What would you do with $540 Million Dollars?

[MothBalls]

ESTIMATED JACKPOT $540 MILLION Draw Date: March 30, 2012http://www.megamillions.com/

Just curious what our fellow Subsimmers would do if they won that prize. CNN asked the question and some of the comments in there are hilarious. CNN article. (http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-768119?npt=NP1)

What would you do?



<Edit> So many people are buying tickets the sum is now up to $640,000,000.00.

[Betonov]

Blow 1/3 on sex drugs and rock&roll
Spend 1/3 on luxury and travel
Ivest 1/3 to make more money...

Or just buy the company where I work at and do some cleaning :stare:

[BossMark]

Get very pissed, sober up and realise its all been a dream because I just aint got that sort luck :down:

[kraznyi_oktjabr]

1. Pay my parents and my best friends (got hit badly by recession) debts
2. Would buy fleet of amoured cars and hire bodyguards
3. Put $20 mil to bank account I use regularly
4. Find out way to make more money with remaining money

I would be really happy if I could keep that kind of luck out of public knowledge. Then I could drop #2 from list above or atleast downscale it. I don't want life in mansion protected by bodyguards. I want to live in my nice little apartment in this nice apartment building in just normal neighbourhood and live just like everybody else without fear of some extortionist hunting me.

[Skybird]

1. Would buy some land as a place to live, without close neighbours nearby, but maybe with many animals. Probably outside the EU. Brazil very possible, or New Zealand. Maybe South Africa. Anywhere just not under EU or US, Russian or Chinese or any other unwlecomed type of administration.

2. Would buy additional land as a way to save the wealth without loosing to inflation.

3. Straighten any credits by people dear to me, and give them enough so that most likely they will never face material sorrows again if living a reasonable and modest life. Consumer excesses I would not finance. Much money or not, you do not need that much things to live a good live.

4. Try to raise some kind of science foundation, if I get trustworthy advisers - I would not know how to do such stuff myself, I am no manager and no businessman by soul or profession.

Regarding my material needs, not much would change. I cannot wear more than one trousers at a time, so why do I need two dozens?

Limit politicians grab for my money as far as possible. Possible that I would will to invest more money of my fortune for projects of communal or general global interest than if I would need to pay simple taxes - but from the decision on where to spend, I would exclude this criminal bunch of dilettantic gangsters as far as possible. I would not be shy to escape and avoid taxes completely, therefore. But as I said - possible that I would voluntarily finance and invest even more than I would need by legal obligations. It's just that you cannot vote for, cannot legitimise for power and cannot give money into the hands of politicians. That would make yourself guilty by helping them to ruin the world.

Maybe would chose to live on a big boat or ship, without citizenship, or on a bought island under no nation's legal administration. That would be a dream indeed. No politicians having legal and administrative power over me anymore!

[the_tyrant]

I wonder if I can go talk to someone like Mugabe and say "Willing to sell me your country?"

[Platapus]

Have me one hell of a dog rescue operation. :yeah:

[MothBalls]

The first thing I would do is try to convince all of my family and friends that it wasn't really me.

Of course first I would set aside some up front money for the inevitable spending spree. House on the beach, one in the mountains, cars, puters, toys etc. The rest invest wisely

Me, I don't "give" to charity but I contribute ways for charities to help themselves. For example the food shelter close to where I live, the lawn and weeds around the place were getting out of control. I gave them a lawn mower, weed eater, some misc. hand tools (my old stuff and I bought myself new stuff). They put a sign out asking for the recipients to help them keep the grounds clean, voluntarily. Now every time I go there the landscape is always perfectly manicured.

They asked me if I could donate some paint. I gave them a list of painting contractors and a form letter asking them to donate anything left over from projects, a box of envelopes and a roll of stamps. In two weeks, the entire place, inside and out, had a fresh coat of paint on it.

I would spend my time figuring out how to help those helping others help themselves. Especially when it comes to people in the world who live without clean water, food, medicine, shelter and the basics for a decent life. Education would be a priority.


I liked this response in the CNN article:

I would buy the US Constitution. Nobody is using it and I heard it's for sale.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Land, House(s), Cars, Bikes, Holiday, Family. That wouldn't even scratch the surface - I don't want too much land, or too big a house, many cars/bikes, and I would be choosy with my hols. Family I'd look after.

Then after all that I'd organise the biggest SUBSIM bash, all regulars invited, on me. Itinerary to be arranged, but don't expect it to take a couple of days.

Then I'd start pursuing pursuits I'd currently like to pursue. Return to skydiving, start paramotoring and then microlight flying. I'd get a small, fast boat for fun.

Charitable things would be the local cancer hospice and then the forces charities - British Legion, RAFA, SSAFA, Combat Stress, and Help 4 Heroes.

Travelling - Iceland, New Zealand, Adelaide to see friends, Toronto to see family, and I wish - oh how I wish - Thunder City was still open in South Africa to fly Lightning and Buccaneer. I'd get XS422 flying again, even if it is in the US.



