S/O of Giving your Old One: If you won the lottery....

[Venus193]

...what would you do with all that money and how would you protect it?

If I got less than $10MM I'd probably not change my life that much.  I might buy a condo if the price was right, but no cars or other major stuff beyond upgrading my season tickets at the opera and taking a good vacation every year.

If it were more than that I'd get a large condo, give some $$$ to a few deserving friends, get four more cats, and give some money to my causes, which would get everything I have in my will.

Since I already have Caller ID I don't answer the phone if I don't know the number and all junk mail begging for money goes into the circular file.  I have no greedy relatives that I know of and the ones I haven't seen for years and years would get nothing.  I am not easy to guilt-trip.

[BabylonSister]

Smallish amount: I'd go to college.


Medium amount: college plus moving out of here and buying a condo somewhere in California.


Huge amount: still buy a condo in California, make generous donations to my loved ones, put the rest in a trust fund.  I have no taste for luxury, big cars, diamonds and huge villas in Bel-Air.  I might do a fair amount of traveling, however.  In first class.

[siamesecat2965]

Smallish amount - pay off my debt and buy a new car.  If there was enough left over, maybe buy a condo or townhouse.

large amount - I know this is selfish, but I'd take care of ME first. I'd get all my ducks in a row, figure out how much I wanted/needed to live on annually, and invest enough to get me to that point. I'd also pay off my mom's house, and do whatever else for her.  I've seen too many stories of people who either blow all they have, or are scammed out of it, or simply give it away, and then have nothing left to show for it.  My first move would be to call my mom's financial advisor, who we both trust, and find a good attorney. once all that was done, THEN I'd come forward to c laim my winnings, and do what I said above.

I'd then help friends and family, and give a lot of it away.

[Sophia]

We live pretty simple lives, so we won't need much to be able to 'retire'. I'd probably become a scholar of Ancient Rome.  We have a daughter, so we would stay planted in the area.  But, we'd probably go explore someplace else for a month or two at a time about once a year.   We'd stay in the same house, and would definitely be the "Millionaire Next Door" because we wouldn't look rich.

[Lorelei_Evil]

I'd pay off my debt, save the rest, and continue working.

Nobody else gets a dingdangity penny until I'm taken care of first.  Full stop.

[MindsEye]

Smallish amount: Savings and pay down mortgage

Medium amount: Savings and pay off mortgage completely

Large amount: Savings, sell current house, move cross-country (closer to family)

Crazy huge amount: Get financial adviser, sell current house, move cross-country, investments/savings/IRAs/secret Swiss bank accounts, semi-retire (i.e. no longer need to work full time+ and worry about bills), travel, work free-lance for the National Geographic magazine.  Maybe set up educational accounts for niece/nephews.

None of which will ever happen as I don't play the lottery.     But it is so much fun to dream!

[learningtofly]

Pay off my house.  Pay off my brother's house and student loans.  Set-up education fun for DD and niece.  Wanted to send my parents on a nice vacation, but they've now been almost everywhere they want to go.

[Snooks]

I'd pay off the mortgage and book some first class tickets and start travelling.  I honestly don't know whether I'd share with family or not.  I'd like to see my brother secure with a house but I'd resent giving any to DH's family.

[Outdoor Girl]

Adding each sucessive step:
$100,000 or less:  Pay down/off mortgage
$100,000 to $500,000:  Buy a new car; help my brother with his divorce
$500,000 to $1,000,000:  Buy each of my nephews a new car (sensible - four door, not a luxery model) and pay their insurance on it until they are 25.  They would be responsible for the deductible and any increase in insurance if they have an accident, help my brother pay down his mortgage, visit friends in far flung places, flying 1st class, help my brother pay for my nephews' education
$1,000,000 to $5,000,000:  Retire and pick up a part time job doing something I'd like to do, making enough money to fund my gardening and yarn addictions, travel a little, flying 1st class, set up education funds for my friends' kids
>$5,000,000:  Build my dream home, preferably on a small lake, with room for a large garden, a hen house and some goats.  But I'd travel across Canada first, either driving and staying in B&B's along the way or hopping on and off the train.  I would spend more time in little out of the way spots than in the cities.

And before I do any of this, I would talk to my financial advisor on how to set up investments that would pay me regular dividends but wouldn't be accessible otherwise so if my spine weakens, it is still easy to say 'No'.  And at each sucessive step, I'd still donate to charity, just in increasing amounts.

[Garden Goblin]

Under 10K

Go through our current list of 'we should buy/do/pay off X' until money is spent.

Any amount over 10K

50% into a savings/trust account for my husband and I, 25% into a savings/trust account for the kid to be his when he turns 25 or graduates college, whichever comes first.  Take the remainder, cover the same list as the under 10K.  And then have some fun with whatever is left over.

