner when she was shopping in my wife's clothing store (since closed). She and her husband had won about $6.8 mil. They retired early and traveled when they felt like it. They kept their old Chevy van and live a quiet life much like any financially secure retired couple. They are not extravagant, but do not want for anything I know of.
I met the fourth winner when I was working as a mortgage loan officer about 1991. They were buying a vacation home at the beach and I financed it for them. They had won about $8.6 mil. They seemed to live a normal life for retired people, not extravagant, either. When I needed to have some paperwork signed, I found her camping in a used travel trailer at the beach. She told me that when she went to the trailer store to buy it, they all knew she had won the lottery and were expecting to make a big sale. She saw the one she wanted. It was used, but in good condition. She liked it, so she bought it.
I think what I have learned from these winners is that winning can bring a kind of freedom or it can be a burden. The choice is up to us.
So, if I won a few million, I would just retire and not worry. If I were to win a huge amount, I probably would have to give away most of it, as I do not need more things to make me more happy.
The first one won the lotto shortly after it was introduced in California, about 1985 or 1986. I believe his winnings were something in the neighborhood of $2.4 mil. This couple really needed the money. They were living in small quarters behind their store in a small tourist town. It was not long before "friends" and long-lost "relatives" came calling. The husband had to get psychological counseling, he was under so much pressure. They were able to help their kids and built a nice apartment above the store. They continued to operate the store for many years, but did not have to worry about always making a profit. They are both now deceased.
The second winner, a real estate escrow officer, was told by her husband that she did not have to go back to work after lunch. She quit her job that very day. I do not know what happened next, but several years later she was working as a "floater" going between offices to fill-in where needed. I think she missed working, but this way there was much less pressure.
I met the third winner when she was shopping in my wife's clothing store (since closed). She and her husband had won about $6.8 mil. They retired early and traveled when they felt like it. They kept their old Chevy van and live a quiet life much like any financially secure retired couple. They are not extravagant, but do not want for anything I know of.
I met the fourth winner when I was working as a mortgage loan officer about 1991. They were buying a vacation home at the beach and I financed it for them. They had won about $8.6 mil. They seemed to live a normal life for retired people, not extravagant, either. When I needed to have some paperwork signed, I found her camping in a used travel trailer at the beach. She told me that when she went to the trailer store to buy it, they all knew she had won the lottery and were expecting to make a big sale. She saw the one she wanted. It was used, but in good condition. She liked it, so she bought it.
I think what I have learned from these winners is that winning can bring a kind of freedom or it can be a burden. The choice is up to us.
So, if I won a few million, I would just retire and not worry. If I were to win a huge amount, I probably would have to give away most of it, as I do not need more things to make me more happy.
hadn't thought of that
pretty much the same thing I do now, but I'd probably take the winters off and hang out in a warmer climate for a few months.
1) pay off my debt
2) find a nice house with enough land to have my own range or buy good land and build a just big enough house
3) hand over 1/2 of what's left to my wife to hide from me and my spendthrift ways after she gets herself a reliable car to replace the crappy one
4) start a business to have something to do and either bring in some money or become a tax write-off to absorb some of the taxes I'm about to pay for winning the lottery and owning property
5) fly both of us back to the other side of the world to see all her family again; visits are few and far between, and I like my in-laws
6) find some way to make the whole trip a business expense
7) help my wife either go back to school or open a business of her own
8) relax and enjoy the weekends
2) find a nice house with enough land to have my own range or buy good land and build a just big enough house
3) hand over 1/2 of what's left to my wife to hide from me and my spendthrift ways after she gets herself a reliable car to replace the crappy one
4) start a business to have something to do and either bring in some money or become a tax write-off to absorb some of the taxes I'm about to pay for winning the lottery and owning property
5) fly both of us back to the other side of the world to see all her family again; visits are few and far between, and I like my in-laws
6) find some way to make the whole trip a business expense
7) help my wife either go back to school or open a business of her own
8) relax and enjoy the weekends
Let's assume I walk away with $10 million, here's what I would do:
1. Thank God
2. Renew my wedding vows...in London...then I can visit the shaving stores
3. Pay off the mortgage
4. Pay off the cars
5. Contribute enough to Eastern University (where I teach) to have a memorial plaque honoring my late parents
6. Establish an annual music fund for a number of deserving kids to receive guitars and have guitar lessons
7. install those elusive hard wood floors in the dining/living room
8. Enroll in a Phd program - preferably Penn or the University of Michigan
9. Give a significant $ amount to my three sisters and my wife's brother
10. Provide really nice newbie PIFs on B & B each month
I would not move, buy new cars, or allow someone else to handle our money.
