Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Friday, November 4. 2022

How would winning the Powerball change your life?


I would hire more help and maybe a driver, avoid making new "friends", and consume much better wines. Buy some good land, and get a Netjets account. But what's the deal? You win $1.5 billion and have to give back a third.


Your reply in Comments.


Posted by The News Junkie at 11:48 | Comments (21) | Trackbacks (0)

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I'm too old and ill. If I were to win it I would try to give it all away in two years. My children and friends would get a lot of it. I literally don't need it.
#1 OneGuy on 2022-11-04 12:07 (Reply)
Nobody needs it.

Can't buy youth or health.
#1.1 Bird Dog on 2022-11-04 12:17 (Reply)
Born in the USA is the best win.
#1.1.1 Bird Dog on 2022-11-04 12:19 (Reply)
And just to clarify my "don't need it" comment was intended to be positive. I worked at good jobs all my life, I have pensions and savings and we own our home and are enjoying life. Rereading it I thought maybe it sounded negative, it's not. I love our life.
#1.1.2 OneGuy on 2022-11-04 13:14 (Reply)
You may not be able to buy youth and health, but with that kind of money you CAN buy doctors who understand the difference between "normal" and "optimal". You can afford name brand drugs of known quality rather than generics made in India of questionable provenience (or with that kind of money you could set up a 501c3 to randomly test batches of drugs coming out of various pharmaceutical companies around the world and publishing the results publically).

You could afford the newest treatments regardless of whether insurance covered them or not.

You could buy a personal chef to cook healthy AND tasty meals. You would have the time to exercise enough AND sleep enough, and get a personal trainer to help with the exercise.

So you might not be able to buy youth and health, but you could dramatically slow the aging process and get considerably more healthy.
#1.1.3 William O. B'Livion on 2022-11-05 13:59 (Reply)
I would happily give away 99% of that prize for the balance.
#2 Hayden Goseek (Link) on 2022-11-04 13:01 (Reply)
By actual experience of many, a lottery win is like catching a bomb with the fuse lit.

Does not turn out well.
#3 Fred Ziffel on 2022-11-04 13:55 (Reply)
"I've always been an a$$hole, now I'd just be a rich a$$hole."
#4 Blackwing1 on 2022-11-04 13:59 (Reply)
If I won, I'd pay off my kids and grandkids mortgages and other debts, and then set up trusts for their later lives (so they don't get to spend their lives in idleness, but will have cushions for their old age). The rest I would give to reputable charities like animal rescue and women's shelters, and to our local first responder outfits. Like others, I'm pretty old and don't owe anything, so I don't need the money for myself, but I might take a little to travel to places I haven't been. After I paid the taxes owed on it, I would probably spend some to fight off government theft of the rest.
#5 RebeccaH on 2022-11-04 14:08 (Reply)
You buy them and I'll pay less in taxes (theoretically). If the prize is $1.5 billion, they are collecting much more than that.

Lottery tickets are a tax on the stupid...
#6 Earl Wertheimer on 2022-11-04 14:16 (Reply)
I would take a ride to outerspace. The rest I would give to charity. Though, buying a thousand acres and building a house in the middle, is appealing.
#7 B. Hammer on 2022-11-04 14:26 (Reply)
I would buy a majority of the Nebraska unicameral and the governor and would then be the state's dictator puppetmaster.

Of course to win, I would first have to buy a lottery ticket . . . .

sigh . . . .

OTOH, if you had more money than you could ever possibly spend, you might lose interest altogether in public policy and just enjoy life.
#8 feeblemind on 2022-11-04 15:44 (Reply)
I'd buy a classic Jeepster (have my eye on a silver 1949 one, fully restored) and a cabin with lots of land. Beyond that, like our host I would drink a better tier of wine, not to mention bourbon and cigars.
#9 Andrew B on 2022-11-04 16:05 (Reply)
The only way you get the entire amount before taxes is if you take the annuity option, 40 or so million a year for 30 years. If you take cash payout, you get the present value of the money 600 or so million, and then they take about 40%
in taxes, fed and state,etc. They bank on you taking the present value in cash. Which wouldn't suck, if you can manage your money.
#10 Js4strings on 2022-11-04 16:06 (Reply)
As Js4strings points out, taking the money up front is a lesser value, but more immediate control. I'd take care of my family first - arranging trusts and more or less permanent freedom, so on, and branch out to extended family. Family first, always.

Then I'd see about handing it out, Main Street style. I think the value of anonymous and semi-anonymous charity is vastly under-rated in American society - it does a lot of good, and it changes outlooks. I'd do it quietly, and try to figure out ways to endow programs that work for long-term, beneficial social changes, grounded in traditional and bourgeois values. Figure a $10 million endowment can churn out around a half-million a year in funding, , unless you want to liquidate principle. With the right people on board, you could be a terrific influence on a community that way.
#11 Aggie on 2022-11-04 17:06 (Reply)
There was a person leaving envelopes full of money outside restaurants a few years back but it was on the money side of town!
The clues to find them were left on CL.
#12 Private Revolution on 2022-11-04 19:31 (Reply)
Pay off my parish's debt, set up immediate family, and create scholarships for working poor who are married to send their kids to private schools. All of that is a drop in the bucket considering the large amount.

With that much money the only place to put it is in land and real estate; millions of acres and thousands of houses.
#13 jack walter on 2022-11-05 08:45 (Reply)
There was an epic comment on Reddit addressing this question in detail, but since I don't play the lottery, I didn't save it.

Being a high school teacher, when the Powerball gets big, students occasionally ask what I'd do if I won. For my amusement, I like to give them the most mundane answer I can to leave them feeling disappointed.

"I think I'd get a new cap for my pickup. A fancy one, with the tinted windows."

"Have you seen those vacuum things you pull behind a lawnmower to pick up leaves? A fella with that kind of money aught to have one of those."
#14 Randomizer on 2022-11-05 12:41 (Reply)
I too would get some property, set up the kids and grandkids, with attached conditions, and spend my wife's and my days deciding which charities to donate to and how much. There would be a challenge with some leech-like siblings that wouldn't end well.
I grew up in Las Vegas, so I don't buy lottery tickets.
#15 Mark on 2022-11-05 13:02 (Reply)
I can't imagine having any trouble deciding how to spend it. I'd employ lots of people to take care of everything that's going to get harder as we age. I'd buy and preserve good habitat land. I'd endow animal shelters. A moment's thought would yield many other uses.
#16 Texan99 on 2022-11-06 07:20 (Reply)
I'd think about the amount of effort it would take to deal with it and give it all to someone I hated.
#17 Wilfred Ruffian on 2022-11-06 11:25 (Reply)

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