Congratulations you won the lottery! Now what? (rar)

[Rabid]

Man I would buy so much land in the US and Alaska in particular (private hunting / nature preserve / vacation place).

Don't you guy pay some kind of Property Tax ? 'Cause if you buy too much land, and then are forced to pay more taxes on it that the remaining amount of money you have... Seems to me like a recipe for financial disaster.

[General Zod]

Man I would buy so much land in the US and Alaska in particular (private hunting / nature preserve / vacation place).

Don't you guy pay some kind of Property Tax ? 'Cause if you buy too much land, and then are forced to pay more taxes on it that the remaining amount of money you have... Seems to me like a recipe for financial disaster.

If you develop it correctly you can turn it into a massive tax write-off.

[Soontir C'boath]

Man I would buy so much land in the US and Alaska in particular (private hunting / nature preserve / vacation place).

Don't you guy pay some kind of Property Tax ? 'Cause if you buy to much land, and then are forced to pay more taxes on it that the remaining amount of money you have... Seems like a recipe for financial disaster, if you want my advice.

So just set a budget that takes into account whether its getting tax breaks like Zod mentioned or make sure there's enough money to pay the annual property tax and so on.

[Simon_Jester]

Meh, life goes on with virtually no change at all. If someone comes for my money, I'll write a check and be done with it. Hell, I'd probably give away one or two million right out of the gate. There's plenty to go around.

You get taxed for gifts over $10,000 to people who you aren't married to. That might not be such a good idea.

Anyone I care enough about to hand them more than $10,000, I care enough about to pay US-level taxes on my gift to. No one I know needs enough money to make an appreciable dent in income on this scale, given that I find it hard to imagine wanting to live rich enough to need more than about 5% of it; the other 95% is gravy.

(I can imagine wanting to live rich enough to need maybe as much as a million dollars a year, though I think I'd have to go out of my way to spend that much money, or accept a lot of advice from people I shouldn't be listening to.)

I'm supportive of all the "invest" ideas, but I myself am rather averse to stock market juggling for personal reasons, so I would definitely pass all responsibility on that to hired professionals. This also makes it a bit difficult to weigh options like "go into this industry or that industry."

Honestly, my greatest challenge at that point would be to just not become totally idle; the temptation to quit doing most kinds of work I'm familiar with would be too strong, because I'm not a very driven sort of person. In the absence of the need to earn a salary I don't know what I'd do.

(I suspect more of us here would have problems with that than would care to admit to it)

[General Zod]

Honestly, my greatest challenge at that point would be to just not become totally idle; the temptation to quit doing most kinds of work I'm familiar with would be too strong, because I'm not a very driven sort of person. In the absence of the need to earn a salary I don't know what I'd do.

(I suspect more of us here would have problems with that than would care to admit to it)

I could find plenty of things to do. Most of it would involve traveling the world and wacky vanity projects like building a particle accelerator in my back yard or a nuclear powered yacht.

[His Divine Shadow]

Man I would buy so much land in the US and Alaska in particular (private hunting / nature preserve / vacation place).

Don't you guy pay some kind of Property Tax ? 'Cause if you buy too much land, and then are forced to pay more taxes on it that the remaining amount of money you have... Seems to me like a recipe for financial disaster.

I don't know anything about US laws. I didn't really want to buy land to develop as much as keep pristine.

[Simon_Jester]

Honestly, my greatest challenge at that point would be to just not become totally idle; the temptation to quit doing most kinds of work I'm familiar with would be too strong, because I'm not a very driven sort of person. In the absence of the need to earn a salary I don't know what I'd do.
(I suspect more of us here would have problems with that than would care to admit to it)

I could find plenty of things to do. Most of it would involve traveling the world and wacky vanity projects like building a particle accelerator in my back yard or a nuclear powered yacht.

Well, a really interesting particle accelerator costs enough money to eat your budget pretty quick, I'm afraid. There are particle accelerators that can be built and kept running for something in the ten million a year or less range, but they're petite little low-energy things. Though in fairness that also makes it a lot easier to fit them into your backyard.

I suspect similar problems would arise with the nuclear powered yacht... but I do take your meaning.

The problem wouldn't be finding things to keep me occupied and interested in whatever I happened to be doing at the time. I could keep my time occupied for much, much less money than that.

The problem would be forcing myself to impose some minimum degree of physical and mental discipline on myself, so that I don't wind up just being a misfit who chooses to do things that are ultimately irrelevant to my long-term happiness because they happen to be pleasant at the time.

I have enough trouble with that as it is.

[aerius]

Meh, life goes on with virtually no change at all. If someone comes for my money, I'll write a check and be done with it. Hell, I'd probably give away one or two million right out of the gate. There's plenty to go around.

You get taxed for gifts over $10,000 to people who you aren't married to. That might not be such a good idea.

Cash people, cash. The IRS can't tax it if they don't know about it.
Besides, you're filthy rich, you should have offshore accounts & dummy corporations to do your money laundering & tax evasion just like every other filthy rich bastard.

[Ryushikaze]

Annuity. Pay off student loans, car, purchase house, and invest. Continue living otherwise as I do, including still working, because even while rich, I don't want to be a recluse or a layabout.
Once I get my investments off the ground, I probably go philanthropic in some way, investing into Nuclear and renewable options. I want my kids to have a good environment in addition to providing for them.

[General Zod]

Meh, life goes on with virtually no change at all. If someone comes for my money, I'll write a check and be done with it. Hell, I'd probably give away one or two million right out of the gate. There's plenty to go around.

You get taxed for gifts over $10,000 to people who you aren't married to. That might not be such a good idea.

Cash people, cash. The IRS can't tax it if they don't know about it.
Besides, you're filthy rich, you should have offshore accounts & dummy corporations to do your money laundering & tax evasion just like every other filthy rich bastard.

I'd just as soon not turn into an abject hypocrite just because I'm suddenly filthy rich.

[Serafina]

I'll take the annuity, but only about 10% of it for myself and my family - that's still 2 million a year, more than enough for all my needs. I am really not one for spending large amounts of money at once, i already had the opportunity (with far smaller sums of course) twice in my life and did not do so. I actually enjoy being financially responsible.
Yes, i would seriously not want that much money to spend, i can't enjoy pointless luxury.

So i would invest the rest (18 million a year) into a trust foundation for transsexual people. Yes, it could be spent on poverty in the third world, but there is currently no such foundation for this and the money would do plenty of good in backward regions like the USA and still be useful elsewhere. I would not really want to interfere with the foundations financial bussiness, solely determining it's purpose.

[muse]

Start a bank. Turn my millions into billions.
Buy a few key politicians & corporate leaders and use them to remake the country in my image.

And since I hate golf I'll buy up every golf course and turn them into forests and parkland.
And put a high density pig farm in Richmond Hill, cause I hate that place too.

[weemadando]

And since I hate golf I'll buy up every golf course and turn them into forests and parkland.

I like this one. Hell, turn it into a mixture of parkland, forest and urban farming. It's not like there's not enough of them around and they aren't big enough.

[Alphawolf55]

It really surprises me the amount of people here who admit they'd try to get out of any tax they could.

Me? I'd do the usual get a few lawyers and fiancial consultants. I'd then buy a few businesses to staff my friends and send the others to college. I'd then try to bribe my way through a top university. At which point I'd try to spend no more then 200,000 a year on my self (excluding campaign expenses). Probably far less, do alot of charity work to keep myself busy and hopefully play my cards right in the right social circles and get a House of Rep seat.

Granted for the first two years I'd probably buy a house for myself, go traveling and just to be a prick, buy my ex-girlfriend's mom's apartment and shove it in her face when she claimed my non-islamic ass would never get anywhere in life.

