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

[Venus193]

Leaving someone a $100 tip does sound like fun, though, doesn't it?

I actually did once, but the bill was $400.

[Winterlight]

Small amount- buy a car, save for retirement.

Medium amount- buy a car, save for retirement, set some fun money aside, give a chunk to my dad's foundation.

Big amount- QUIT MY JOB!!! Do the above. Pay for my brother to go to grad school. Set up a trust for my cousin's kid. Make sure my parents were taken care of. Buy an apartment in NYC to use when I visit. Travel a lot. Become a bellydancing SAR expert.

[nuit93]

Under 10k: nothing.  That woudn't even cover my car loan anyways, so it would go into savings.

10-50k: pay off my car loan, pad the personal savings account.  Start looking into home ownership since that would be enough for a proper down payment (20%, yes houses are expensive here).

50-100k: all of the above, but with possibly a 15 year mortgage instead of 30 year (they're REALLY expensive here).

[ladyknight1]

DH and I daydream about a possible windfall and this is what we would do:

No matter the amount, we would donate 10% to charities we support, with some going to our church.
With more than $500K, we would buy at least 10 acres of old citrus groves, and build a home on it.
More than $1M, we would buy a condo at the beach and land in North Georgia to build a home/cabin on. I would buy a small condo in my home town for when we visit. We would buy a share of a small private plane and I would learn to fly.
More than $2M, we would buy several (closed) dilapidated motels and turn them into homeless shelters/ job-training and counseling centers. These would be operated as a part of a trust. We would also open community centers with before/after school programs and summer camps for low income families and children. DH would have his own business.

I would absolutely love to have acreage and a small hobby farm/ranch. That is in the long-range plans regardless of winning the lottery.

[chigrrl1]

I'm going to be the materialistic one here who will end up on "How the Lottery Ruined my Life."  I should probably post to this site if that ever happens because y'all are so practical. 

Amounts are POST government taxing the daylights out of me.

50K:
      Tag Heuer Watch in White Ceramic 2K$
      New Car 25K$
      Remainder: Bills/Investments/Treats for Family


100K--500K
      Chanel J12 Watch in White Ceramic 10-12K$  (I've been dreaming about this watch my whole adult life and I KNOW it's a ridiculous waste of money, it's just so beautiful.)
      New Car 25K
      Bills, blah blah blah

500K--2M
      Ditto above, but with really killer vacation/party with friends and and installation of deluxo bathroom in existing modest condo.

2M-5M
      Ditto above.
      Quit Job, volunteer for a good charity organization where I get to play with puppies.
      Write book
      Birth or adopt baby.
      Buy lovely Victorian house with a huge footed bathtub and MASSIVE library.
      Probably get a white and a black Chanel J12....and maybe a platinum one...
      Set up trusts for my friends' kids educations.
      Spoil my immediate family.
      Liposuction or daily private ballet lessons with a very strict Russian dancer who would keep me in line.
     
     

Anymore than 5M and I'd start feeling obligated to make a "real" difference in the world and probably freak out about all the responsibility.  I think I would find that more stressful than being poor, but hopefully my beautiful watch collection would be a comfort.

[Just Lori]

I would buy my mother a home that is on one level, so that I never again have to see her sitting on her steps because she's exhausted and can go neither up nor down.

[Thipu1]

We'd get in touch with our financial advisor and hire a good lawyer to settle things  before we let anyone know that we'd won a big prize.
 
We'd put as much of our winnings into legal tax shelters as possible and find the most secure investments we could for the rest. 

Our life-style wouldn't change much but we'd probably do a bit more travel and have lobster a few more times a year.

Yes, we're very boring people.

 

[katycoo]

1. Tell no one (well, I might let DH in on it).
2. Pay out mortgage.
3. See a financial adviser and securely invest 90% of it so I could comfortably live off the interest - taking into consideration market risk.  There could be no way to lose it ALL.
4. Finish driveway. carport and landscaping on my home - no more DIY.
5. Start planning next year's holiday.

That's about it.  Neither mine or DH's immediate family require any financial assistance right now, and I'm not inclined to share the wealth just because - simply because I prefer to keep these kinds of things private.  Should their situations change I would likely do something to help.  Also I wouldn't want them to know how much I had.  They are not greedy people per se but they'd treat us differently in terms of expectation about our willingness to pay certain things, plus word spreads and there are certainly some extended family members who I am less confident of.

I'd also probably increase my regular charitable donations, but that would be worked out with the financial planner.

ETA: I would not quit my job, unless I had won over $10M, or enough to give me a secure wage off interest for the rest of my life, which might enable me to work in an unpaid capacity for a charity instead.

