Daydreaming about the Powerball jackpot - What would you do with

[mandyky]

340 million dollars? Actually after taxes, it would be about half of that, but STILL...!!

I think I would open a network of communes in Red states and try to relocate poor people from inner cities to rural areas. I liked a lot
of what Louis Farakan said in his speech last weekend.

[blackcatpgh]

1. here ya go:

1) quit my job, hide from vultures asking for money, consult someone who knows how to handle large sums of money.

2) pay off student loans, etc. (my & my fiancee's).

3) make sure my family & a (very) few close friends are well taken care of.

4) donations to non-religious (is that the right word?) charities

5) buy 40+ acres in the mountains & build a log cabin with my own hands and plant one hell of a garden.

6) live semi-frugally for the rest of my life, but still travel to places i've always wanted to visit. use all the time i have to pursue the hobbies i don't have time for right now (due to work).

a pretty basic plan.

[BigMcLargehuge]

2. pay off my debt

my moms debt
my dad's debt
My inlaws debt
my brothers' debts
buy a modest house for the family and build a dojang on the property
buy a dojang for my hapkido/Kuhapdo teacher
trust fund for the kids so they can go to college
set up a scholarship program for students of Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School with New England College (both schools I graduated from).

Spend three months a year studying Iaido in Japan.

Spend the rest of the time writing fiction.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

3. Well, I'd pay off my student loans.

Somehow, it doesn't feel like I'll have much left after that. x(

[Loonman]

4. Build a massive lighted marquee sign in earth orbit

With mile high letters so I can tell the entire planet to "FUCK OFF" whenever I feel like it.

[anarch]

12. Finally, someone with decent aspirations!

I really hope you win! (If I don't ;) )

[Loonman]

24. I'm a simple man

With simple dreams.

:)

[Mizmoon]

5. RULE LIKE A TYRANT! BWAAAHAAAHAAAHAA!

*who said that?*

[LynneSin]

6. Depends on which set of numbers win

Tickets #2-#5: Quit my job and find something that pays crap but is 110% rewarding. Buy a really nice house, put money aside to pay for all my niece/nephews college education and arrange the first DU National Party where I'll pay for everyone to attend.

Ticket #1: Move to someplace so remote that no one can ever find me or get near me. I actually played the Lost Lotto numbers on Ticket #1 and you know how lucky those numbers are! 4 8 15 16 23 42

Of course if the Lost Lotto Numbers win I'll be lucky if I get $100k since I'm sure I'm not the only one playing those numbers!

[Inspired]

7. Quit my day job

There was an article in our paper today about what to do if you win. In this order:

1. Get a safety deposit box to stash the winning ticket in.
2. Meet with an attorney, CPA and financial planner to decide if you want the lump sum pay off or the yearly draw. (Lump sum is the way to go.)
3. Call the lottery office.
4. Don't spend months planning on how to spend the money. SPEND IT!

[Divameow77]

8. Shoes

I would buy lots of shoes

[WCGreen]

9. Not give a cent to my brother and sister who see me in terrible

financial straights and will not help me....

Both make well over 250,000 A YEAR....

[TX-RAT]

10. Keep on ranching until it was all gone.

[MN ChimpH8R]

11. I've thought about this a lot

1. Call the best investment advisor I could find.

2. Quit my job, pay off every nickel I owe.

3. Indulge in a fabulous new car (AMG Mercedes, Porsche 911).

4. Take good care of my retired mother and a couple of close friends. Then make a nice donation to DU.

5. Figure out in consultation with my investment advisor how much I need to live in the manner in which I want to for the rest of my life. And I intend to live exceedingly well with that kind of money.

6. Establish a foundation with the rest of the money that would generously support good liberal causes from NARAL and the ACLU to worthy political candidates, to the Wellstone political camps, to orchestras and libraries. Make sure this can continue over the long run.

7. Relocate my primary residence to Australia or New Zealand while also keeping places in Los Angeles and London. Eventually become an Aussie or Kiwi citizen.

8. Hire a gentleman's gentleman (an Englishman or a Scot) to look after my household/residences.

9. Spend my time traveling to experience the world, amassing a nice wine cellar, laying on the beach in Thailand or Vietnam (summer place) and doing whatever I damned well feel like doing for the rest of my life knowing that the bulk of my money was being used to advance good purposes.

[Reciprocity]

13. Visit Middle Earth

On one of their Red Carpet Tours. What this is a tour for Lord of the Rings die hard fans, that takes you to the places that the movies were made in New Zealand. It doesn't cost the earth at around $8,000.00 all toll for two but, with my finances right now I have a better chance of going to the moon than visit Frodo.

Red Carpet Tours
http://www.redcarpet-tours.com/
Highlights of the Classic Tour are:

Hobbiton (lunch at 'The Shire's Rest' )
Geothermal activity
Emyn Muil, Mordor and Mt. Doom
Gollum's fishing pool
Powderhorn Chateau (where the stars stayed)
The Lord of the Rings horses
The film studios
Isengard Gardens
The Calligrapher: http://www.danielreeve.co.nz/
The Elven cloak factory
Leaving Lothlorien and Gladden Fields
Edoras
The Pelennor Fields
The Rohan sites
Oliver's Lodge: http://www.olivers.co.nz/
Fangorn Forest
River Anduin
The Misty Mountains
Amon Hen and Ithilian

[jane_pippin]

14. First, pay off my bills. Then, buy a house or kick-ass apartment in

San Francisco, invest it so I can live off of it fo'eva and then spend my time the way I want to, and of course, donate heavily to some good causes.