[Chaotic Neutral]

$200 Million invested at 5% per year for the rest of eternity.

$10 Million a year.

$83,000 a month.

$27,000 a week.

$3,900 a day.

I think I can survive on that.

[Solauren]

Talk to an accountant and investment counciller before accepting a lump sum or payment plan.

Try to make contact with whatever force or tech gave me the ticket, and ask "What is they bidding, my master?"

[Mayabird]

Man I would buy so much land in the US and Alaska in particular (private hunting / nature preserve / vacation place).

Don't you guy pay some kind of Property Tax ? 'Cause if you buy too much land, and then are forced to pay more taxes on it that the remaining amount of money you have... Seems to me like a recipe for financial disaster.

I don't know anything about US laws. I didn't really want to buy land to develop as much as keep pristine.

Putting a conservation easement on all that land would keep the taxes down nicely and drive the developers away, and that's what you were planning anyway. Again, this is why it's good to hire lawyers and accountants, so you have someone who knows those details.

And muse? This may be one of the first times that I actually agree with you wholeheartedly. Congrats.


I feel like I violated the spirit of the thread by talking about how I wanted to be prudent first thing instead of talking about the fun things I'd want to do once I had that money safe. For one thing, I'd want to reward everyone who was really good to me, for whatever reason or however. The birds at the local nature center would never go hungry again and they could even add a jelly feeder for orioles too. I always did want to go to a bookstore, just once, and spend money like it wasn't mine. And I'd move back to Washington.

And after other things, like investments maybe and charities and all that stuff, if there's enough left over and it won't hurt anything more important or useful, I'd demolish my hometown. This might not be possible and Braselton and its example of why it's bad to buy a small georgia town is uncomfortably near it, but I can dream.

[J]

Meh, life goes on with virtually no change at all. If someone comes for my money, I'll write a check and be done with it. Hell, I'd probably give away one or two million right out of the gate. There's plenty to go around.

You get taxed for gifts over $10,000 to people who you aren't married to. That might not be such a good idea.

Then marry them! Sign a pre-nup for the amount you're gifting and have a quickie marriage & divorce.
Problem solved!

[Chaotic Neutral]

I'm certain there is a law against that. If there is one thing governments excel at, it's making too many laws and taxing you.

[Todeswind]

It's grossly impractical but I want a zeppelin. I want to spend the rest of my life traveling the world in an airship mansion. I could do the whole reasonable/rational/practical thing but what I really want to do is travel around the world in my zeppelin with a documentary film crew going to distant and exotic places and making films about them. Like Jacques Cousteau only in an airship.

[Enigma]

I'd take the annuity.

First things first, a new high end van.

Then buy a house and immediately move away from my in-laws.

Look for another house that we really want that let me hunt in my own backyard if I choose to(but mainly for my father in law). If I can't find a suitable house with a large enough property then get the real estate agent to find me a huge lot that will let me hunt so that I can get the dream house built so my wife and I can move in. Also, on the property will be a smaller house for my in-laws so that while they'll live on our property so we can take care of them when necessary, we'll still have enough privacy for my wife and I.

Once that is done, I'll buy a fuel efficient car and a pickup.

I'll order an assload of high end laptops for myself, my wife, in-laws, family, relatives and friends. I'd also build several high end computers for myself, my wife and in-laws.

My wife would have lipo done and then later body sculpting to remove excess skin along with breast and ass reduction.

I'd have a shit-ton of exercise equipment to help me lose weight. While I could go the same route as my wife, I am currently losing weight and I feel that with the equipment I can lose at lot more in a shorter amount of time. Later I'll go and have the excess skin removed.

I won't need to give my in-laws any money because they can just ask and my wife and I would gladly give.

We'd go visit my family and hand out lavish gifts and the laptops (as was mentioned above). Stick around for a couple of months then return. I'd visit them whenever I wish or feel the itch to visit family and friends up north.

Donate some money to various charities and to my congregation.