[Bluenomi]

DH and I have many lottery win fantasies 

First we'd pay off the cars and have a holiday. Next would be the mortage. If we have enough to pay off the mortage I can quite my job, yay!

More than that and we'd give some to both our parents for their mortages. Then BIL would get some for his mortage and we'd put money in trust for my under age sister and ask responsible sister if she wanted money now or if she wants us to stick it in a high interest account until she needs it. Other sister I'm not sure, I'd be dingdangity tempted to either give her money on the conditions she never complains she wants more or whines about what other sister did with hers or only give her money when she's mature enough to use it wisely 

If we still had more DH could quit his job and we'd have a nice long holiday and relaxing year or so until DD needs to go to school at which point DH would get a nice, stress free job to keep him busy.

We'd also stick a big chunk in the bank to provide interest to live off, probably get an investment property or 2, donate some to charity and set DD up a very nice trust fund

[Ceallach]

< $1m.   Pay off the mortgage, put the rest in savings for some fancy vacations etc down the track and just general financial stability / options in life.    No change to our lifestyle (although if I do decide to be a SAHM for awhile further down the track it would make that choice easier!)

$1m - $5mish - Probably a new house, new car, a few little luxuries.  The bulk into savings.  One of us would probably quit work and become a stay at home parent, but it would be a coin toss as to who.   

$5M +  As above, but then put some of it in a long term savings / investment where I couldn't touch it, or donate some to charity. Probably disburse an even amount to each member of our immediate families to do with as they please (no strings attached).     We would definitely pay off our parent's mortgages. 

In terms of telling people, if it was under $1M we wouldn't.  If it was a huge amount we would wait awhile and then say we'd come into "some money" but not say how much.   Our immediate families are not moochers or scammers so they wouldn't bludge, however if the sum was significant we would give them each a chunk.   If it was less than $5M we wouldn't, because in all honesty it wouldn't go very far spread that thin.   We're already the well off ones in our family so we'd continue to do nice things for family as we could.  We'd just be in a position to do more.     There might be some extended family who would come out of the woodwork begging if news got out, but I'd be comfortable telling them no.   I have a huge family, I can't give handouts to everybody.   

[Venus193]

For me, lobster every weekend and always with champagne.

Parties, especially for Carneval and Halloween.

Facelift.

And -- as was once said in a commercial -- I'd go to Paris and take only my wallet.

[MrsJWine]

Depending on how large a sum it was, some of these obviously wouldn't happen, so in order:

1. Pay off all debt.
2. Hire a financial adviser and invest wisely enough to make it last and/or live off it; if it's possible, I would like to make it so we only got, say, a set amount per month from some kind of fund. I like to say I wouldn't be one of those people who goes bankrupt after winning the lottery, but it happens to so many people that I'm thinking the money can do things to your brain that people do things they would never have expected.
3. College funds for kids.
4. Do something nice for each sibling and parent (pay off a debt, for example).
5. Buy a house that won't cost us more in maintenance and taxes than we could afford.
6. Buy well-built, fuel-efficient cars.
7. Hire a nanny/housekeeper. I like a lot of housework, but I hate dusting, scrubbing tubs, and a lot of the other little jobs that are just tedious (cleaning baseboards, for example). One thing I dream of fervently is the day I can leave the house without strapping kids into car seats in the middle of winter or a rainstorm.

If there's enough money left after that, we'd do some more frivolous things, like take vacations and go out to eat once a week.

[dietcokeofevil]

Under $50,000 - Blow it all on stuff.  I figure it's not enough to make a lasting change to my life style - it wouldn't pay my mortgage off or anything.  Instead I'd just be able to get some stuff that I've been saving for: new carpets, new countertops, etc.  Plus we'd take a really nice vacation.

Under $1 Million - Pay off the mortgage, take care of my house wishlist, or maybe just sell this house and build a new one.  Put most of the rest into savings. I wouldn't quit work, but I'd consider going part time.

$10 Million or higher - Same as above.  Pay off MIL and FIL's debt (which is more than our mortgage).  I'd want to give a similar amount of money for my side of the family, but since my Dad would never accept it, I'd probably just end up paying for my nephew's college.

I'm not sure that I'd ever stop working, but I could definitely see working part time.

[afbluebelle]

I'd want to pay off my debt and put a good amount in savings.

If it were a groovy amount ($2-5 million), I would also like to open my own business.

Supergroovy amount (5-10 million) I'd debate going Reservist and leaving Active Duty.

$100 million or more? I'd pay off my bills, give a million to the one person I promised I would if I ever won over $100 million, and I'd change my name to avoid any mooching relatives. I'd then go back to school or work for a non-profit/volunteer full time.



And I'd buy a monkey.

[Venus193]

$100MM?  I'd have an estate and a couple of these to guard it: