OK, just for fun. You just won the $400 million jackpot. What do you do?

[csziggy]

30. First, set up three trusts/foundations

One, to take care of me and my husband for the rest of our lives and to designate where that money goes when we're both gone.

The second, to take care of family and friends (mostly friends) - but I would put a professional trust company in charge so I don't have to deal with the pleas for help. For instance, we have some friends who can no longer drive and even if they could they can no longer afford a car. I would want to make sure they have access to a taxi or car service without worrying about paying for it. Currently my husband drives them around but I would like to travel more so there would be no transportation for them in that case.

My family members really don't need that much - but some of my husband's family could use some help.

The third, to establish regular long term donations to non-profit organizations that my husband and I would select.

Then my husband and I could travel without worrying about day to day things. We have a relatively new house and I don't really want a vacation house since I'd rather go to different places each trip. We could use a newer car - our 2006 Prius is still gong great but it would be nice to have a Prius V for the extra space on driving trips. The 1999 Suburban could use some cosmetic refurbishing but we hate to pay for the gas guzzler on trips even if it has all the space we need for hauling stuff.

Oh, and I'd explore how to leave my farm to an organization that would preserve the land. Although it's only 60 acres it is a nice cross section of habitat and would make a nice park. In this area most of the land is now either in 3 to 10 acres ranchettes or in hunting plantations that cover thousands of acres. So our little farm with it's 200 ft above sea level ridge dropping 50 feet to a swamp and stream is unique.