If you were to win the lottery, what are the first five things you would do?

I can tell you what I would NOT do, and that’s to tell anyone. People would sue you for nothing just to get “settlement” money out of your winnings.

Put aside a chunk for each of my kids.
Reserve a handsome little sum as play money.
Purchase some precious metals.
Add to an investment fund that looks like it’s doing okay.
Give some away to a cause I consider worthwhile.

In my state, a condition of taking the winnings is that your name becomes public, so keeping it a secret wouldn’t be an option here. I think the first thing I would do is contact my attorney, then a financial adviser. I’d like to set up a non-profit right away with the only goal being giving money to people who need and deserve it. I also think I’d pay off my mortgage and other bills, then pay of my family member’s mortgages. I’m not sure if I’d quit my job or not… I guess my new full time job could be running my new non profit if I did quit!

I’ll buy a car( vw Beetle, nissan altima, or an eclipse), give some to the needy, party with the jellies, buy myself needed stuff, and pay some bills.

Pay off my bills.
Travel extensively around the world.
Make my Mom secure for life.
Save for old age.
Use some money to do worthwhile projects of my choosing for the community.

1)Pay off debt, 2)go to the college I REALLY want to go to, 3)give some to my parents so they NEVER have to work again, 4)get a real car I can rely on and 5) buy a place for me and my boyfriend :)

Hire a good financial planner
Put a big chunk of the winnings into a savings plan
Pay off my debt
Give my parents enough money to pay off their debt and enjoy their retirement in luxury
Start a charity fund of some sort

Don’t I sound responsible? I’d be doing all this while phenomenally well dressed, dreaming of the travels I’ll be heading off to, and driving to my financial planner’s office in some pimped out luxury hybrid.

Tell my fiancee
Tell my kids
Shut off phone
Consult attorney
Consult financial adviser

Call my old boss’s financial adviser and lawyer. My old boss is plenty rich, see? Pay off debts. Set up charitable trust. And after the one legally required press conference during which I have on huge bumblebee-like sunglasses, I’m OUTTA HEAH! Move to UK and incorporate film/TV production company.

One of the things for me would be to fund scientific research on medications for rare diseases. This is something I’ve always wanted to do. Pharmaceutical companies won’t finance research on rare disease medications because, since there are few people suffering from the disease, there’s no money in it for the companies.

Add to that research for diabetes and obesity.

1. Contact a lawyer
2. Contact an accountant
3. Tell no one if at all possible
4. Figure out where I want to spend the rest of my life
5. Move there.

After that, everything else is just details. I can always work out the details later. Charities, disease research, helping the poor, etc, all of it, details.

1) Retire
2) Sleep in everyday
3) Buy an island
4) Have my pets gilded
5) Wonder how the hell I won the lottery since I never play it

1. Call a financial advisor.
2. Take care of my family by giving them a chunk of money.
3. Take care of myself by investing.
4. Give a big chunk to the animal shelters and to the Boxer Rescue.
5. Move to an island.

1. Buy a Fluther sticker.
2. Go shopping for 2 days straight.
3. New instruments.
4.Share half of it with my parents.
5. Buy a Cadillac.
And the rest is history.
but I’d probaly waste it all before I do those things :P

1. Call a cab to bring me to the airport.
2. Buy a ticket to fly to Greece.
3. Take another cab.
4. Let him stop at a flowerist, buy a bouquet, hop back in.
5. Stop at my girlfriends house and knock her door!

Some people wrote that they wouldn’t tell nobody that they’d won.
A few days ago i read an advice by a financial advisor from a Dutch lotery in which he said that it could be a good idea to do tell people around you, but to tell them that you won, let’s say, 100.000 dollar/euro/pounds.
A big enough amount to (for them) understand that you can buy some nice goodies, but not big enough for them to ask you for gifts/loans.

Buy and restore the S. S. United States.

I would return the ship to mooring at New Yorks Pier 38 currently in use by the NYPD for parking violations impounds. The NYPDs parking enforcement division would have to be disbanded.