...not that I'd ever given this much thought. :yeah:

[Catfish]

Buy some politicians who start a war for me ?

[mapuc]

It happens that we also have lotto fever in our area (Scandinavia) last we had one, you could win approx 67 mil. $ (Viking Lotto, which we interact with the other Nordic countries)

That's a lot of money for us, we're not used to such high gain. This is due to strict governmental regulations. Denmark has gone into something called euro jackpot (along with some of the other europe European countries) where the smallest gain is about 11 mil $.

I never win: (- you may say *

One's chances of winning are very low, if one only plays now and then and only for a few bucks, and just play some simple row

Me and some friends play at Danish lottery every week. we play a reduced system and we use the same number each week.

Do we win every week?

No! Might take several weeks sometimes and only small amounts of money we win. So we are still waiting for the great big win.

* This may be correct. There are some that have much success in gambling, while others spend lots of money every week for several years without winning the great big win.

540 mil $?? that's to much for me

Tenth of the amount would be more than enough for me and my closest family and friends.

Markus

[Skybird]

What - nobody donating into forming peace in the ME...? :hmmm: Shame on you all! It seems just me thought of this, eh? :woot:

[krashkart]

1. Pay off my student loans
2. Buy a nice little house somewhere
3. Buy my folks a nice house
4. Set aside a trust that allows me to live comfortably
5. Put the remainder into solid investments
6. Buy or start a small brewery :yep:


At some point I'd want to hire a lawyer just to be on the safe side.

[Rockstar]

Instigate a war between some piss pot island nation and the U.S. After the island goverment collapses, vote myself in as its new president for life. Then seek financial aid from the U.S. to rebuild the infrastructure and casinos maintained by scantily clad women for congressman on fact finding tours. I think it would be money well spent and keep me occupied until retirement.

[RickC Sniper]

My odds of winning might go up a little bit if I actually bought a ticket, but that just seems to be a dollar wasted.

:hmmm:

[u crank]

Me, I don't "give" to charity but I contribute ways for charities to help themselves. For example the food shelter close to where I live, the lawn and weeds around the place were getting out of control. I gave them a lawn mower, weed eater, some misc. hand tools (my old stuff and I bought myself new stuff). They put a sign out asking for the recipients to help them keep the grounds clean, voluntarily. Now every time I go there the landscape is always perfectly manicured.

They asked me if I could donate some paint. I gave them a list of painting contractors and a form letter asking them to donate anything left over from projects, a box of envelopes and a roll of stamps. In two weeks, the entire place, inside and out, had a fresh coat of paint on it.

I would spend my time figuring out how to help those helping others help themselves. Especially when it comes to people in the world who live without clean water, food, medicine, shelter and the basics for a decent life. Education would be a priority.




Good stuff.:up::up::up:

[mapuc]

It's ok to dream about thing you would do if you won a lot of money, but please do not do this, after you have purchased a lottery ticket:

1. Call the local travel agency and Book a luxury travel around the world with your whole family
2. Tell your boss to go and fly a kite

3. Call a 5 star resturant and order a 5 - course evening meal for you and the rest of your family.


Markus

[CaptainHaplo]

I hear the russians are still selling the Kilo.....

Maybe order one sans weapons, internals modified for automated running and minimal crew to maximize space.

Now THAT would be the hosting place for a subsim meet!

[Takeda Shingen]

I would give it away to those who need it. I already make more than enough to live comfortably. Material wealth is overrated.

[Oberon]

I'm afraid you've all answered incorrectly.

The correct answer to what you would do with $540 million dollars (dollars dollars? :O:) is:

Pay about $100 million in tax :O:

Besides, even if one person wins the jackpot, the maximum they can get instantly is $400 million, otherwise they have to accept it over 26 yearly payments.

Still, the chances of one person winning it are 1 in 176 million, so you might as well sell the meteorite that'll land on you.

[Stealhead]

Nothing because I find gambling to be the most effective way to give my money away to others that have a lot more than I do. Besides with the media attention that jackpot is getting tons of people are getting suckered into buying which means that more than likely several people will win(seems to happen fairly often multiple winners)

If I did win I would take the 26 year payment though much easier to deal with a butt load of money in your lap out of the blue would simply be overwhelming to the average person.Many think they might do this or that but something such as several million dollars in your name from nowhere is going to have some major effects on your life no doubt.I am sure you can expect "friends" coming out of the wood work.You would also have to move away form your current home and also leave your current job just purely to avoid possible liability as people will seek to sue you no doubt for anything they can come up with.You'd also have to very weary of people showing up to take your money from you.(what does the average Joe know about managing such a large sum of money and you will have to find some adviser)

You would have a lot of money yes but you would also have an entire slew of new problems to deal with.

[GoldenRivet]

First all my friends and family would reserve an entire floor at the Vdara in Las Vegas Nevada and party like the world is coming to an end for about a week.

Then, I'd pay off my few debts, build a modest home, keep about $10M in savings, invest another $5-10M and give the rest away to family, friends, charities etc

[Onkel Neal]

My odds of winning might go up a little bit if I actually bought a ticket, but that just seems to be a dollar wasted.

