Suppose you won the Powerball

$127,000,000 after taxes. Big chunk of change. Or about $6,250,000 for 30 years if you took the full term option (after taxes).

What would you do with it?

One thing I'd do. Make DU self-sufficient for a long time.:loveya:

If it didn't expire in 6 months, I'd hold the ticket till my daughter turned 18 next January and give it to her to turn in. But I would split it equally with my beloved ($63,500,000) and put $20,000,000 of my share in a trust for my kidlette until she graduated college. The rest would be for helping the defeat of the BFEE over the next two years, and making myself comfortable for the rest of my life.

Oh, and I'd open a giant no-kill shelter in a heartbeat.

I'll enjoy this thread a lot.:toast:

Then I would move and not telling anyone - open up some charities and go back to school .

then I would try to get a DU version of Fox News....

Make family comfortable, but not filthy rich.

Open a foundation. I have been wanting to do that my entire life. I hope to make it a reality some day.

Crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and to hear the lamentation of the women!

Just kidding.
I'd start my own weekly newspaper. Build a ball hockey/roller hockey rink.
And ... take care of family and a few friends.

I'm not big on charity. I'd spend a lot of my money on influence instead.

as I am policies that turn neighborhoods into them

And it was still relatively safe during the day to go shopping downtown. I remember my Grandmother pointing out areas we passed on the bus which she referred to as "the ghetto" without explanation, only a look. She was a naturalized citizen from Switzerland, having arrived in the early part of the 20th Century. She had watched her beloved city become transformed from an industrial powerhouse to a shell of itself. And she was always looking for someone to blame, not the politicians who created them.

I also remember the days when the local papers showed pictures of the "Government Trucks" with politicians handing out "the free cheese" from the back as if they had a right to diminish the lives of those they "doled" it out to.

Now, "gentrification" displaces the poor who have no other place to live, and the "Government Trucks" no longer come to help. White or Black.

Thanks for the response. It brought back the smell of my Grandmother's house, stoking the coal stove, cutting the lawn with the wood framed pusher lawn mower (which I still have), and the wonderment of childhood without the prejudice of age.

I grew up between a Ford Plant, Chrysler Plant, and GM plant.
On a good day, we got the breeze from the Hiram Walker Whiskey plant.

We didn't have many advantages, but my childhood was pretty good. Playing in junkyards. Taunting the junkyard dogs. Bumper hitching on trucks and busses in the winter. Running from the cops for no reason, other than they'd chase us.

Set up a foundation to pay for things like medical bills for children, college tuition for struggling students. It'd be totally anonymous, like a secret angel or good samaritan. I'd love to go around to these places who have soup suppers and fundraisers for someone's medical bills and write a check for the full amount. The only stipulation would be that the recipient do a good deed for someone else, no matter how big or how small.

:hug:

:hug:

Just feels like the right thing to do.

And shut the sucker down.

I would still live in my dorm room and go to class so I could be a dick and annoy people. :D

My one extravagance woud be hiring MAHNY to be the pool boy. Guess that means I'd need to put in a pool. ;)

Unfortunately, these sorts of things bring out the worst in people, and winners' names are made public. I'll bet they get chased down by every sponger in creation.

I would want to provide for my family, give some of it away to charities/causes I support, and get the best legal and financial advice possible on the rest of it. Then I would pursue the work I really want to pursue and try to make the most of that.

Amnesty International, Oxfam, etc.

The rest, I'd use it to pay for my education, my brothers' educations, and pay off any debts my family has. Make a few films. Then just live modestly and comfortably.

You'd have to allow for the taxes you owe on the yearly interest and dividends that you would accrue and that would still be a tidy sum.

I'd set up a foundation, some kind of high interest account where the money would never deplete. Then use that interest to fund progressive charities. No fundy crap. Set up education scholarships too for kids to learn progressive values. Scholarships for alternative fuel research or economics research. Something that would get the kids of tomorrow to help stop this planet from being destroyed.

Good way to ruin a kid's life, IMHO. I would first, eliminate all our debt and the mortgages of all siblings and cousins and good friends. Then I would set up trust funds for my kids and all nieces and nephews. They would not have to worry about college costs ever. They also would not be able to touch balance of trust fund until 35 or so (unless they had special need like for medical care).
I would set up a foundation to award grants to lots of good causes. By then I would be so tired out I would need a lengthy European vacation with my hubby and kidlets. :-) Then I would figure out what to do next. Sure would be fun (and stressful)!

And help her manage it so it took care of Mom and Dad and her and charities for the rest of her life. I'd rather she received the 30 year payout than the lump sum.

