Upon winning the lottery, What would you do? [Archive]

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Chief Pride

05-11-2007, 20:21

just curious, would anyone keep working at their job?

what would be the first thing you do?

Taylor

05-11-2007, 20:33

I'd at least finish out the school year. And you better believe we're going to Atlanta.

Jeff K.

05-11-2007, 20:35

Depends what the job was. If it was something like cleaning toilets, then yeah, quit that in a heartbeat. But if it was something like factory team driver or race team driver, then just keep that job and the money.

But first order of business, to be honest, get a DB9.:D

Then save rest of money for kids and future. Might also take a trip.

Billfred

05-11-2007, 20:44

First thing? Get the claim form filled out, checking no on the publicity release part of the form. (In South Carolina, that is an option.) Given the choice, I would want as few people as possible to know about the win--the last thing I need is everyone who I sorta kinda knew in second grade at Harbison West Elementary coming up asking for money for something or other.

However, a look at the South Carolina Education Lottery's claim form indicates that information on it is subject to the state freedom of information act. Assuming that the jackpot were large enough to enable me to quit my job, I imagine someone would file a FOIA request trying to smoke me out. Therefore, the second thing I would do would be to seek a leave of absence from my job, take some of my winnings in cash, find a decent motel in the middle of nowhere, and lay low for a while. Once all the potential fame has passed, I'd do my best to go back to a normal life and keep my net worth between myself and my accountant. Any charitable giving would be handled in the same manner--quietly.

skimoose

05-11-2007, 20:48

Well, it depends on how big the lottery win was... I'd keep working for awhile.

If you're talking over $20 million lump sum.... I'd keep working... not for my current employer, but for my own venture.

Then, not in any particular order...

Set up a little trust fund to sponsor my FIRST team for a long, long time.

Set up a little scholarship fund to guarantee at least one student per year on my FIRST team a scholarship.

Take some nice vacations.

Take care of my children's educations and getting their adult lives started.

Take care of my wife's and my parents.

Go back to school.

Make the world a better place. (I think I covered that with some of the above, but I'm sure I'd think of more!) :D

Once you've departed this Earth, you're remembered less for the size of your bank account and more for the size of the improvements you've made to society. ;)

EricH

05-11-2007, 21:02

First thing: pay the government.

Not totally sure afterwards.

JaneYoung

05-11-2007, 22:33

I would pay the taxes on it.
If it was a tidy sum then it would start working really hard for me in the causes I believe in.
Those causes always involve children, the elderly, animals, our global environment, and the future -

And I might get a nice cushion for my rocking chair.

Andrew Y.

05-11-2007, 23:11

you know iv actually thought deeply about this...

50% divided into 100k accounts with interest
25% to charity, NPO's,
the other 25% to pay off credit card bills and debt (car). and will have enought to buy my parents a nice house, buy myself a house, finally get that 6in lift kit for my rubicon.:D :D

Lil' Lavery

05-11-2007, 23:19

After taxes:
Buy a car (nothing too flashy, point A to point B type of thing).
Pay for school.
Reserve a copy of Rock Band for the PS3(yes, it's that good. I've played it)
Save 50% of the remaining amount
Give 50% of the remaining amount to charity

KathieK

06-11-2007, 06:21

I pass a Powerball billboard every day on my way to work. As the numbers change, I do some mental math and figure out approximately how much I would get out of the jackpot if I take it in a lump sum, take the taxes off the top, then pay it out to myself over the next 30 years... (and people think I'm paying attention to the traffic! Hah!)
The first thing I would do is give my two-week notice. Then take two weeks' vacation.
We'd have a big party for all our friends and then invite them all on vacation with us.
We'd put some aside in trust funds for the kids.
Then we'd set up a Connecticut Robotics Education Center (I already have the building picked out) with dorms, classrooms, a facility to hold tournaments, machine shops, etc.
Then I'd figure out what other charities I wanted to support.
Then, if anything was leftover I'd buy a used car to replace my Jeep. Well, OK, maybe a new Jeep. Or maybe a lamborghini... hmmm... :)
Oh, and a log house in the mountains.
And a beach house at the beach.

Jeff Rodriguez

06-11-2007, 08:52

I'd keep doing what I'm doing. (Finish school and then teaching)
But I'd use it to buy a house and maybe a car. I'd fill the house with crazy nice things (flat screen and speakers in everyroom, automatic appliances, one of those voice activated servant computers like they have on Star Trek, etc.)
Probably start some FIRST teams.
But that's about it.

Wayne C.

06-11-2007, 11:20

disappear

Tottanka

06-11-2007, 13:06

First thing, i'd buy a Hybrid cool car.
I will also finish my degree, though not through the army as i currently am doing.
Sponser about 3-4 FIRST teams, and visit as many regionals as i can.
Charity of course, abouy 50% wll go for savings for my and my family's future...
20 million dolars is a lot of beer though :)

Elgin Clock

06-11-2007, 14:51

In kinda particular order, but at the same time in random order as well.

