What would you do with $550 million?
Today’s Powerball jackpot is the biggest I’ve ever seen – $550 million. I don’t normally play the lottery, but when it gets that high, I just feel like joining the fray despite knowing that means lower odds of winning (or at least winning singularly). Still, I do this because I enjoy the fantasy of what I might actually do with the winnings.
I’m young enough that the 30-year payout makes more sense to me. So the question is, just for the first year alone, what could I do with $18.33 million? Forget the other 19 years, could I even fathomably spend the first year’s take? No? Then the rest is gravy and I might as well have that coming later, when I might need it after wasting the other millions.
So $27.5 million. Let’s call that $12 million after taxes. I’d set aside the first $250K to settling my debts and much of my immediate family’s, and then maxing out savings for the year. The next $750,000 would be spent buying a nice home outright here in the D.C. area, probably one right on a Metro station to make life easy.
Alright, 1 million down and 11 million to go. Gosh. I’d probably donate some to charity, start a scholarship fund, be a generous political donor, and seriously invest in some of the wind energy and electric car companies I like. But even conservatively I can’t imagine all that costing me $500,000. Ok, so I might spend another $500,000 on hunting for and buying a vacation home on a lake, or maybe up in Oregon or Washington State.
Man, spending money like mad and I’m still only down $2 million.
And… that’s it. I can’t imagine what else I’d spend it on. I suppose I could create an advocacy group, which used to be my dream job, but who wants to waste money on lobbyists or television ads? Maybe bank the rest and try to launch a political career? But again, that’s just another way to waste money.
So maybe instead I’d get a passport, charter a plane, and visit England and Australia (not on the same trip, of course).
If I bank too money, of course, I could bribe my way into becoming a Hollywood producer/screenwriter, but even that would take serious money. I might need to go for the lump sum cash out to do that.
So what would you do with the lottery winnings? How would it change your life? Or would it?
