I never have played the lottery, and I doubt I ever will. Talk about a nice way to steal money from people!
Sounds to me like he's doing something useful with the money. Obviously, he hasn't been totally smart about it (carrying $500,000 in cash? wtf?), but on the whole I'd take the good with the bad. The first thing I'd do is hire a wealth management firm and second would be to hire an auditor to watch them. But, I'd likely do a lot of the same community investing he's done. Btw, isn't this a hell of a nice racket for West Virginia? They make money running a lottery and create a millionaire who will invest in the local economy. They've really made something out of nothing (though I still think the lotto is evil).
Man, if I was ever a lottery winner like that I would be anonymous; I wouldn't even tell my family. Of course, if I ever do get a job, I would immediately quit it and live off my great wealth from then on.
If I won say $250 million, I'd give the vast majority of it to charity and pay off the bills of my entire family and friends. I'd keep maybe 15 percent of it, spend about $1 million on stuff my wife and/or I wanted or needed. The rest, I'd just use to live off of the interest. The problem most people find is that the same problems you had when you didn't have money are often magnified when you do. Money won't break bad habits or cure your fear of flying. It's nice to know you have enough to get the things you want, but that is just a tiny slice of life as a whole. Most of life is about what you do, who you are and the people you care for, not what you have.
Did you happen to catch my post? I was being kinda serious. Don't you think money plays a large part in what you do, who you are, and what people you care for?
really?? i can't imagine quitting my job...i'm not ready to retire at age 29, no matter how much money i have.
Depends if I'm in a career field I enjoy. At this point, I don't see myself in a career 10 years from now (yes, I know the last sentence was a cliché, but give me credit).
Unearned wealth is the greatest curse of them all. Andrew Carnegie had the solution. That being said, to quote Fiddler on the Roof... "If money is a curse, than may the Lord smite me with it... and may I never recover!."
that's exactly the problem. when you don't work for money, you don't know the value of it. and Mr. Mooch, if you win the lottory you can't remain anonymous. it's in the "contract" that they can use your name to promote the lottery even more.
Spot on Behad. I think you have the best idea in this thread. Most men depend on working to define their self-worth - that's why it's so tough on guys to retire. My wife talks about the lotto a lot, but I keep telling her that it wouldn't necessarily make her any happier. GutterSnipe: Aren't you happy dear? Wife: Well, yes... GutterSnipe: Do you need anything? We have 2 cars that run, and own most of a newish house. Wife: I know...but it's 150 million dollars? GutterSnipe: *sigh*
Personally, I'd like to be rich enough to only have to work about 6 hours a day 4 days a week....but I'd probably end up working more than that.
lets see if i won $113M after taxes, what would i do? lets see, my family would get a nice chunk of it, enough for any of the older people to retire if they don't like their jobs, enough for the younger ones to get a nice head start. basically, my aunt's and uncle's would get nice chunks, and then cousins would get smaller chunks. friends, not sure. they could all have a couple hundred thousand i guess. after that? i set aside 2 or 3 million to live off of (and the interest) and then invest 10M than i can pass on and make my family financially comfortable for a long time. the other 90 million or so i'd give away to various things. i wouldn't have any problem losing my purpose b/c my purpose is to sit on my ass all day and play golf the rest of the time. oh, and squeeze in time for basketball at the gym as much as possible. we were talking about winning the lottery once, and my roommate asked what about my life would actually change if i won the lottery, and about all i could come up with is i would play on nicer golf courses (and pay for my friends to play at them, too). fancy cars, big houses, extravagant vacations, tons of bling bling, i don't give a crap about any of that really. maybe i'd build my own basketball court so my friends and i would always have some place to play that wasn't outside in the houston heat but that's about it. and get courtside season tickets to the rockets. on the odd chance i had a job that i liked i might even keep it. maybe work less if i could or just put less stress on myself doing the job knowing i had all that money. but i'd probably quit anyway. right now i'm 22 and in college so the transition to no job would be quite smooth. i'd love to get $100M. unless people were hunting me down to kill me for it or something (i.e. physical harm) i can't even imagine some way i wouldn't enjoy the hell out of it. i'd be in that 20% no problem probably b/c tons of money (and spending it) isn't all that important for me to be happy. and my friends and my extended family are good people and wouldn't be the type to mooch anyway. enough money to keep living like i do now w/o having to work would be A-OK.