Unless she is brilliant at money management I would hand it over very, very gradually. A trust fund and foundation would take care of that.
30 year payout might be a good idea, I would have to check with a really good money manager. It would be lovely to know your children never had to worry about money again! :-)

take a good chunk of it into a scholarship fund for the underpriveldged (sp). some would also go to my favorite charities (the local homeless shelter and the cancer society) and then obviously my wife and kids would be set for life.

I would also find myself an unbelievably hot young lady (21+) for an affair.

2.) buy property in France,
3.) walk into a large jewelry store and say "I'll take it all" for my wife,
4.) donate to the opponent of every Repug politician
5.) donate to DU
6.) donate to two charities in particular
7.) a car for me and a car for my wife
8.) pay off my sister-in-law's school bills
9.) LASIK surgery
10.) a home gym and spa

make a huge donation to our town library, and to the theater department at our high school- which always get the shaft, as compared to athletics. I'd pay for someone to re-side the decrepit house on the corner, where a sweet old couple are raising their handicapped grandson, and I'd make sure my parents could retire (right now, they'll be working forever, to afford the necessities.) Oh, there's endless fun things one could do with a bottomless surplus of wealth....

Hire a good lawyer and accountant and security firm. I also would donate to DU. I would also start a support organization for those individuals like myself who still suffer the emotional after effects of having attended those individualized Catholic parrish school's that practiced verbal abuse and corporal punnishment on a daily basis. I realize some people had a wonderful experience in their respective Catholic schools, so I am not trying to lump all of the Catholic schools as bad, just some of them. I just would like if I had the opportunity to help those like myself who found the experience more emotionally traumatic and even life damaging than helpful. And give scholarship funds to my cousin's kids for their future college education, and give huge gifts to my sister and Mom, and pay off all their bills.

I would also open a huge German Shepard rescue.

On a selfish note, I would buy a compound in New England some where, preferrably Maine. It would have a library/writing room, an entertainment room with a big TV and DVD's galore, a game room, a craft room, and a doggie playroom, several bedrooms and bath rooms and anyone of my family who wanted to live with me could. It would have to have an ocean view and a view of a lighthouse. For some odd reason I am fascinated by Lighthouses.

I also have a housekeeper/cook. I'd never go out just have things bought for me by my staff or delivered to me by the mail or UPS or Fed Ex. As I really really in my heart want to be a hermit except for communicating over the net and being with my family.

The rest I would invest so I could stay safely tucked away in my own little world.
I really don't enjoy going out in public. I get way too anxious.


Although I do think I would like to see Ireland, Italy, and Austrailia in person at some point in my lifetime.

We need a much bigger effort than we have right now.

and I'd get some actual reporters to report on actual stories.

Then I'd buy a house next to George Clooney's on Lake Como. :loveya:

a Girl's gotta dream... right?

Blame the newspapers they work for.
Reporters simply don't have the time or the backing to do the kinds of stories that need to be done.

more clear. I blame the Editors for axing stories that should be on the front page because it reflects poorly on this Administration that the conglomerate that ownes the paper backs.

I have always fantasized about winning the lottery...

Well first thing would be is to move out of this sinkhole of a country, then perhaps attend a liberal leaning college and learn something of my interest.

I would most definenately set up a fund where I can pay tuition for kids to go to college, as well as donate to various progressive organizations such as MoveOn.org, Cindy Sheehan and of course DU.

Well that's all I can think of right now, though I have many ideas.

Blu

I'd have a heart attack if something like that happened to me!

Then I'd give my house away to someone who needs it and build my dream house in TN. And I'd find a way to help the Katrina survivors and others who are suffering in this country, including all the DUers who are in need. Some would go into a trust for my kids and grandson. I'd contribute a chunk to my favorite kitty rescue org ... and a pile to doggy rescues, too. Oh, and I'd buy a private jet and pilot so I can visit my Mom without having to put up with airport B.S. Helping defeat the BFEE is a great use of the money, too, so I'll join you in doing that. Then I'll enjoy life with harleydad and the kids.

:toast:

I just know I'd be shocked. I'd help family members and Air America first. Air America needs to be huge in this country. All 1210 AM is here is RW filth - either extreme right or leaning right. Then, I'd pay off my college loans. Would help Democratic candidates running this year. I'd buy a house with helpers and quite a few dogs for myself, and of course have an unlimited music budget.

$127 mil total

I would keep $7 mil

I would give $20 mil to Greenpeace

And I would invest $100 in a new stadium for the Minnesota Twins, and insist they not give it a corporate name. I think "Harmon Killebrew Stadium" would be cool....it could be shortened to "The Brew."

I know I'm weird!!!

and keep the remaining funds for myself.

Then I'd set up my Wife and Kids and their descendants

Then I'd set up my siblings and their descendants

Then I'd set up a Charitable Trust for food/shelter/Knox College

Then I'd buy me a Republican Congressman and make him clean up my house in a French Maid's Outfit