What would you do with a $440 million dollar Powerball win, and who would you tell, and who would you avoid knowing you have become ”gripped”?

I would build my own science foundation and private tech school like Bill Gates has. I would donate $1,000,000 to Nova science now to make more physics programs from K- 12 – Ph.D. I would take previous learning from television count for a couple of credits in university. Also I would homeschool myself and make future inventions happen. naturally I would have steak and potatoes every night and feed my self, better.

I would tell my family and closest friends and help every one of them with whatever they needed. I would buy the best health insurance for my family. I would then pay off my student loan and my sons’ student loans. I’d buy a house and a reliable car for myself, my husband and my sons. I’d also invest in the local school district, then travel the world with my family.

Most of my family would get a share. Some friends would as well. I can think of a dozen charities that would get some endowment.
After all that, I will still have a butt-load of money. I might produce a movie I want made. I might travel for a bit. I would certainly delete half of my facebook friends.

Well the power ball commission would take care of telling the world, so I wouldn’t have to tell anyone. I would buy myself a mountain in Montana or Idaho.

If I’m the single holder of a $440 Powerball win, I’d tell no-one. “Show me the money.”

I wish to remain anonymous.

Before I told anyone, I would hire a lawyer and a tax accountant/planner, change my phone numbers and my address. And then, after I collected the winnings, I would pay off debts of my family and set aside some for each of my kids.

And after the initial purchase of housing and a car (nothing over the top) I’d structure the balance in trust with eventual bequest to a couple of my favorite charities.

Boy, I could turn $440 million into a fortune.

I have given and done for others all my life. I served my country. I started working when I was 12. I was wiped out by a careless driver, now I have nothing, and no-one wants me. I would go on a spendfest like no other. I would do a few charitable things, like get @ragingloli a nose job, a few acres of land with a nice little lake on it where @Coloma could have some free roaming geese, ducks, flamingos, goats, and sugar gliders, oh, and a private highway for @SQUEEKY2.
I would not warmly greet ANY upturned palms. If I want anybody to have part of mine they’ll get it without asking.

- Hire a financial planner / specialist immediately
– Pay off my mom’s house and all her bills
– Buy a new car and new house
– Invest in property
– Give money to my 2 brothers
– Visit all the places in the U.S. and around the world I’ve always thought about seeing
– Donate to charities

I’m sure there is more that I would do but the ideas above were the first ones I thought about.

You have to keep remembering, over and over and over again, that you are in no different situation than your friends than that YOU were the lucky one. Put yourself in every single one of their shoes. Then run like hell.

OR… How may close friends can you really have? You can gift each $10k tax free one time, I believe. Why not think of those that have influenced you, shaped you, and helped you. Pay it forward. At least 100 people at $10k is one million. Do it.

^^For 2014 the annual tax-free gift is $14,000. After that it will be re-indexed but should be a reasonable amount yearly. You can give it to as many people as you want, year after year.

@Hypocrisy_Central What do you mean by gripped? You mean the money controls you? I have never heard that term before.

I would help all the people who truly love me and had always treated me well before the big windfall.

Then, I’d sit back and see who suddenly sucks up to me and acts like my BFF; people who never cared for me or who may have even been cruel and vile. When there’s something to be gained, sociopaths turn on the charm,

I would try to avoid letting anyone know except my immediate family, since they’re people whom I trust. Nobody else would need to know, and I had more than enough of my share of fair weather friends and relatives in the past.

I wouldn’t buy a giant house, have rooms with forty television screens on the wall, buy many vehicles nor waste my money in other ways like that. I’m not a big fan of charity either, and personally I believe in helping people more directly. I would likely go full throttle with my invention ideas, and set up everything I would need to work on these myself. I would eventually start my own business, hopefully manufacturing my own invention products, and would offer employees great paying jobs with great benefits. I would also likely start organizations to bring attention to issues I find important.

I would tell the RNC that I donated it all to the Communist Party.

Similar questions have been asked recently but here goes: I have a close relative who is a CPA/CFP, so the first people I would tell would be my parents and sister. I would probably take a week off of work and do some serious financial planning, see how much I would get annually, and then make some hard decisions about work, and who I would give money to. Yes, I would give money to some close friends and family. Assuming I got half taken out as taxes, I would have 220 mil left over. I would probably give a bunch to my parents, sister, give some less to close friends, donate to some causes, invest the rest and take some trips. I would allow myself some for some purchases. Any large purchasing decisions would hopefully not be made hastily.

