What Exciting Adventures Would You Pursue with a $425M Lottery Win?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around hypothetical plans and dreams participants would pursue if they won a $425 million lottery. The scope includes personal aspirations, charitable intentions, business ventures, and lifestyle changes, reflecting a mix of serious and whimsical ideas.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants express a desire to live off the grid, with one suggesting buying land and building a small house in a remote area.
  • Others propose opening businesses that are community-focused, with a personal supervisory role.
  • Several participants mention setting up educational funds or endowments for children or community projects, such as robotics teams.
  • There are suggestions for investing in renewable energy, like solar panels or wind farms, with one participant specifically mentioning the Netherlands.
  • Some participants share humorous or light-hearted ideas, such as buying extravagant items or engaging in unusual activities with their winnings.
  • Concerns about taxes and the actual amount of money retained after winnings are raised, with one participant noting that the net amount would be significantly lower than the advertised prize.
  • Several participants express intentions to donate large sums to charities, although there is skepticism about the effectiveness of such donations.
  • One participant humorously suggests spending a large amount on fast cars and entertainment, while another mentions a desire to buy a farm.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants present a variety of competing views on how to spend the lottery winnings, with no consensus on a single approach. Some focus on personal enjoyment, while others emphasize philanthropy or investment strategies.

Contextual Notes

Participants express uncertainty about the actual financial implications of winning, including taxes and the feasibility of their plans. There are also varying degrees of seriousness in the proposed ideas, with some being more whimsical than practical.

Who May Find This Useful

Individuals interested in discussions about personal finance, philanthropy, or creative uses of wealth may find this thread engaging.

turbo
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The Powerball is getting big. My wife and I aren't big on playing lotteries, but it's tempting to take a shot this time. I'd buy Misery Township, and put a nice but small house in the middle of it. Get totally off the grid, and hang out with my wife and Duke. We don't need much, but it would be fun to get away from people and live in the woods.

After looking out for taxes and maintenance, it would be fun to provide grants/scholarships for kids and let somebody else manage the money. We could fish the brooks and streams and ponds, and chill.

What would you do?
 
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I'd open businesses run by people to the people, supervised by me.. I'd give my family some. And for myself, I'd try to have as less as possible. :biggrin:
 
I would build a pool/ice rink (including speed-skating) in my home-town; I'd set up an endowment for my robotics team; I'd set aside between $500,000 and $1 mil for each of my kids; arrange to teach nothing but AP Physics; invest the rest in... I don't know, something to do with solar, I think. I'll worry about it when it happens. Which it won't.

I will never play the lottery, so I don't know why I'm even thinking about it. I'll have better luck suing some hapless guy who makes a mistake. What a country!
 
Lol Chi!
 
I'd pay off my kids' house mortgages.

Then put a wind farm on top of a mountain west of Denver.

Then sign up for an aircraft mechanic course.
And take some piano lessons.

And get that dent in my Oldsmobile fixed.
 
I'd try to get everyone in the country free solar panels. I'm in the Netherlands, so I might actually get pretty far.
 
I'd buy some socks, some oven mitts, get a real tv, give $400 million to no kill animal shelters and the rest to my kids.
 
How much do supercomputers go for?
 
Containment said:
How much do supercomputers go for?

Like a couple hundred million for a nice one and then maintenance is going to be like half a dozen million per year
 
  • #10
build a log cabin in the woods with a huge barn for a workshop. i would then gut my current house and remodel it completely. the rest of the money would sit in the bank making a pittance of interest, but 1% on a buttload of cash is still enough to live on.

the cabin in the woods would have a sign out in front "trespassers will be shot, survivors shot again" and would be off a dirt road off of a dirt rural route, off of a road named by a letter, off of a road named by a number, in other words, really far out in the woods, so far out the meth dealers would be lost...
 
  • #11
I'd give to PF and all my PF friends. Then have some beer.
 
  • #12
I would buy a big house and open several businesses; I put some into charity and leave the rest into my bank account for benefits of some high interest rate.
Today I'll buy a number, still don't know which one is good though. I bought many and won none.
 
  • #13
as many pink ping pong balls as there are grains of sand.
 
  • #14
Build telescopes.
 
  • #15
$424,999,900 on fast cars, faster women and booze, I'd squander the rest.
 
  • #16
I'd buy a tin of meat for the dog, and get a monthly bus pass. Don't need anything else.
 
  • #17
jim mcnamara said:
I'd buy a tin of meat for the dog, and get a monthly bus pass. Don't need anything else.


You don't need 425M for that!
 
  • #18
Most of it would be given away to family members and my favorite charities. I'd probably keep about $50m for myself. I'd take a few million and buy rental properties for some long-term steady income (if I were to buy 10 copies of the property I already own, and get the same amount in rent, that's ~8k per month after expenses). This will insure that if I ever did go crazy and spend all my cash, I still have income. I'd set aside ~10 million for me to buy whatever the heck I wanted with it (in an initial burst of spending), and another ~10 million to do weird things with.

What do I mean by weird things? I'm not quite sure. Maybe a million will go to opening an experimental business. A strip club bingo hall or something. Maybe I'll walk into a 7-11 and buy literally everything off of every shelf. Maybe I'll buy a dozen mattresses and completely fill a room in my house with them, making it a literal "bed room". I don't know, but that would be my money for fun.

Anything left over gets invested conservatively until I found a better use for it.

Yeah... maybe I'll throw 2 dollars on this power ball.
 
  • #19
I'd give a lot away, but the takers would have to promise to never ask me for money again.

Then I'd have the nicest little farm you could imagine.
 
  • #20
Bora Bora PF gathering, finally.
 
  • #21
Donate $420M to Charity and invest the rest.
But who knows if the $420M would even find good use by the charity organizations... as the Joker once said, "When the chips are down, these civilized people, they'll eat themselves."
 
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  • #22
The tax man cometh.

The keepings are a little more than a third of the advertised amount after federal/state/local taxes and and lump sum fractional payouts, so start with ~$150M of the $425M. Less than that when figuring in the sales taxes if purchases are made, say on Turbo's get away home. But hey, the rich, even the new or briefly rich, must pay "their fair share."
 
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  • #23
Jobrag said:
$424,999,900 on fast cars, faster women and booze, I'd squander the rest.
Apparently a year of hookers, booze, and dancers costs exactly $76.5K.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqvbop_hookers-booze-and-dancers_shortfilms (@1:30)
 
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  • #24
jack21222 said:
maybe i'll buy a dozen mattresses and completely fill a room in my house with them, making it a literal "bed room".

This!

But for real, I'd love to try car racing, small plane flying.
 
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