I Won The Lottery!!
Well...OK I didn't win the whole thing. And it was a while ago...Like maybe 4 years ago. But I won $2100!! Winning the lottery is probably one of the biggest dreams that most people have. Could you imagine if you actually won? What would you do? It's funny but most people I talk to have this grand plan as to what they would do if they did actually win. It's amazing how generous they would be. But, I wonder if they would really be that generous. Once you have it wouldn't you want to try and keep it? Obviously the size of the win would make a difference. If say you won the $24M in the Super 7 tonight or the $16M on the 6-49 tomorrow night, I'm sure you could be a bit more generous. Notice I said a bit? :-)
So what would we do if say, we won $10M? I'd help our families of course. I would definitely quit my job. I'd do a lot more golfing. I love cars so may get something I could take to car shows and have a lot of fun with that. The kids would have the education they want. Since my house is pretty small for our family I could see an extension or a new house. Our vehicles are now 7 and 8 years old so would probably upgrade them. I'd take the time to get in better physical shape. But one of the most important things I would do would be to invest so that it doesn't run out!!
So what would you do if you did win $10M?
2 comments:
I think getting out of debt would be the first priority: man, I just feel weighed down by all the debts, and just paying that off and throwing it away would be a fantastic feeling. I'd be reasonably generous, I think, but probably avoid giving away big chunks to friends (sorry guys!) - in some ways I'd rather hang onto it and invest and be able to help out people who are really struggling. I'd probably want to give a decent chuck to charity, but to direct it fairly carefully to major need areas.
And as you said, investing carefully is important. Maybe it's an urban myth, but I heard about some research study that said something like 80% of lottery winners are broke again in 5 years. People who win a bunch of money tend to (a) not value it as much as money they've worked for and (b) get greedy and put it into scammish investments like ostrich farms that are high risk but claim to offer huge returns. Investing using good, common-sense strategies like diversification of risk and return and industry just makes sense.
But that's kinda the boring side - the dreams are where the fun is! Definitely something we saw at the motor show last week: probably just the WRx STi (capitalisation random) or something though - the Lambhorginis are nice and all, but it's hard to justify half a million for a car and tens of thousands a year for insurance when people are starving in the world.
I'd probably keep my job, actually, because I really enjoy what I do, but I'd be less compelled to take on extra contract projects for the money. Suzie could stop working and finding something she really loves to do, and she could come with me to the various conferences and so on. We'd definitely have a nice big house with enough bedrooms and bathrooms and places for pets and a pool. I'd have a pretty killer computer rig and a home theatre system...
It's nice to dream - and in the long run, given the odds of winning, I think that's mostly what the ticket price buys. ;)
'decent chunk'
'Lamborghinis'
'find something she really loves'
Darned Blogger non-editability!
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