If there isn't any research dedicated to Meniere's Syndrome then I'd either set one up or offer a cash reward for the person or institute that discovers at least the cause of Meniere's. More money if there is an effective treatment. And a hell of a lot more money for a cure.

I'd also go the same route in hiring lawyers to secure my money and help find good ways to invest in order to get a good return.

Oh, and while in Canada, I'll go to every place that I had owed money to but no longer owe since declaring bankruptcy over two years ago and pay back the money plus a little interest. I don't need to but it feel like a weight on my shoulders and this way I'll feel a whole lot better.

I'd buy a house for my best friend, his parents, my sister and brother. I'd give money to my youngest sister to payoff her house. As for my parents, whatever they ask I'll give.

That is all I can think of at the moment.

[Phantasee]

Submersible yacht.

Then I would finally learn, who lives in a pineapple under the sea?

I'd buy a small stake in the oilsands, of course. The pipeline to the West Coast (to China). Ottawa. I'd secretly pump disgusting amounts of money into Quebec to make them more federalist, because fuck the PQ and the BQ. Probably buy the Albertan government at some point. Build a house on the river valley, just to watch it slide into the river in 10 years.

[Majin Gojira]

I'd probably go with the anuity as I'm still rather young and 20 million a year is quite a decent "Income". It'll keep me from going totally gonzo with it. Otherwise, I'd let hedonism-bot in the driver's seat.

Of course, I have dreams of Hollywood, so the money is not going to do much good there, though it'll certainly help with contest entry fees!

And after a while I actually could fund my own film or other media output with a small portion of the winnings as a springboard. It really frees me up in terms of "using time for creative output" but I'd still work just to keep my mind busy. Doing either volunteer work or just regular work--NEED. INPUT.

I'm not a paranoid person, but reading all the warnings of bad shit that can happen does make me consider some new security measures for the home--moving is not something I'd want to do. I like the neighborhood too much.

As a general strategy, I'd split it in thirds: Saving, Investment and "Spending". In truth, it'd be 6 million spending, 6 million Investments and 8 million Savings each year. After a while I suspect Savings and Investments would start earning a greater income...

Being rather frugal for the most part, that spending part wouldn't do much. Accountants/investment pros are then a must. Spending would also cover charitable donations and the like. There's museums, parks, ecological and humanitarian causes that I'd love to make at least a token donation to that this would allow me to.

I'd also use the money to travel to new places with my family. Visit Japan, go back to Australia (for longer than 2 weeks this time, what were we thinking!?), Hawaii, Europe, Vegas (cuz--hey, why not?), etc.

I'd want to keep it low key, so I'd probably travel abroad soon after setting things up--perhaps to the Caribbean at first and then work my way from there for about half a year perhaps to let things cool down.

Then it becomes a "Which to do first?" sort of situation. Probably the little things would be done first. As cliche as they are a New Car (something fuel efficient but simple) and big screen TV will be done pretty early on.

Then would come bigger things like funding a film or animated short.

[Lonestar]

Take the Annuity. Buy a place in the Western part of the state as a in-holder in GWNFS, or possibly in the vincinity of Front Royal. Pay off my mothers house, possibly get her a new car, make sure my grandparents(motehrs parents) are taken care of...everything else will be invested and tied up. Might attempt to thru-hike the AT.

Might just work in a comic book store, if nothing else because I have no other big plans.

[Simon_Jester]

And after other things, like investments maybe and charities and all that stuff, if there's enough left over and it won't hurt anything more important or useful, I'd demolish my hometown. This might not be possible and Braselton and its example of why it's bad to buy a small georgia town is uncomfortably near it, but I can dream.

No, Amy. Braselton is an example of why it's bad to buy a small Georgia town and expect anything good to come of it.

You just want to destroy the town, so it doesn't matter- you're already committed to writing off your investment, so it's just a question of looking at the bank balance, subtracting the price of the town, and seeing whether you still have a positive sum of money left.