1) Pay off the taxes right away - Kind of a given with most lotteries.

2) Hire my own parents as consultants for investing/money matters. Then secure them a place to call home for the rest of their lives. No mortgages, no rent, no more of that ever again.

3) Lock money in a CD or some other kind of secure investments (IRA's CD's) etc... (I know myself, I would be wayyyy to tempted to blow through all of it right away if I didn't do something like that right away.)

4) Drop work & focus on School (pretty much studying the same thing I'm going for currently (ME) maybe or stray off into a more focused field like Architecture.) Any college would be an option at that point. And since I won't be juggling work & school which I loathe, I could actually learn something in my classes, and not just get a passing grade.

5) Pick some land (somewhere) and secure it to build a home on (been working on that plan since High School) & raise a family and all that jazz.
(Oh, and it has to include a field house big enough to host a mini-comp. With full shop capabilities as well.)

6) Secure my brother & sister's college career was all set. Wherever they wanted to go, 100% paid for - All living & school related expenses.

7) Upgrade everything in my life. (Electronics, cars, etc. etc.) Basically have a lot of toys.

8) Travel... and by that I mean both overseas, in the USA, and maybe for one year just go around everywhere a favorite band of mine tours and go see every show. (It doesn't even have to be in the front row everytime either.)

9) Invest in projects my current friends/family have. I know of a bunch friends/family of mine have currently, and that would be my first case of charity.

10) Secure my team endless sponsorship. (not 100% - we still want to teach kids the importance of fundraising, and working together as a team) but we would just have more options.

11) ~10 FRC teams a year would be sponsored. - Applications would be filled out and the need to maintain existing teams in financial trouble would preside over starting new ones. (That's just how I feel about that matter, my personal opinon.) And I would visit every one of them to try and help out as well. I'm not just going to write a check and be nameless. I want to be involved.

12) All clubs or organizations I am currently involved in or have been in the past would get some kind of donation if they are still in existence.

13) Put some money into programs to study medical issues that people I know have, or my own to help find cures/better treatments.

14) Side projects of my own. We all have little ideas that we think "if only I had the time or money" (no matter how silly they may seem at the time) we would jump at the chance to focus on. This would be my version of "work" if the other 13 items above didn't count as keeping me busy enough. lol

15) Last but not least... try and breathe and enjoy life and chill out.
(kind of hard to do with this huge to-do list above, but it can be accomplished)

vivek16

06-11-2007, 16:33

olympic swimming pool of jello would be the first thing. I would do good stuff with the rest

dlavery

07-11-2007, 04:04

OK, the sad part is that we have actually sat around at work and debated this (hey, we are working on government salarites, what do you expect? :) ).

First, an observation. Have you ever noticed that when any of the major lotteries start to get really large, the local TV stations all start to interview the people standing in line to buy tickets, hoping that they will win? They all seem to find the same guy to ask the question of: unshaven for 12 days, no teeth, big hunk o' chaw in his lip, 14 strands of hair in a comb-over, and a nasty old Cowboys jacket that hasn't been washed since 1973. And then they all ask the same question: "Sir, what would you do if you won the $84 million in this weeks Powerball lottery?"

"We-e-e-all, first off, I guess I would git me a new truck..."

<sigh> some people just don't know how to think big.

Me? If I won a few dozen million dollars, I would start off by buying a small Caribbean country. Preferably one that entirely occupies its own island. With whatever was left, I would purchase an air force for Dave-land and give them just one command: keep all the lawyers away. Eh, maybe two commands: keep all the lawyers away, and let me take the airplane out for a spin whenever I want. OK, so make that three rules: keep all the lawyers away, let me take the airplane out for a spin whenever I want, and make sure to fly in enough Krispy Kremes whenever the supply in Dave-land starts to get low.

Yeah, that is how I would spend my lottery winnings.

-dave

Koko Ed

07-11-2007, 05:17

First thing I do is turn off the phone and leave the house and stay someplace only my immediate family knows.

MissInformation

07-11-2007, 11:40

If I won millions and still had millions after taxes, I would still finish getting my degree, but instead of taking summer classes, I would spend the summer months traveling to as many places as possible!

I would get my parents out of their crappy neighborhood that has an average of 2 shootings a week... I would buy them a house, probably closer to where my sister lives.

Our house here is pretty nice, so I would pay it off and then Eric and I could discuss if we wanted to sell it and buy something newer (we do not need anything bigger, 5 bedrooms for 2 people is pretty big) or remodel.

I would buy a vacation house somewhere... maybe Alaska... almost definitely in the mountains somewhere...