:hmmm:

Actually, with the odds of buying a ticket and winning at .0000000000000001%
and that being VERY close to zero% (virutally indistinguishable), you have about the same odds of winning without every buying a ticket.

No? Well, you could be mowing the lawn and find a ticket that blew out of the window of a passing car. That ticket could very well win.

If I ever do win the lottery, that's exactly what I'm gonna tell the media.

After I get the moneys :D

[Jimbuna]

The largest single win I've ever had on the lottery was £40 and I had no problem spending that :DL

I agree with Tak "I would give it away to those who need it. I already make more than enough to live comfortably. Material wealth is overrated".

I wouldn't mind winning though and putting my/our intentions to the test.

[U570]

I would:
1) Spend $2mill
2) Give $38 mill to various charities etc
3) Invest the rest, then repeat:yeah: (just not $38 mill each time)

[Foxtrot]

No one wants to donate money to help funding an attack on Iran? selfish b*stards :D

[Penguin]

I'd buy be me a nice, huge pice of land, declare my own, independent country and spend the rest of my life making coup d'etats against my regime. :smug:

For those who need some ideas: Barenaked Ladies - If I had 1.000.000$ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHacDYj8KZM) - "I'd buy you some art, a Picasso or a Garfunkel", lol

[Platapus]

Pay about $100 million in tax :O:



I would love to be in a position where I paid $100,000,000 in taxes.

[AVGWarhawk]

I would donate it all to the DNC.



:88)

[kraznyi_oktjabr]

I would love to be in a position where I paid $100,000,000 in taxes.I made little calculations based on Finnish tax law. There is good case and bad case.

Good case is if win falls under lottery law which means 12% flat tax. This is true if game is based partly or fully on chance and its played inside EU. In case of $540 million win tax would be just about $64,8 million.

Bad case is if provisions above don't apply. That would be considered to be regular income under income tax. With Finland's progressive tax system that would mean atleast 52% of tax! :doh:

Ouch!

[Skybird]

French and German socialists aim at an income tax of 75% for high incomes.

:dead:

[kraznyi_oktjabr]

French and German socialists aim at an income tax of 75% for high incomes.

:dead:In other words they aim at an (practical) income tax of 0% for high incomes as (in my opinion) very few are dumb enough not to move somewhere else. :nope:

[Platapus]

If I paid $100,000,000 in taxes where there was a 75% tax rate, I would still have over $33,000,000 left over.

I could live on that. :yep:

Barely. :D

[kiwi_2005]

Keep 200 million for myself and family. Buy a island plenty here in the bay of islands up for grabs if you have a spare 10 mil, come to think of it I could buy a couple of islands! Build a massive log house, get the usual material things, and a classy boat for traveling to the city and back to my island/s :D. Invest some and give the 340 million to charity. What the hell am I going to do with with 340mil I aint going to live forever and I aint a big spender so the rest can go to a good cause like kids cancer society & Salvation Army who do a lot of good work without pay and rely on donations.

[STEED]

Nuke the EU. :D

[mapuc]

For individuals or those who might win the jackpot, life will no longer be the same.

Some change psychologically when they win big amounts.

From the stories I've been told the person or persons tries to live their lives as they lived before, they won. This fails for the most part.

I would also donate Neal approximately $ 5 million.
Imagine a life without Subsim :Kaleun_Crying:

Markus

[Dowly]

I've tried to come up with stuff to spend money if I ever won some and I always
come to the same conclusion: I don't know.

Well, there's of course the usual of giving some to my parents and my brother,
but as for getting anything for myself? I don't know, I'm perfectly happy with
my small apartment I live in, don't need bigger. I don't have a driver's license,
so no need for a car of any kind. Might get a top of the line PC, booze of course
and maybe one of those real dolls customized to look like Keira Knightley with
boobs, but that's about it.

It's cheap to have no life. :88)

[kraznyi_oktjabr]

... booze of course
and maybe one of those real dolls customized to look like Keira Knightley with
boobs, but that's about it.What little I know about you I would have expected Amsterdam's girls to have busy weekend. :O:

[nikimcbee]

I'd travel.

...and have one heck of a subsim party.:woot:

The pt boat would be well taken care of.:D

This would be my house:
http://homepages.thm.de/~hg6339/data/ah/submarines/zSS_LakesProtector.JPG

[AVGWarhawk]

I would get a four slice toaster. Now that's living....:yeah:

[Torvald Von Mansee]

If I actually won, I wouldn't tell anyone except possibly my father, put the damn ticket in a safety deposit box, and research how to claim the prize while minimizing my exposure to scammers, kidnappers, etc. I might negotiate something w/a financial entity to take payment of the annuity plan in exchange for a lump sum greater than the cash option offered by Mega Millions.

Also, I'd hire someone to send my tax returns in perpetuity to every woman who ever rejected me for superficial reasons, devoid of any information they could use against me.