Imagine you win the lottery. You have the winning ticket in your hand. What would be your first action? Would you tell your loved ones? Your significant other? Would you dare let go of the ticket at any point in time before turning it into the lottery commission? Could you sleep? Would you immediately jump in your car and head to Austin? No way in hell that ticket would leave my hands. I wouldn't tell anyone before turning the ticket in. I'd be so damn giddy, I don't think I could sleep. I'd almost want a police escort to Austin. Although, I'd be scared the cop was dirty and would take my ticket from me. It would be my word against his. Weird. The stuff I think about.
The first thing I'd do is go find an attorney to create a trust, so that the trustee could turn in the ticket and I could remain anonymous.
I would not tell my family. They would bleed me dry. I would actually tell my best friend. She's in finance and got her degree form the Red McCombs school. She's got an accountant father and a lawyer uncle and I would try and set up a blind trust with there help so as to not have my name and face in the papers upon claiming the ticket. I have friends and family scattered all over the world, mostly in countries where kidnappings are a daily event.
yes it is... unfortunately not in a good.. interesting way.. better question however overdone.. would've been "what would you do if you had won the lottery".. period.. narrowing it down to initial reactions... is just going to get you dumb.. and/or unhumorous responses..
1. Go to Austin with my girl and my good friend who is an attorney. 2. Claim the money and tell only my extremely close friends/family. 3. Build a house for my parents in the Hill Country and whatever else they want. 4. Buy a modest house in Santa Cruz, CA. 5. Buy a modest lake house in the Hill Country. 6. Buy a condo inside the loop. 7. Buy Rockets, Astros, and Texans season tickets. 8. New dwellings/$500k for my sisters and brother.
I'd only tell my wife and my immediate family (but not my wife's sister...she'd be the last to know). Then I'd hire an attorney and/or financial adviser. I'm bad enough with money as it is. Luckily, I live in Austin, so that's not an issue.
maybe it's just me, and i love my family to death, but they'd be the last to know about it. and NO ONE can keep a secret like that.
"I tell you what I'd do, man: two chicks at the same time, man." (It's amazing how many threads this response fits)
Bingo. Then, keep as much as I want/need (mainly, enough to buy the dream home and invest to keep me independently wealthy the rest of my life), give my family whatever they want/need - and then slowly give the rest away to charities that I like. Become a philanthropist. A traveling philanthropist.
