Saw where a store clerk at a convenience store won 258 million dollars! If you won that kind of money, what would be the first thing you would do with the money?

Travel
Travel
Travel
Travel
Pay off my Bills.
Move into a house (from the apartment we now live in.)

Probably pay the IRS 149 million dollars. Then divide it equally among me, my sister, mydaughter and the rest of the immediate family – two in-laws, six nieces and nephews and 4 great-grand-children.

I would give my mum whatever she wanted. I would give the RSPCA a fair share and I would let my s/o decide what to do with the rest.

Well, since I don’t owe much myself, I would pay off the debts of all my family members. Then I would build a compound where they could all live, if they so desired. Then there are a number of causes I would love to support.

The first thing I & everyone else would do,whether we like it on not ,would be to give half of it to our Uncle Sam !!

1) taxes
2) buy a house
3) put my man through school
4) invest the rest

I’d buy a small island out in the middle of the ocean and start my own dictatorship :-p

The very first thing i’d do would be to empty it all on the bed, strip naked & dive into my enormous cash pool, laughing like a little girl at my incredible fortune.

Buy a house outright, pay all my bills, pay off my mom’s bills and buy her a new house, take care of other family members, get a new car, travel, wisely invest a lot of the money, donate some of it to charity, finish my education, and then make a list of future things to do with what is left over.

Family members who are in debt; take care of them and give them all a nice bit o’ change to play with. Quit work, donate a good portion, buy an old Victorian home in Northern, Michigan and a lovely place in Spain. Pick up some cool antiques.

Travel, travel and travel some more (one of my passions).

Volunteer my time…

Buy a better laptop.

I’d buy a really expensive bottle of wine because it’s something I’ve always wanted to try.

Then I’d to all the regular, responsible stuff, like pay off debt and so on.

Give each of our daughters a couple million dollars….pay for a new library where I work which we need badly, give to the SPCA….lots of things I haven’t thought of yet.

1) House
2) Toys
3) Vehicle
4) Assorted charities, help my family and friends out, savings and investments.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard You forgot the zoot suit.

@essieness, already got one ;-)

Computer upgrades first.

I’d like to upgrade to a greener car (from my minivan), and I’d like to get an apartment of my own (instead of a house with 4 guys), but those things take time to figure out and deal with. With computer upgrades, I can just drive down to Fry’s and buy it.

Then, I think I’d buy some new clothes.

@marinelife ditto…the travel part would be the first thing on my mind!

1. Taxes.
2. Pay off all of my debts then sell my house.
3. Move out of the country. Buy a house in Ireland and one in Australia or New Zealand. Nothing big. I’m not into ostentatious houses.
4. Visit every item on the “places I have to see before I die” list.
5. Come back to my new home and open a pub.

First, I’d ask to remain anonymous so I wouldn’t have to deal with crazies asking for money all of the time.

After the taxes, I’d give generous amounts to immediate family. I’d buy a new house, better vehicles, and do a lot more traveling. I’d set aside more than enough to put the kids through college, as well as trust funds they would receive after graduating with at least a Bachelor’s degree and working full-time for five years. It would make me very happy to give money to worthy causes.

Now that I think about it, I wouldn’t even tell the kids about the lottery or the trust funds. Let them have normal childhoods before they become filthy rich. :)

@Seek_Kolinahr “ostentatious” Good word! I’m with you, though. I prefer cozy little houses.

@bobbinhood

my husband does hardwood flooring for a living. You should see some of the places he works on. People with frickin’ bowling alleys in their basements, and wine cellars next to the movie theater. I’d never want to live in a house so big I can’t remember the last time I entered some of the rooms.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard: I think the car you are coveting was the one I made-out in for the first time.

@Seek_Kolinahr As much as I think it would be fun to have lots of space for having people over, I know that I could never feel at home in a mansion.

@bobbinhood I know! We’ll have a big yard (like, huge) for parties, with a nice cozy cottage as the main house, with a big dining room. Then, out back, we’ll have another building as a guest house, but more like a barracks, with bedrooms and a shower room, for the people who stay overnight.

@Seek_Kolinahr Big yards are the best! I loved growing up with a big yard and having lots of room to run around and play games. ...but we digress.

@Seek_Kolinahr – Will you serve Guinness in your pub?

I would start the Institute for Arts, Communication and Understanding. It would have two main educational themes with a good deal of interaction between them.

On the one side, it would be devoted to the study of human communication, negotiation and problem solving. This would be a degree granting intitution. It would have political figures formerly involved in international negotiations in residencies. It would also have officials who served at all levels—municipal, state, federal and whatever the equivalent jurisdictions are in other countries.

There would be many role playing scenarios that focus on real issues being discussed currently around the world. Students would study the culture and history and politics of the people for perhaps six months, and then they would engage in problem solving exercises for the rest of their year.

On the Arts side, we would offer year long residencies in all the arts. Residents could work on their own work, but every evening they would be required to participate in collaborative efforts, again, organized in many different ways, including experimental ways.