I would get a nicer car and I would hire a full time chauffeur and the world will be a safer place all around.

I would buy the best camera equipment out there and go on wonderful photography trips in the wilds of the world!

And I would invest and save... and help out where I can... most likely with animal charities and charities designed to help those in extreme poverty.

Heidi

whytheheckme

07-11-2007, 13:20

Scratch Lottery -> Segway

Travis Hoffman

07-11-2007, 13:44

I would buy the Browns a decent pass rush.

Pavan Dave

07-11-2007, 20:12

Chief Pride

07-11-2007, 20:42

i havent answered... but this is what i'd do

buy a warehouse with a overhead crane

fill it with stock metal

buy all the land around it and expand

create a massive lan center in 1/4th of the area, the rest will be filled with hundreds of thousands of dollars of tools, and then ill lock myself inside, letting all the neighborhood kids come in ofc :p (like willy wonka :D) and sit around with nothing to do like mythbusters, and just make awesome stuff all day for no reason :)

Cory

08-11-2007, 00:59

Pay the taxes

Buy myself a new car. Nothing fancy. Just something new and more fuel efficient than my 14-16 mpg 14 year old Explorer.

Take a couple months to vacation in various places around the world (Australia, New Zealand, and Europe are at the top of my list)

Buy myself a decent sized house (4 bedrooms or so). With a shop/garage thats nearly as large as the house. Outfit the shop with a full complement of manual and CNC machine tools, a waterjet, welders, power and hand tools, and everything else you'd need to take on any project you could ever think up.

I'd set up a trust fund for both the FIRST teams I've worked with.

Endow some grants for other FIRST teams.

Set up an organization to find and support other charitable ventures.

Other than having the coolest garage ever, and flying first class whenever I travel, I don't think I'd alter my lifestyle at all.

robostangs548

08-11-2007, 07:20

i would spend all of it on a really nice car..... haha, no prolly just bank it and go from there, just more stuff.... Mostly impulse buying.

temujin

08-11-2007, 15:34

1. Rent a 777 or two or three
2. Send them around the world to pick up friends
3. Send limos for team 116 and other local friends to take to plane(s)
4. Meet on Lavery's island, or buy my own
5. Have a whale of a party.
6. 2, 3 weeks (months?) later, when party is over, send them all home.
7. If any money left, buy a box of Krispy Kremes.
8. Spend the remainder of my life guarding the KK's...

Zyik

08-11-2007, 17:10

- Pay Taxes.

- Shiny shiny trust fund for 973.

- Grants for teams I have friends on or those who are in need of financial aid.

- Let Step-Dad build that Concrete Dome he's always talking about.

- Build own Concrete Dome, those things are cool. :D

- Go to college, get PhD in Biomedical Engineering.

- Visit international friends.

- See the world.

- Build a TARDIS.

- Look into getting ride to the ISS via Russians.

3dude_2231

08-11-2007, 19:31

I'd share it with myself. //but that doesn't work if you're me =|

then.. I'd buy a Galaxy Aerospace Westwind 1125 (now referred to as Gulfstream G100 ^^),
convert it into a full computerized ("glass") cockpit,
get the license for this class,
and then have that trip around the world with it :)

Pavan Dave

08-11-2007, 22:43

Taxes
College
Stock Market
Donation to Houston Robotics
Also donate other programs around world [esp. in India] that teach kids about computers
Start some sort of Robotics Scholorship [Notice I didn't limit it to FIRST],
Donate to sites like TBA/CD that make FIRST work more smoothly.

Buy IFI hopefully?!?

Oh ya, I also would like to buy an Island and call it Pirate Island and donate it to The Pirate Bay!~ And another to be used as the headquarters of the Pirate Party! http://www.piratpartiet.se/international/english :)

GaryVoshol

09-11-2007, 14:50

Finance a trip to South Africa for our team so we could see our partners' country as they have seen ours for the last 2 years.

Oh heck, take along a few dozen KoP's and stage the first African regional!

Set up a charitible foundation to manage the rest - I'd quit my current job and the foundation would be my work.

Alexa Stott

09-11-2007, 19:25

The first thing I'd do is buy Sealand.

vivek16

09-11-2007, 20:23

mrbob1000

13-11-2007, 19:14

if i won the lottery i would probably invest 3/4 of it in bonds and use the other 1/4 for making an ultimate gaming pc. and for buying alot of Mozilla stock and some stock in various Linux company's.

Wetzel

15-11-2007, 17:49

Step one: Trip to bank to get a safe deposit box.
Step two: Contact a financial planner.
Step three: ???
Step four: Buy sweet stuff.
Step five: Profit!!!

