Dear Powerball Winner: Take Our Advice and Take the Annuity

[Xithras]

66. The #1 rule of investing is "Leave it to the pros." Get a GOOD TEAM of portfolio managers.

If I won $1.5 billion, my actual course of action would be straightforward. I'd start an entirely new investment fund, just for myself.

I'd look at the best performing funds in the market, real estate, and other investment vehicles. I'd find out who runs those funds. And then I'd hire them. Not the companies, but the actual rank and file people who make those funds work. I'd poach the living heck out of them. And then I'd rent a beautiful office space in some New York City skyscraper and put them to work for me. I wouldn't have "a financial advisor", but an entire team of financiers whose entire day job is based around growing that sum of money...and whose lucrative annual bonuses are directly tied to their level success. An entire team of people working 40 hours a week to turn that initial seed money into something much bigger.

Ultimately, most of the money would end up being spent on charitable causes, but I'm of the opinion that a permanent and growing investment portfolio capable of supporting many charitable causes on an ongoing basis is actually more useful than a one time cash gift from someone obliterating a billion dollar lottery prize. I'd live off of some of the growth, never touching the original seed that the fund is built upon.