Several of the residents would represent the countries that the “peace” academy is studying that year. I would hope that there would be both artistic “conversations” between the different cultures, as well as diplomatic conversations.

Periodically, the politicians would participate in a series of the artistic collaborations. These efforts would be studied in order to see how they impacted the actual political negotiations and problem solving efforts.

The purpose of much of the collaboration on the artistic side is to develop rituals that help people feel like they belong to the same group. These rituals would be tested on the political people to see how they affect the politicians work.

I suppose I could write more, but that’s where I’d spend my quart billion dollars.

@HungryGuy

Of course! It’s my favorite.

I would do this

I would buy a new car, and move. Oh and i would pig out at Red Lobster.

@wundayatta ummm…all of it?

I would pay for a friend’s medical treatments.

@lucillelucillelucille thought Obama was taking care of that..loll

@BoBo1946 -That’s what she thought too…

@lucillelucillelucille really…what did they say?

I would open a charitable foundation with the purpose of giving away the interest earned on the money, and use the principle only for necessary expenses. I would hire all my relatives to handle the job of reviewing the requests for donations and giving it away.

@gailcalled, a ‘55 Chevrolet Bel Air in either baby blue or black has been my dream car ever since I was a little boy ;-)

@BoBo1946 Why not? It’s a hypothetical spending of non-existent money. In fact,, if I wanted, I could make go even further.

@wundayatta cool….what if it was not hypothetical $$$!

@Seek_Kolinahr – Right! If I lved near you, your pub would be my local :-)

@BoBo1946 What if it was not hypothetical money?

Can someone set me straight. If there’s an if then where’s the real money? It’s hypothetical until it’s real and until then, I can do whatever I want with it.

I would give some to my sisters and my brother, my kids and a couple of my friends.
I would invest most of it, and give the interest made on that away to good causes.

I have issues with found money.

@wundayatta (doing my best to set this straight) the question said nothing about hypthetical money…but, you would be correct, it is hypothetical money in reality!

Did not know this innocent question was going to become complicated !

OMG! The US make you pay taxes on lottery winnings?!!

@Rachienz Yes, all income from every source, lottery winnings, gambling, stealing (I’m not kidding) savings interest, and on and on is taxable. Even when you get a debt forgiven, such as your house is sold for less than you owe to the lender, you can be taxed on the excess which is money that doe not exist!

Wow, sometimes I think I wouldn’t cope moving to the US!!

New Zealand don’t even have capital gains tax and we have free healthcare! No tax on lottery or gambling either.

Run huge television campaigns

1) Warning people about lotteries and gambling, explaining the basic concepts of the calculus of probabilities
2) Promoting the idea of having savings accounts
3) Pointing out that education and hard work is a much better strategy to increase financial security compared to lotteries

First thing I would do is hire someone to build me the house of my dreams. When he gets done with building my house I would have him build a animal shelter. A shelter that will keep the animals safe,clean and very happy. Yes I’m very much an animal lover. Now I just need to win lotto. Lol

@mattbrowne you would really do that…the idea is super…especially number 3!

@mattbrowne – We should envision a future without lotteries.

@mattbrowne oh yes…why i vested strongly on 401k for 25 years!

Great Caesar’s ghost! After they got through pushing 100cc of eppy through my heart to restart it I would get down to business. The 1st 300 milion would be gone in a snap.
• I would pay off all I owed.
• Pass on 15% to my church
• Get one helafva emerald ring for my fiancé
• Then a trip to some dealerships, I have a Lamborghini, Bugatti, Aston Martian, F1 McLaren.
• Then it is off to have a custom motor coach built.
• Of to order 2 stretch limos (the longest they can legally make)
• Purchase some forest land in Lake County about 50+ acres.
• Custom build a 25–40k sq ft fully interactive techno mansion w/heliport.
• To get around I will need aircraft, so I will get a G8 or larger, a QSST by Supersonic Aerospace International darn they won’t be ready until 2016, a Gulfstream G550 when I want to travel to the Canines Film Festival or Carnival. For shorter trips like breakfast in San Diego, Vegas etc but back by dinner a Gulfstream 150, Gulfstream II, or Lear 45.
• Pay for my patent.
• Then purchase about 3 though bred race horses.
• Look on my “get money list” to see who I was going to gift and how much.
• Book a trip to the space station as a space tourist.

That will tide me over for about the 1st two weeks. Then it would be figuring out how to take the rest and parlaying it into 15 billion or more dollars.

I see @Hypocrisy_Central becoming the next Hammer. Homeless with nothing but a dollar-sign shaped swimming pool to show for his fame.

@Seek_Kolinahr Psst I will have some patents, lein sales, and dozens of dozens of REO prpterties I will be leasing out to keep the party going, one man’s misfortune is another man’s opportunity. $ shaped pool? If I am going for decadence hook me up with the gold plated crapper. Hee hee hee