If you won a $760 million Powerball jackpot, what would you do with all of the winnings?

Buy a house in a nice town, move there and not tell anyone!

I’d invest it and let the interest compound.

Then I’m sure I’d squander it by trying to invent robots before the tech was mature enough like Nolan Bushnell did.

The $760 million isn’t a real number.

First, as you note, taxes will eat up 35% of it right off the top. That’s about $270 million.

What’s left ($490 million) is the amount you get if you have it paid over 30 years. That’s based on an annuity paying off over the time interval.

Most people take the lump sum instead. (the annuity base amount). Figure that the annuity base is around $280–300 million depending on the investment. Possibly less.

So the winner really only has less than $300 million in actual spendable money. Not a bad sum, but far less than $760 million.

What would I do with it?

1) pay off my house and my daughters’ houses.

2) invest about 90% of it

3) travel

4) give a bunch to civil liberties and left-leaning organizations and associations.

I have a Certified Public Accountant/Certified Financial Planner in my family, plus someone else who does Wealth Management, so the first thing I’d do is contact them.

Assuming it’s 300 million like @elbanditoroso said, I’d find a way to invest it so it’s safe and I could work with the income generated by interest.

Next, I’d think about who would give me money if they won the same. People in my family, yes, I’d take care of them, maybe 5 or so million each. I have a small family so that might be less than 100 million for that. Then I’d think about living in another state, and I’d look for a site to have a ranch style house with a big piece of property. I would have to have security. I’d like a large enough piece of property so I could put some kind of an animal sanctuary on it. I’d also donate to charities, perhaps some animal rescue organizations. I’d try to do some outreach in the community also, maybe by donating to community groups.

My chances of winning any lottery are slim to none because I usually don’t play at all. I’m not much of a gambler.

@jca2 “Next, I’d think about who would give me money if they won the same.”

I forgot to mention in my answer that I would definitely give @jca2 $5 million.

Give some, save some, spend some.
Start up a Foundation to help people in housing,education, health etc
Have the money grow to keep these Foundations going forever.( possibly sending the interest earned to them every year?)

Buy a new home outside city limits so I could rescue more animals, help family, help a few organized charitable 501C’s, probably plan some great vacations-maybe go see ragingloli and ucme across the pond…haha!

Get a modest cottage on a bunch of acreage
I would spend a LOT of money on outdoor amenities like walking trails, caves, a brook. A cave behind a waterfall. Mostly cool stuff for the kids.
I’d have a few horses and a stable person to care for them….a stable genius!
I’d have a patio that retracts to reveal a pool.

I’d pay off the new building my church is building, get debt free, pay off the homes my kids own and buy the ones that aren’t homeowners a home of their own. I’d probably stay where I am, but would definitely fence in my yard with a sturdy wall or fence. I’d probably see about buying a huge piece of property in the middle of nowhere that has good pasture land and build a really nice place with lots of little cabins around and a big barn with horses. I’d then work with social groups to see if there are any programs that could be set up to allow kids that could best benefit from it, get a two week stint there, learning how to camp, take care of the horses, ride, etc. Not sure if that would look like troubled teens, boy/girl scouts, orphanages, big brother clubs….not sure the target audience right now. I figure all that would probably only take a few million to accomplish. After that, I’d have to see. Probably some sort of philanthropic endeavor.

This calculation link lays it out better than I did aboive.

I would start my own science foundation and television channel. I would put the rest in savings. I would also start my own open studies online university and allow anyone in for free.

If you own a home presently, would you stay there and upgrade it?
I’d keep it, upgrade slightly, maybe buy out some annoying neighbors.

I would travel a lot though and probably have some other homes in other places.

Would you move somewhere else? Any idea where? Another state, or the same area just another abode?
I would travel a good amount, and also have homes in other parts of the world, probably mainly (or at least one in) Europe.

Would you give out money to certain friends and/or family? If so, who would get some?
Yes. The ones whose lives would be affected. I’d want the people I love to be able to do what they want with their lives (which is generally be creative, teach, heal, etc.) without having to spend lots of their time doing other less appropriate things just to get paid.

Would you donate to charity? Which charities do you think are worth it?
Yes. Environmental charities. I would probably found one or more charitable foundations, and buy up some land for wildlife habitat and to prevent it from being savaged & polluted by exploiters.

Would you shop, take a trip, take a few trips, keep your job, quit your job, tell your job to go screw themselves, what?
I would spend a good part of my time travelling and changing locations where I lived and worked on things.

I would hire people to help me with the work I do. The non-game work I would be a supervisor/consultant to serve my current software clients better than I can alone, but with me having to do very little of the technical chores. For the game work, I would hire people to do the things I don’t want to do myself.