[terrya]

15. Buy a new pair of shoes

I haven't bought a new pair of shoes in a while. :-(

[QuettaKid]

16. hate to break it to all you all....

but there will be NO WINNER tonight and it will roll over until Saturday's drawing....at which point I will win. There was a thread on this yesterday....

[gollygee]

17. Finish the basement, have husband quit his job

get a nice fence around the back yard, get another xm radio for the house (I have one for the car).

[Wcross]

18. I buy a day of veterinarians time to do spaying/neutering......

I would set up free or reduced cost spay/neutering places in areas where they are needed. I guess I could buy a day of the vets time once a month all around the country.
I would also purchase a couple of thousand acres in the country and fence it off as a nature preserve. No hunting/fishing and let nature take its course.
I would also give enough to my siblings so they could retire.

[NewJeffCT]

19. take care of my immediate family first

Keep maybe $50,000,000 in conservative investments so I don't have to worry.... with the rest:

Money for my parents & brother, as well as my wife's parents and her sister. I'd also set up my cousin's kids with college tuition, as well as my daughter.

Have as environmentally-friendly a house built as possible. One in Connecticut; one somewhere in China; and one some place in between (maybe Hawaii?)

Probably father another baby, as long as my wife was up for it.

Help out the friends I know that have debt problems.

A big donation to DU to help them get a new super-server that can handle mega-traffic.

Donate to some worthy charities.

[bicentennial_baby]

20. hmmmm....

pay my way through the rest of undergrad and grad school, buy a nice house and land for me & the sniffa's, pay off my parents' house and debts, buy my bro a house. :)

[LoZoccolo]

21. Two chicks at the same time. n/t

[Tikki]

22. Donate a hefty amount to...

"Children of the Night" and other homeless children's organizations.
Buy my sister-in-law a huge piece of land up in Podunk and put a nice manufactured on it, same thing with my bro-in-law.

Travel with Mr. Tikki and the baby to every possible place on this Earth. I want my grandson to experience and then experience even more...


Tikki...

[noonwitch]

23. I'd give most of it to charity

My mind can't conceive of $340 million. I'd only need about 15 mill of it to secure a work-free lifestyle for my family and myself.

Maybe give some to Habitat for rebuilding projects in both Detroit and in New Orleans.

Maybe start a fund to help Detroiters start small businesses and rehabilitate housing.

Send a bunch of money to Heifer International, to buy farm animals for people in developing countries.

Definitely start a scholarship fund for all foster kids in Wayne County. There is a tax-funded program, but nothing ever covers all the expenses. Foster kids often don't have families to help them out.

I'd buy some waterfront property somewhere on Lake Michigan, and have my dream house built there. I'd probably give my current house to a friend who has nothing. The same with my Focus once I bought a fancier car (or cars).

[Pool Hall Ace]

25. Ooooh, where do I start . . .

I would purchase a one-story house for my brother.
I would purchase land, have my husband build us a house, and spend time caring for homeless animals.
I would start a fund for childfree/childless/empty-nester people who need help recovering from financial devastation/job loss/inadequate health insurance.

[distantearlywarning]

26. The hubby and I discussed that this week.

Wishful thinking, I know, but it's fun to speculate.

Here's what I'd do:

1. Buy two fun but (relatively) sensible cars. I want a tricked out Miata, the hubby wants a hybrid.

2. Set up charitable funds - I would like to set up a scholarship for poor to middle class promising young musicians to buy them professional instruments, which can be quite expensive. I also want to seriously contribute to funding a local no-kill animal shelter (say a 100K a year or so). Hubby wants to set up a scholarship fund for non-traditional older students.

3. Buy his very poor family a house with acreage and a good, reliable car. Set up a college (tuition + expenses) fund for his extremely bright, mathematically talented nephew which would allow him to attend MIT or any Ivy League school he could get into when the time comes. Buy my wealthy but cheap parents an all expenses paid trip to Scandanavia under the condition that they had to fly first class and stay in fancy hotels.

4. Hand out hundred dollar bills to homeless people and waitresses! Pay 6 months rent for a Katrina refugee! Buy a poor family Christmas or Thanksgiving! (and probably about a hundred other small acts of kindness that I could think of over time that would be really, really fun to do).

5. We'd like to build a custom house on acreage and attach a martial arts studio to it.

6. I'd finish my graduate program, but not have to teach undergrads for funding. The hubby would quit his job and take classes in whatever he wanted or pursue another degree or a black belt or maybe just sit around the house.

7. We'd also take trips to places we hadn't been yet.

Other than that, just invest it wisely, I guess!

[Rosie1223]

27. Move to a Red State

and buy myself a Senate seat.


Rosie

[Lydia Leftcoast]

28. Aside from the usual paying off debts, I'd

1) Buy an urban condo and a Prius

2) Set up trust funds for my nieces and nephews, not to be paid out until they're age 40 (so that they have to strive for themselves for a while but will still be able to make a career change or finance a midlife crisis)

3) Start a tuition-free school that provides an arts-centered education K-12, with applicants chosen by lot from each elementary school district in Minneapolis

4) Start a program that would send recent college graduates selected by political parties to a year of study in Europe. (Would the Republicans stay Republican? :evilgrin: )

[Reciprocity]

29. This is what you would get cash option after fed tax no state.

Cash---$164,400,000
fed tax -$41,100,000
------=$123,300,000

For list of states and projected payouts.
Powerball Jackpot Analysis
http://www.usamega.com/powerball-jackpot.htm

[mandyky]

30. Don't forget your tickets

They draw tonight, and you can't win if you don't play!