Well, if I won the lottery... (1 Viewer)

Moe Maishlish · Jul 14, 2003

Haven't we all had these conversations with friends? You know - "Well, if I won the lottery, I'd spend $x on this, and $x on that, and give $x to this person, and quit this job, and go here, and go there, etc". These are usually the best kinds of conversations - everyone's laughing, smiling, and just basically fantasizing about their dreams.

So what would you do? Let's say that you just won $5,000,000, what would you do with it?

I'd set aside about half a million, and I'd buy myself a nice home (I'm single, so I don't need something huge), in the northern part of Toronto... fully furnished, with a kick-ass standalone HT Room. I don't know if I'd splurge on a luxury car, considering I don't really see the point... I'd buy myself a nice high-end car, but nothing crazy. I don't think I'd stop working either - I just wouldn't work as hard.

My parents and my sister would also be very well taken care of. I'd pay off whatever mortgages they might have, buy them cars, and give them some spending money... probably budget another million on them alone.

My few close friends (the ones with whom I'm close now, not those who suddenly love me now that I'm daddy warbucks...

) would each probably enjoy nice all-expenses paid 2 week vacation to wherever they want to go. There would be about a dozen of these people, so I don't figure it would go past the $50,000 mark.

The rest would go into various investments and savings accounts... maybe work out some interest rate with a bank to deposit a large amount of cash for a higher-than-average interest rate. Live comfortably off the interest, and enjoy life.

Ahhh... to dream.

(Gotta go buy some tickets this week...)

Moe.

Yee-Ming · Jul 14, 2003

Fairly similar. Pay off the mortgage. Have a modest splurge, e.g. really nice vacation with the missus. Plonk the rest (which would be most of it) into fairly safe investments, and then live off the interest.

I'd get out of my current career and find a "fun" job, one that probably doesn't pay well compared to my current job, but is in something interesting and fun, e.g. HT equipment salesman, video store clerk, that sort of thing. Or DVD or computer game reviewer.

Sean Dilly · Jul 14, 2003

invest most
buy a modest house and put an HT room in
pay off parents' mortgage
set up college funds for sister and a few cousins
get a DVD player/kick ass system/rims for the ride
vacation to Australia for 2 weeks

Todd Hochard · Jul 14, 2003

I would leverage the $5 million to buy $20 million of goods, contingent upon investment returns that are unlikely to materialize.

What? Isn't that what most lottery winners do?

Actually, house on a lake here (about a mil), modest ski boat for said lake, new car (nothing crazy), money for HT and car projects, some $$ gifts for family, invest the rest. I could then play with my projects all day (I am a busy man outside of work, so I could easily fill that time).

Todd

SteveA · Jul 14, 2003

I would buy 5 million lottery tickets the next time the Powerball prize gets really big. Why settle for $5 million when you could have $200 million?

Kidding!

Stephen_Opipari · Jul 14, 2003

*A nice house. Doesn't need to be really big. 3 bed/3 bath would be cool. Designed my my specifications though.

*A 2003 Audi RS6.
*Mother of a Home Theater.
*A very good investment broker so I could retire do somthing for a living that I want to do as opposed to somthing I have to do.

Alex-C · Jul 14, 2003

I would buy 5 million lottery tickets the next time the Powerball prize gets really big.

lol !

that would take a looong time to check !

My friends dad always used to say if he won some big lotto thingy, he'd say to an interviewer...I'm gonna spend half the money on booze and women....(dramatic pause) and waste the rest !!!

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ThomasC · Jul 14, 2003

-Two chicks at the same time.

-Pay off parents' mortgage, car expenses, etc., then a million more for all the money they've spent on me and my sister for the past 23 years.

-Buy a large enough piece of land with a house so that when I crank the HT up, neighbors won't be able to hear a thing.

-Buy a car, maybe luxury, maybe not. Whatever I feel most comfortable in.

-Put a million in savings, $100,000 for anything else I want, then spread the wealth.

GordonL · Jul 14, 2003

If you just won $5m and you elect to take it as one-time, lump sum payment, you'd probably get a ~ $2.5m check, and after taxes, you'd end up with ~ $1.5m. If you invested that and got a return of about 5%/yr, that equals ~ $75k/year. Can you live on $75k/yr (before taxes)? Don't forget, depending on how old you are, you might still have 50-60+ years to live. All of a sudden, that $5m just doesn't seem like much....

Moe Maishlish · Jul 14, 2003

If you just won $5m and you elect to take it as one-time, lump sum payment, you'd probably get a ~ $2.5m check, and after taxes, you'd end up with ~ $1.5m. If you invested that and got a return of about 5%/yr, that equals ~ $75k/year. Can you live on $75k/yr (before taxes)? Don't forget, depending on how old you are, you might still have 50-60+ years to live. All of a sudden, that $5m just doesn't seem like much....

I don't think that applies to Canada. Here, if you win $5,000,000, you get $5,000,000.

Then again, I've never won the lottery before, so what do I know.

Moe.

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Joe Szott · Jul 14, 2003

-Two chicks at the same time.

Way to represent Thomas

Seriously, if I had $5 (which would mean winning $12 million or so initially), I wouldn't tell a soul except my wife. Nothing ruins your life faster than being catapulted into a different social status than your friends/family. Probably pay off the mortage, start plenty of 529 plans for all the family members I could think of, and just invest on the rest. Quit work too but make up some lame excuse for why I never go back to work again (maybe tell my family/friends I run an online porn biz and it makes $$$ ) Eventually I would tell them, but not until I had felt out their feelings about it.

