Winning the lottery

 

Link to $80 million man: Money won't change me - TODAY: People - MSNBC.com

 

Its a constant fantasy for some of us, I guess. I know that its a favorite mental exercise of mine: what would I do if I won x amount int he lottery.

Since I don't play it very often, it certainly isn't a case of my fervently wishing for such, but rather just one of those things I do to kill time.

When you are as anally retentive as I am about stuff (I call it exercising my inner control freak), these little exercises can be enormously involved.

Part of the reason, though, is that I would not, of course, want to become one of those lottery winners who are ruined by it.  I am already aware that while I become much more magnanimous when I have extra money, I also tend to be a bit more aloof than normal -- its as if the little subtle things that I learned by osmosis as a child about being a snob sneak back into play, and I dislike that.

As a result, my plans are inevitably along the lines of what this person did:

http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/20/magazines/fortune/lottery_winnings.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2007022807

From the Article:

• $45 million: Safe, low-risk investments such as municipal bonds
• $35 million: Aggressive investments like oil and gas and real estate
• $1.3 million: A family foundation
• $63,000: A trip to Tahiti with 17 friends
• $125,000: Mortgage retired on his 1,400-square-foot house
• $18,000: Student-loan repayment
• $65,000: New bicycles, including a $12,000 BMC road bike
• $14,500: A used black VW Jetta
• $12,000: Annual gift to each family member

That's a pretty good breakdown, although, for me, Bicycles are not going to be an investment.

Among the things I'd be doing is establishing a trust for paying for my daily expenses -- much like the family trust above, although mine would separate and above and beyond it.  A second trus would provide for my family members the same basics levels of security.

I know my close relatives fairly well, and am fairly certain they wouldn't do much, but also that they know I would -- so there would be a fight there, lol.

Instead of a trip to tahiti, I'd likely engage in a trip to Thailand (of course, LOL) and one hell of a shopping trip, followed a few months later by a large party in Vegas.

After that, though, my focus would be on creating, for me, a simple, plesant existence that I could maintain for the rest of my life while pursing the things that are important to me (which, in this case, means doing pretty much whatever catches my fancy insofar as learning about new things).

ITs certain I would establish a company of some sort -- what it would be I don't know. Retail, restaurant, design -- there are a lot of variables.  I'd probably work to establish some sort of a variant on a bed and breakfast style place and leave it be at that.

One element that's critical to me, though, is that everything be, effectively self sustaining.  It doesn't need to grow, so much as it needs to be self perpetuating for the life of it.

that's pretty much where I go, lol.

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