I would be praised for returning this beautiful vessel to service from its rightful place and ending the tyranny of the NYPDs most impudent and self serving arm

1.Donate
2.Buy CDs
3.Donate to The Cancer Society
4.Buy stuff for my family
5.Buy clothes and stuffs for me xD

pay my debts, buy a new computer, dine in hell a really nice restaurant, stash the rest away

6) Get pancakes for all the good litthe fluther boys and fluther girls.

@AstroChuck You were the only one to think of us. Aww.

Buy a feasibility report on returning one Concorde to service.

Buy another for recomissioning a SR- 71 Blackbird for charter.

Set up a charitable foundation with a 501©(3) donation capability (people can donate to it and take a tax deduction), hire several close relatives to help read the requests for charity hand outs, and live off the interest.

If properly administered, a charitable trust should last several generations, while still providing a decent living for the family.

@AstroChuck: very sweet of you, GA

@chyna: All flutherites would be welcome on the Recomissioned S. S. United States maiden voyage.

Buy my mother a condo “back home”
Buy my mother a new car
Settle my debts
Buy myself a beach shack “back home”
Buy myself a new car

Buy a car
Buy a house and some land
Buy books
Spoil my husband
Further spoil my kids

Keep quiet about it
Pay off all my bills
Build my mom a new house
Put my kid through graduate school
Put aside the rest into investments

1. Pay tithe
2. Pay off my and my family’s mortgages.
3. Set up trust funds for family
4. Build water purification plants in developing nations
5. Buy huge tracts of lands and plants loads of trees.
6. Get some nice properties to invest in.
7. Travel extensively

1. Move to an apartment in Portland, OR
2. Pay for boyfriend to move to Portland, OR
3. Go on cross-country trip with boyfriend
4. Then visit other countries with boyfriend
5. Donate ¼ of money to multiple charities

1. Ask for help because I probably passed out from hearing that I’d just won the lottery.
2. Buy a BIG house.
3. Fill the house with foster children and dogs that need a home.
4. Enjoy managing my home.
5. Have a beer.
(Thank you for reminding me, I need to go check my ticket! If you don’t see me on here for a while it’s because I passed out and went house hunting!!!)

Lurve for your answer, @loser. If I win the lottery, I’m going to share it with you.

@Jeruba That’s very kind of you! I didn’t win, but let’s keep trying.

Actually my odds are really poor because I never buy lottery tickets. So you can have my share of luck.

pay off college
put away money for my future childrens’ college.
travel, travel, travel.
buy my boyfriend his dream car (1960’s shelby GT500 Mustang)
buy myself an orange and black GT Mustang Cobra. with a supercharger of course :) and lots of other mods.

#1 pay my bills
#2 figure out where to put the money
#3 ensure financial security for my son, other loved ones and friends
#4 give money to charity
#5 travel my ass off

Oh yeah, almost forgot….hookers and blow!

1. Pay off my education.
2. Pay off my brother’s education.
3. Travel.
4. Donate to cancer research.
5. Put some away for rainy days.

-pay off my mum’s bills and get her a car, because she needs one sine the last one conked out. ( does ‘mom stuff’ count as one? :p)
-get myself a car. (my stationwagon! oh. man.)
-put a great deal of it away.
—go travel/see conor oberst…(duh) and bring a few people who i know would love to see the world- (in @dalepetrie‘s words, ‘travel my ass off’)
-give some to a few charities.

of course, it depends on how much we’re winnin’, but i’m assuming it’s a whole lot.

1. Tell only my husband and siblings
2. Get an attorney and financial advisor
3. Form a trust to protect my assets
4. Form trusts for my 3 kids and nephews
5. Give my family members 1% of my winnings
6. Give 5% to various charities

Get a good lawyer and a fee-only financial advisor. Spend only a little of the money right away. Continue my job and make no major life changes for at least one year. The history of big winners is not a particularly good one. Most mismanage the money and (more important) their lives after winning. Suddenly having a fortune brings its own set of problems.