1. Thank God
2. Renew my wedding vows...in London...then I can visit the shaving stores
3. Pay off the mortgage
4. Pay off the cars
5. Contribute enough to Eastern University (where I teach) to have a memorial plaque honoring my late parents
6. Establish an annual music fund for a number of deserving kids to receive guitars and have guitar lessons
7. install those elusive hard wood floors in the dining/living room
8. Enroll in a Phd program - preferably Penn or the University of Michigan
9. Give a significant $ amount to my three sisters and my wife's brother
10. Provide really nice newbie PIFs on B & B each month
I would not move, buy new cars, or allow someone else to handle our money.
See, I'd give a little to charities, help my fam a bit and then take off and travel- hard to be harassed by hangers on if you are in a different city/country every couple of weeks. LOL
Assuming two things here: that I'd get to keep a stupidly large amount of money, and that I'd already done the "pay off debt, donate to charity, aka realistic things I'd do with a lot of money", I would:
- Learn to fly (fixed wing and helicopters)
- Build my own hockey rink
- huge donation to B&B
- start my own wet shaving brick and mortar store in NYC
- sample fresh picked/processed tea from China
- Sample the best ramen Japan has to offer
- become the worlds leading firearms/military supplies collector
- buy TMZ, fire everyone, and burn their offices to the ground
- possibly run for president (campaign slogan- why vote for the lesser of two evils? INKY 2012)
- buy brianw's collection of Parker 51s
- Restart production of GEM 1912s and OCMMs
- open a scotch distillery
- punch glen beck and James Carrville really REALLY hard in the face, then hire a crack legal team to get me out of trouble
- repeat step 13
- open a cat sanctuary
I would take Springs1 to lunch at a restaurant of her choosing. 
What the heck, I got the coin.
What the heck, I got the coin.
Are you pitching a reality tv show?I would take Springs1 to lunch at a restaurant of her choosing.
Oh, were we supposed to be practical? Sorry, though we were all dreaming here. 
Pay off my parents' debt, buy my brother and his wife a new house, set up some retirement funds, give to a charity here in the US, start a village school or something in India, travel around for 2-3 years, and when I find a comfy spot, settle down for good. I've always wanted to live outside the US. I'd probably still work for awhile, too, pursuing my own business interests.
I've thought about this. I wouldn't change a thing in my lifestyle. I would certainly not quit my job, because I love it and because humans need to be productive. I wouldn't even pay off my house.
I would invest it all conservatively so as to earn interest. A small amount of that interest would supplement my income to make life that bit more enjoyable. But I'd continue to pay the mortgage, drive my crappy car, etc. The rest of the interest would be charitable donations.
Apart from SWMBO, nobody would know I'd won the lottery.
After living like that for a year or two, I might consider some lifestyle changes: move to a nicer house, go part-time at work, etc. But these would be very gradual changes. I think that when people allow themselves to be defined by a windfall, it is likely to end in tears. Yet of course it's human nature to go over the top in those circumstances. That human nature needs to be strongly resisted in order to maintain a satisfying life of meaningful work and experiencing the everyday human struggles that bind us to society.
How's that for an answer?
I would invest it all conservatively so as to earn interest. A small amount of that interest would supplement my income to make life that bit more enjoyable. But I'd continue to pay the mortgage, drive my crappy car, etc. The rest of the interest would be charitable donations.
Apart from SWMBO, nobody would know I'd won the lottery.
After living like that for a year or two, I might consider some lifestyle changes: move to a nicer house, go part-time at work, etc. But these would be very gradual changes. I think that when people allow themselves to be defined by a windfall, it is likely to end in tears. Yet of course it's human nature to go over the top in those circumstances. That human nature needs to be strongly resisted in order to maintain a satisfying life of meaningful work and experiencing the everyday human struggles that bind us to society.
How's that for an answer?
I would take Springs1 to lunch at a restaurant of her choosing.
I believe he is. In the second season, he'd tell Stan that he not the Man.
If I won the lottery, I'd buy all the girls on my block silver-plated six shooters and a quart of the finest highland scotch. 