Wetzel

Cooley744

15-11-2007, 21:34

it would be amazing to take your team to every single regional...just simply amazing.

plus a sweet car, maybe a private jet, i guess i havta go to college, prob. start a really cool band, build a starbucks on my jet. buy a pair of bapes. wow, i could come up with so much more.

wow and charity, thats actually really important.

oh oh oh and also fill a giant pool with chicken noodle soup and swim and eat it.

buy 20 pounds of cheese and hand it out to people on the street and tell them i just won the lottery and bought this cheese for no reason, want some?

^^^please not im joking about the cheese, and almost everything else lol

=Martin=Taylor=

15-11-2007, 23:41

I'd bribe Dave Lavery to tell me the game six weeks early :D (yes it would be well worth it)

dlavery

16-11-2007, 23:06

I'd bribe Dave Lavery to tell me the game six weeks early :D (yes it would be well worth it)

You wouldn't have enough... :)

KarenH

17-11-2007, 01:14

Oh, KathieK, your ideas are so sweet, you really don't deserve this, but--

I guess I'm really being a party pooper tonight!

Real Life Happens--
The first thing I would do is give my two-week notice. Then take two weeks' vacation.
We'd have a big party for all our friends and then invite them all on vacation with us.
Three days into your vacation with your friends, while doing nothing spectacular, you break both your legs and must be medi-vac'd to the hospital, where after emergency surgery and two casts, you are sent home in a wheelchair. One of your dearest friends cuts her vacation short to go home with you and help take care of you while you recuperate.

Meanwhile, the rest of your friends, whom you firmly ordered to continue enjoying their vacation in your honor, get severe food poisoning from a world-class restaurant. One-fourth of them continue the vacation after a couple days alternating between bedroom and bathroom. The rest of them wind up in the hospital the day after you get sent home from it, so you can't even commiserate with them. Three of your hospitalized friends are so ill they become comatose for two months, and require two years before they can walk again.

One of your "friends" later sues you, because you invited him on the vacation, so his illness is obviously YOUR fault. Although he eventually loses, your lawyer fees add up.

We'd put some aside in trust funds for the kids.
Then we'd set up a Connecticut Robotics Education Center (I already have the building picked out) with dorms, classrooms, a facility to hold tournaments, machine shops, etc.

Although you still have 30 million USD left from your winnings after paying everyone's hospital and nursing home bills, the neighbors to your proposed CREC building object to your plans. Some are convinced that it should really become an indoor mini golf center. Most think that having a youth center nearby will attract too many teens, along with drugs, vandalism, and other supposed "teen" problems. A few even accuse you of being racist for proposing such an idea. (Reminder: this is real life, which doesn't necessarily make sense.) The zoning and planning commission meetings drag on endlessly...

Then I'd figure out what other charities I wanted to support.
Then, if anything was leftover I'd buy a used car to replace my Jeep. Well, OK, maybe a new Jeep. Or maybe a lamborghini... hmmm... :)

But you actually decide you'll subscribe to a charter jet service so you can visit...
Oh, and a log house in the mountains.
in southern California, where the annual fire season takes place where your log house was...
And a beach house at the beach.
...in Malibu, where a brush fire roaring down a nearby canyon collides with the heavy ocean swell from a tropical storm 1,000 miles away to the south. Your remaining friends take bets on which will destroy your beach house first...

Vexkingof716

17-11-2007, 16:49

I would pay off al debit for myself, my family, and our farm. then become our teams sponser forever. it would be set up so they still had to raise money, but will alwasy be able to go to any regionals and championships, including transportation and rooms. i would also build a large building to house them with a full field and machine shop complete with state of the art cumputerized waterjets, lathes, and bridgeports. there would also be a full scholarship for any senior on the team who is enrolled in our schools agricultureal classes and plan to go on in the field of agriculture.
Next i would set up investments in Cowpots, my dads buisness, and various other buisnesses, give to charities. I would still finish school and continue on to become a teacher and teach. i would buy our schools FFA program equipment and animals. I would hae a fleet of trucks, cars, and toys. All of the trucks would be diesel trucks running off of biodiesel which will be produced at my house. Next comes trust funds for not only my kids and grand children, but myy great grand children. then i would start a bull breeding operation to raise bulls for use in bull riding competitions, such as P.B.R. thats all for now.:)

KathieK

18-11-2007, 08:36

Oh, KathieK, your ideas are so sweet, you really don't deserve this, but--

Well. I guess I know who isn't getting invited to go on vacation with me! :p

Melissa Nute

18-11-2007, 09:42

1. Pay Taxes
2. Pay off Student Loans
3. Buy a house along the Cape
4. Pay off my mother's house
5. Pay off my Future In-Laws' house
6. Savings
7. Buy myself a VW Bug

I would still keep working as you never know. Plus, I personally can't handle being bored. I would make sure it was a job I truly enjoyed.