What if ...... you won $12 million

EnglishLady · Jan 10, 2011

We checked our ticket for the Mega Million - didn't have one number LOL

But what if you had won say $12 million, what would you do?
Help the kids? Pay off any loans? Take a holiday? Would you take an annual amount or the whole caboodle?

Here are a few tips

What It Can Buy*
* Based on $12 million jackpot.

California

•Attend 13,407 weeks of endless summer surf camp near San Diego.
•Purchase one 5 bedroom, 8 bath 6,000 square foot home in Beverly Hills.
Georgia

•Pan for gold 2 million times in Dahlonega, Ga., home of the first U.S. gold rush
•Take a "Midnight Train to Georgia" and visit the Georgia Music Hall of Fame with 1.5 million friends
•Be peachy keen with 9.3 million pounds of world-famous sweet Georgia peaches
Maryland

•Approximately 2.4 million steamed crabs
•300,000 club-level tickets to Baltimore Orioles games
•1.5 million water taxi rides in the Baltimore Harbor
Massachusetts

•Take more than 4.3 million rides on the world famous Swan Boats in Boston's Public Garden.
•Enjoy more than 2 million bowls of clam chowder at Legal Sea Foods.
Michigan

•1.9 million pounds of Mackinac Island fudge
•More than 1.8 million square inches of Hell, Michigan (you can actually buy property in Hell - $6.66 per square inch!)
•Six-day cruises on Lake Michigan for 7,000 people
New Jersey

•An education at Princeton University for you and 363 of your closest friends
•545,454 of the two-pound tins of assorted Fralinger's World Famous Salt Water Taffy
•4.8 million pounds of cranberries
New York

•Chow down on 4,363,636 Nathan's famous hot dogs at Coney Island in New York
•Buy one prime season ticket for the New York Yankees and another for the New York Mets for each of the next 1,374 baseball seasons.
Virginia

•Tuition, room and board for 753 students to attend the university founded by Thomas Jefferson, the University of Virginia
•Lay $1 bills end-to-end from one end of Virginia's Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel to the other almost 66 times
•923,077 admissions to George Washington's home in Mount Vernon, Virginia

layoutshooter · Jan 10, 2011

With 12 million I would take the annual over 20 years. We would become debt free. We would buy a good sized piece of woodlands and become hermits on it. I would hunt, fish and otherwise enjoy my remaining years. I would also have all the boats that I require.

copdsux · Jan 10, 2011

A correction: The 1st "gold rush" was in Cabarrus County, NC, in 1799.

greg334 · Jan 10, 2011

I said in another thread I would ...

hide from my relatives,

pay off my debts,

finish my MBA

and than give everything else away.

Well maybe fix my van too but that may be too selfish.

LDB · Jan 10, 2011

A $12M jackpot would be about $8M after taxes if lump sum and about $320k annually after taxes if paid out in 25 years like Texas does. I buy tickets once or maybe twice a year. When I do I take one each of cash and payments.

If I won the $8M I would set up trusts for each daughter of $250k paying them interest only until they are 40 and full control then. For my grandson it would be the same with a withdrawal option to pay for college, medical/law/etc. school so long as his grades were good but otherwise interest only starting at 21 and control at 40. I'd give them about $80k immediately paid toward their mortgages or whatever would help them towards debt free. Of the $7M remaining the boss would get half. With my $3.5M I would buy a more comfortable and equipped van as I'd still work some. I'd buy a toy or two like satellite tv for the van, a good ham radio setup for the van, a converted Sprinter motorhome for my dad and assorted small gifts for my friends. I'd put $3M into safe investments taking 1/2 the interest and reinvesting 1/2 the interest.

If I won the $320k annually the boss would get $160k and with my $160k I'd gift $10k annually to my girls and grandson, theirs toward mortgages etc. and his into a trust with terms as above. I'd put $50k annually into safe investments with all interest accrueing. I'd get the more comfortable van and add tv, radio etc. over a more gradual process.

And of course I'd have an updated will to direct what to do with any I might not receive before I'm gone.

teamjdw · Jan 10, 2011

I'd get a set of those fuzzy dice for the truck.Then give the rest away before it ruined my life!

chefdennis · Jan 10, 2011

add to my kids trust fund accounts that are already in place, and also to my new grandsons. give half of what was left to my wife, invest half of what i didn't give her and then after setting up a new van (id still work also like Leo) i'd then proceed to pizz away the rest....

dieseldiva · Jan 10, 2011

Well I'd keep on truckin' too......until I went broke!

Ragman · Jan 10, 2011

greg334 said:
I said in another thread I would ...

hide from my relatives,

pay off my debts,

finish my MBA

and than give everything else away.

Well maybe fix my van too but that may be too selfish.

Forget I have relitives

Ignore my debts

Finish my beer

Buy more beer.

OntarioVanMan · Jan 10, 2011

I sure wouldn't be in here with you bunch of sad sacks...

guido4475 · Jan 10, 2011

I'd give 10% to the church first, then pay off my bills,my parents,And buy a house and a nice Prevost,one for me and my parents, and maybe a couple of freinds, and just cruise around, checking things out, Sit in a truckstop parking lot for old times sake,help out the less fortunate whom I may meet in my travels.Buy a truck and like, deck it all out in lights and chrome....completely..and then sit there and just stare at it.Takecare of a couple of longtime freinds who have been strugglingfor awile.the list goes on and on....

OntarioVanMan · Jan 11, 2011

1.2 million dollars to a church? what they ever do for you? NOTHING...Being Itailian I;ll assume you are Catholic....they have more money then they'll ever need....you could do better with that money....then to support the Pope in his Castle...

Dreamer · Jan 11, 2011

Ken, it's called tythe. Christians are suppposed to tythe 10% of income to their church.

Some don't, but we're supposed to.

Oh, and I don't know about Guido, but when I was going thru hard times, my church did a lot for me... and they continue to help a lot of people.

Just sayin

Dale

Posted with my Droid EO Forum App

sluggo · Jan 12, 2011

Dreamer said:
Ken, it's called tythe. Christians are suppposed to tythe 10% of income to their church.

Some don't, but we're supposed to.

Click to expand...

Oh, and I don't know about Guido, but when I was going thru hard times, my church did a lot for me... and they continue to help a lot of people.

Just sayin

Dale

Posted with my Droid EO Forum App

Amen brother! And, not surprisingly, things go much better financially when we are tything.

EnglishLady · Jan 12, 2011

I like the idea of setting up a fund that the kids can only have when they are 40yrs.
Also I would want to make sure that we have enough to make our retirement comfortable.
I would like to be able to give some to some less well known charities.

Question: For those that would take an annual sum rather than the whole caboodle .... is this because the tax would outweigh any interest?
I'm thinking that I would rather have all the money up front so the interest is in my bank and not theirs LOL