@jca; With $220 mil take-home, you would be earning at least 5 million yearly as a conservative estimate. (That’s over $90,000 weekly). Eat, drink and be merry.

Same as @Bluefreedom.

My husband won $30k and got in the Lottery newsletter, people were all asking for money and wanting to be buddy buddy, that part of it sucked.

^^^^ The lottery commission should use that as a slogan, “Meet people, make new friends.” “Win the lottery, your ticket out of the lonely hearts club.” LOL.

Take whatever I get in the lump sum – $220 million? and buy a home in the UK – probably in Wales, it’s pretty there – and another in New Zealand. Set aside half as a trust for my son for when he grows up, and then, party on, Wayne. I doubt my husband would ever miss another music festival. And I would fund archaeological expeditions, provided they let me come along. ^_^

I’d give the maximum tax-free gift each year to my brother and sister, and give a big gift to my aunt and uncle (who were better to me than my own parents, and still are), and make sure my husband’s mother is well taken care of. I don’t feel like I owe anyone else anything.

I’d hire someone to find my dad for me.

@filmfann I would certainly delete half of my facebook friends.
Why, aren’t they your friends? Would you not want to make an announcement on your homepage? ~~

@CWOTUS Boy, I could turn $440 million into a fortune.
It is already a fortune, how would you make it more so?

@zenvelo What do you mean by gripped? You mean the money controls you? I have never heard that term before.

Urban Dictionary
1: grip
To have a abundant amount of something
Yo! I got a grip of cash today, lets go spend it.

3: grip
$10,000. Named so due to the size of the wad of bills. Unlike a “stack” which is how 10 $100 bills are put together (in a stack), a grip is 10 stacks, only way to hold it is to grip it because it’s all rolled up.
“Walk around like I got a grip in my pants, yea thats about 10 stacks…”

5: grip
n. a phrase used to express quantity; a large amount of something.
”He is only 19 but he got him a recording contract, now he has a grip and he’s got clout now”

Basically you have so much cash that to hold it all you would have to grip it very tight to keep it from blowing or falling out of your hands.

@Seek_Kolinahr Take whatever I get in the lump sum – $220 million?
Why in the hell do that? Having dealt in notes you could take it yearly then go to the private sector who would buy the note at better rates than taking half from you as the government would. You might be able to sell the future winnings up to 70%, which would leave you around $300 mil if I calculated right; a savings of 88 mil or so. I think the government rely on the greed and ignorance of lotto winners to keep half the pot.

@Hypocrisy_Central Ignorance is right. I don’t know shit about being rich. But $220 million is sufficiently loaded that I really couldn’t care less about auctioning my annuity off on the private market. I want money, now, and to get the frak out of this country.

@Hypocrisy_Central On Facebook, a lot of people there are friends just because they went to school with me. They hardly knew me then.

@Hypocrisy_Central, you really need to work on your joke radar.

“I could turn $440 million into a fortune” (or a statement to that effect) is a joke that’s older than I am.

Well, the first thing I’m going to do is move from California, buy a home in Panama, then go shopping on each continent. I’ll keep up with you guys after a couple of days.

@Hypocrisy_Central Your answer to @Seek_Kolinahr is flawed. Taking the yearly payments you don’t get past the taxes, you just pay the taxes over the life of the payments.

Taking the income stream from annual payments to someone who will buy it from you will take a bigger bite than the government’s discounting of the annual payments to determine the lump sum amount..

I’ve also heard that if anything happened to the lottery while you are getting payments, they are not required to pay it off. Like if the lottery shut down for any reason. I’m not sure if that’s trued but that’s what I heard.

@zenvelo Ah…someone who understands the concept of present value.

@zenvelo @Hypocrisy_Central Your answer to @Seek_Kolinahr is flawed. Taking the yearly payments you don’t get past the taxes, you just pay the taxes over the life of the payments.
I can’t say who gave you that information or where they got it from, but when I was in the industry there were people where you could get more or a better percentage than 50%. You always have taxes, but with that type of capital there are always ways to get some nice deductions.