[Hmmmmm]

Less than $5 mill, send the kids through college debt free, travel more, including paying for  annual vacations with alternating families (one summer rent a villa in Italy and pay for DH's sis, mother, brother and his family to join us, next winter rent a yacht and cruise the Carribean with my sisters and their families), retire earlier.

$5-15Mil, we'd probably sell our existing home once the kids are both at college, buy a townhouse in the city for the weekends and then buy a place in the country to live in during the week (both DH and I work from home so can work from anywhere). Set up college funds for DH's niece and nephew and the offspring of my nieces and nephews. Increase existing charitable donations plus all the above.

More than $15mil... not do anything for the next 2 years till my youngest if off to college.  Then quit our jobs, sell the house, by a large condo in city as a home base for us and our kids, then spend the next 2 years traveling for fun, coming home every 2-3 months to visit the kids and celebrate holidays. Then 2-3 years helping fund and doing volunteer work in areas needing to improve fresh water supply.  Come back to the US and start up some type of small shop to keep me busy and out of my kid's hair.    

Nope, I've never spent anytime daydreaming about this.

[RebeccainGA]

Easy - under $5MM, pay off mortgages, loans, etc. for us, and replace my aging car. Other than a few gadgety things, and some new clothes, we really wouldn't have a lot of things to spend big $$ on - but it'd be nice to eat out or go on a trip when we wanted. I'd still work, although I'd commute in a much nicer car (my '97 Camry is workable, but showing its age more each day).

Over $5MM but under $100MM, still keep my job but maybe go part time, to keep insurance (DP's medical would have been $2MM+ in the last two years. I'm not giving up medical insurance until we could pay cash for ANYTHING). Buy DD a new car, pay for her to complete college wherever she wants (not just in home state). Buy parents a new place, and maybe sister - DP's sister's house is paid for, but we might move DP's mom up to live with us in this case, with some help so it wouldn't be too much a burden on any one). Travel a lot - first class, maybe even charter jet so taking the pup wouldn't be an issue - or even better (dream here) a chauffeured custom bus/RV so that we can stop whenever we want.

Over $100MM - I think I'd finally quit my job.

[Yarnspinner]

Oh Venus, I was just fantasizing about this the other day.

Small amount ($10000) I'd use to pay off my credit card debt and buy a new refrigerator.

Medium amount ($150000) pay off the debt, pay off my mortgage and fix the place up moderately well so I could find someone as naive as I was when I bought the place and sell it to them. 

And I am just going to the whole "crazy wild out of my dreams" amount of money:

Everything above, PLUS, I would consult with a lawyer and a financial advisor...but among my many plans (after I paid everything off, set up a trust for my niece and paid off the homes of a few friends) would be to give each of my coworkers at least a million so that we can accomplish one of our darker dreams:  to attend a library board meeting where we each hand in our resignations effectively immediately.  (It's in our contract that we can give immediate notice and wave goodbye.)  But first, we would build it up so that they (and Stonecold) would think we were giving them money.  ("We have given sums of $xxxxxx to library Y and to library Z.  And now we have something for you as well.....something you appear to have wanted for some time....").  I know it's childish, but it would likely brighten things up for a while.

Then I would rent a house near the Cliffs of Mohr and write for a year just to see if I could finish and get published. 

[cicero]

no matter what amount: i would donate a certain percentage to charity

up to 100k$: take about 5000$ and use that however i want in some frivolous way. the rest as down payment on a house, and continue working.

100-500$k : a little more in a "do whatever you want" fund, buy a home, use money to help DS privately instead of public as we are doing now. continue working.

500-1m$: would buy a home for myself and buy some kind of housing for DS.

Over that - i would figure out if i could stop working, at least for a while, and go back to college up to a doctorate. I would set up trust funds for each of my nieces and nephews and i would set up a family emergency fund for my siblings and me in case any of us ever need. i would also start a college scholarship fund in my mother's memory.

[LazyDaisy]

Small amount < $50,000 pay off my old car and buy a new car in the range of a Ford Fusion. Any left over would go to bills and taxes. Any more and I would definitely hire a financial planner immediately.

The thing about large lottery wins though is that you don't actually get to take home the full amount that you win. In California, for instance, win 1 million -- if you opt for the lump sum payment instead of over time, you actually take home about half of that, so $500,000 and that's before the taxes, so taxes would usually take another (estimated) 30% of that leaving only $350,000. I could buy a rather modest 2 bedroom house for that amount in my area. I think the winners go bankrupt so quickly because they don't factor in things like that. They heard 1 million and hold on to that number in their head.