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Neil Joseph · Jul 14, 2003

I would do many things but the very first would be to pay off all debt and send a cheque to all of the utilities/services so they would be payed at least for a full year (hence, no more bills in the mail). Then I would relax while I think of ways to use the rest.

Ricardo C · Jul 14, 2003

What I'd do:

-A new house for my parents, built to their specifications. However, knowing my mom, she wouldn't wanna leave their current one, so I'd probably end up building additions to it: A home office for my dad (he's always talked of wanting to devote his time to writing when he retires), a gym room for my mom, a pool in the backyard, and the standalone bar my dad's always wanted, detached from the house. Oh, and I'd get rid of their TV and install a 50-inch plasma in their bedroom

-A house for me, built to my specifications. I HAVE designed one already, and it'd cost about half a mill to build. I don't really need anything bigger/more ostentatious. My one big luxury would be a fully loaded, dedicated, Dennis Erskine-designed HT room with a 15-foot wide screen, a Teranex processor, and Sony's Qualia 1920x1080 projector. I've even picked the decor style already: It'd be modelled after Palpatine's office in AOTC :b

I'd ideally build the house in the US or Canada (Florida if I chose the US, BC if I chose Canada). Without going too heavily into politics, I'm really eager to move out of Venezuela, hence the desire to relocate to North America.

-A house for my brother, probably similar to the one I have in mind for myself. He might not want the HT room, but would probably replace it with a kickass game room, with arcade machines, pool table, etc.

-A house for my favorite aunt and her family. She's my mom's closest sister, and is really like another mom to me. Their house would probably be the biggest of the bunch, as they're a 9-person household.

-Several smaller cash gifts to the rest of the family.

-A portion would be donated to the Church, and a portion to AIDS and cancer charities.

Once that's done, I'd just put the money in the bank and enjoy life. Since I wouldn't have any financial worries, I could devote all my time to working on the computer game I've always wanted to make, but have been afraid to attempt, given its lack of commercial appeal

I'd also like to do something to help fund self-publishing comic book creators and indie game developers.

Jeff Savage · Jul 14, 2003

Can you live on $75k/yr (before taxes)?

Heck yeah for most people that would be a pay raise! If you had no debt (no car loan, no mortgage, etc..) $75K is tons of cash.

I would have a kick ass FP system, a nice car, pay off my house, and continue working. I would plow the interest back in until the working capital starts to generate some cash. I am young enough that this would insure my retirement and "eventually" I would be able to enjoy the super good life.

Now if we are talking about ending up with $5M then it is a different story. I would zero debt my family and closest friends, get a smart investment type person, and have fun!!

Laters,

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Holadem · Jul 14, 2003

Can you live on $75k/yr (before taxes)?

Unless it was not to be taken seriously, this question shows an unbelievable social disconnect!

--
Holadem

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Paul McElligott · Jul 14, 2003

A house.

2005 Ford GT

Kick ass new HT system

Hookers, hookers, hookers. I could afford the pennacillin.

Luis Esp · Jul 14, 2003

Share?!!

If God wanted me to share... He would have made me a nice person

Alex-C · Jul 14, 2003

I would faithfully re-recreate the entire night from Bachelor Party, Waldorf Astoria, Ghandi pimp, (this being) Milt, donkey show, school bus, tricked out porsche, etc.

Heck, I'd probably still have enough to actually hire Adrien Zmed.

Jared_B · Jul 14, 2003

Like Gordon said, the $5M initial winnings would turn into about $1.5M after taxes and lump-sum penalty.

What I would do with 1.5M differs greatly from what I would do with 5M.

$1.5 Million:
Immediately take 50% and give it to a financial advisor and tell them to hide it from me (invest, etc) - $750k left.
Take the other 50% and pay off all my current debts - $500k left.
Go to flight school, then get my CFI - $480k left.
Maybe buy a few toys, upgrade the house, give some money to family, etc.
Live modestly ever after by living off the investment income and doing flight intruction.

$5 Million:
Immediately take 50% and give it to a financial advisor and tell them to hide it from me (invest, etc) - $2.5M left.
Pay off all debts - $2.3M left.
Use $1M - 1.3M to buy/build a house on a fairly large chunk of land, large enough to have an airstrip on it - $1M left.
Use the remaining for cars, boats, planes, motorcycles, gifts to family/friends, etc.
Live off the investment income (~$125000 per year @ 5%).

Jared

Francois Caron · Jul 14, 2003

Let's see... 5 million US comes to about 7 million Canadian. Since our lottery and casino winnings are tax free, what I win is what I get in one lump sum.

- Pay off the mortgage
- Pay off all other current debts
- Get a new couch (the love seats are falling apart)
- Get a Mini Cooper (it'll easily fit in my parking spot once I evict the current renter

)
- Have the kitchen remodeled (it looks cheap)
- Have the bathtub replaced (it's a whirpool bath model which is impossible to keep clean and free of mold)
- Get some new clothes (I need a suit)

You may have noticed I haven't said anything about moving. That's because my place is a real goldmine! Great old building, beautiful view, decent neighbourhood, friendly neighbours. If you love where you live now, what's the point of moving?

Another thing I don't need is a ton of extra possessions. I pretty much have what I need to live comfortably except for the items mentioned above. Because of this, I'll be able to live off the interest very comfortably. I'm not really interested in living a "rich" lifestyle.

The only question remaining is should I go to work the next day? They might have to shut down if I don't show up!

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Well, if I won the lottery... (1 Viewer)