Your lottery fantasy.
 

I imagine that this thread has happened elsewhere. Imagine that this is its comeback, like Transformers, My Little Pony, and pet rocks have all had.

Let's say that you won $20 million USD, and were the sole holder of a winning ticket. You have the choice of being paid an annuity, or receiving a lump sum equal to about half the total prize. Which would you choose? What would you do with the money?

Before reporting my win to the state's lottery commission, I would retain a lawyer to review the terms of the annuity contract. (Lump sums are for those with no imagination.) I would find permanent legal counsel who was well-versed in business law, and I would hire a full-time accountant to keep my books. I would start investing based on my newly-retained financial planner's advice, in stocks, mutual funds, and new business and real estate ventures. I would donate to charity, and I would self-incorporate so that the things I spent money on in the name of business would be tax-deductible.

I would basically plan my life so that I never, ever had to work again. I could probably buy a very nice car my first year. Two years down the road, I'm sure I would have enough to buy myself a reasonable house, or to have one constructed. By the end of my lifetime, I might just have enough money in enough places with enough legal protection that I wouldn't know how to get rid of it all. Wouldn't that be nice?

Edit: I made a mistake above. Lump sums are for those with too much imagination and little practical sense.

I'd get a lump sum and invest it myself. You don't get paid interest while they sit on your winnings for 26 years.

Also, my first purchase would be these:
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthr...threadid=36486

to fuck with practicality, i would take the lump sum. Who knows if I'm going to die tomorrow?

I'm not a very materialistic person, but I can say that I would buy a decent car probably a nice Volkswagen, a normal three or four bedroom house, pay off my debt as well as my parent's debt. Buy them a new house and a few new vehicles. Get a few choice "I really want that items" such as a collection of instruments. I would throw one hell of a party and then quietly invest the remainder of the balance -- whatever's left, trust me it would be more than 75 percent of my original winnings.

The whole thing, right now.

I would get my teeth fixed, decorate my apartment, buy a tv, have laser surgery done to my eyes, buy a dvd-burner, put away a whole lot of it, give money to Amnesty an "stadsmissionen (an organization that helps the homeless), go to Japan, buy a whole lot of Lego, buy all the books I want (they cost atleast $100, expensive stuff). Then I would read all the books and use all the stuff.

I lack imagination I see, because I wouldn't buy a big house or a car or a plane or anything. $2 million dollars would prolly do for me, hehe.

Exactly.
I would live the remaining years of my life in complete happiness and freedom.

Being paid over time means you'll probably get 500k per year after taxes. You can easily live on 100k/year, even in Orange County or some place safe and ritzy, so reserve that for living costs, insurance and entertainment. Put another 100k/year into a bitchin' home and a bitchin' car. Save the remaining 300k that you get every year and divide it between retirement accounts, mutual funds and maybe a couple real estate investments.

Also, don't give shit to anybody.

The result is 40+ years of comfortable living. If any of your investments have paid off over time, then you get to live even longer in the lap of luxury.

Halx pretty much summed up what I would do with the sum of money ( ;) :lol: ;) )

No need for a lump sum now - sure, there's no interest on it over the time they pay it to you, but even in 20/30 years, 500k is still going to be a lot of money (well, I hope so, then again I really don't know). Nonetheless, through investing the surpluss money each year, it'll build up a pretty good savings for retirement.

i know this little fantasy.
i´d buy a place in Tahiti, or the Marquises... then i´d invest the rest so that i could live comfortably as a writer/artist for the rest of my days. i´d probably establish a small, boutique beach hotel. and i´d have to establish some fantastic satellite internet connection.
i´d then marry a sweet young local girl, and live happily by the tranquil pacific.

I would take one lump sum, pay off the usual debts, move to scotland, buy me a castle(fix it up somewhat) and some highland cows, hire some men to wander around in kilts all the time and live happily ever after :lol:

Our lotteries here pay out in lump sums and are tax free. If the winnings were paid over time, I'd opt for that. There's no bank in the land that wouldn't allow you to buy shit on credit if they knew you were receiving a payment of $50,00 a month for the next 25 or so years.

Lump sum and invest it myself. I Believe your winnings can't be transferred, so if you die with 10 million dollars still owed to you by the lottery, your family gets nothing. So take it all now, spend some, save some, and put a full court basketball court in your house. Yeah!

I disagree. You are going to have people coming out of the woodwork, especially family. You "can't" turn down family and still go to weddings, funerals, etc. So I would give everyone in the family (aunts, uncles, first cousins but not cousin's spouses or kids) a specific amount of money - if we are talking the million per year, probably $5,000. With it I would put a letter to the effect of: "I have been fortunate, so here is $5,000. I am giving this as a gift, without you asking. This is the only gift of this money I am giving you. If you ask for anymore, for any reason, you will no longer be considered my family." My parents, brothers, sisters, children, grandchildren (if any exist), would get what they need, but everyone else would only get the one time payment.

Anywho, I would take the annuity. The first year's money would go to pay down all debt. Future years would go into investments that would pay a monthly dividend or interest. Figuring a 6% return, each half million would produce $2,500 per month. After three years or so, you probably could stop working. From there, who knows.

Ya think?
Just don't hire Mike Tyson as your financial advisor, and you'll have a fair chance.

I would take the lump sum for this reason - the Rule of 72 states that compound interest will double your money in a situation where (time in years) X (interest rate) = 72
The lottery commission is basically doubling your income over 20 years. That's an average interest rate of 3.6%. I think I can do better than 3.6% on my own, thank you.
Of the $10M, I would set aside $5M for me and my family to invest and live large on, and set up an annuity for a N-P foundation to give away the other $5M in a 20-year period..

It's always been a fantasy of mine to be sitting in a diner or somewhere and overhear someone's sincere tale of misfortune, then walk over and write them a check to pay off their house, or medical bills, or whatever. All anonymously. I'm hoping this stems more from a streak of altruism than from a desire for personal power. Hell - I'll use my own $5M for the power trip.

Edited Later: I forgot to add - unlike <b>Bloodslik</b>, I would not quit my job - I enjoy it too much.

I like the responses I've seen so far. I think part of the reason I chose the route I did is that it represents an "old money" view instead of a "nouveau riche" one. I'll go buying all of the fancy things when I know that recovering from a bank failure or natural disaster or health issue isn't going to wipe out my fortune. All of those things are expensive, perhaps more than you might realize. If there were fiscal merit in taking the lump sum over the annuity, I would follow my financial planner's advice, but they would have to present a fine argument.

Any other thoughts?

I would take the installments and use them as a supplemental income to live very VERY comfortably without going insane over how fast I'm spending it. I'm quite happy with my material possessions, and it seems that with more money you only get more bills. I'd try to find new and intersting ways to spend an extra 500k a year. I like Halx's answer. Very comfy.

I would by my dad business from him so he can retire, build a new place for my parents, paid off my friend college bills, buy me a place with lots of acreage and private, get me a Saint Bernard Dog. Go hog wild on DVD, and comics. Give to Shriner Hospital, and whatever the major charity for finding a cure of kidney diseases. Set up account for my nieces and nephews for college. Then tell the world to fuck off.

i would give the money to charity

and take the lump sum


i dont want to be rich

:D great answer.

I'd probably take the lump sum and, after paying off my house and other debts and buying a house for my mother, I'd establish a charitable endowment of which I would be the administrator and president. I'd give myself a small salary, slightly more than I'm making now (wouldn't need much after having paid off the house!) and use the money for "entrepreneurial charity" - investing in research on social issues that leads to concrete progress in solving problems. I think I'd focus on homelessness and hunger prevention.

Id most likely take the annuity. Although it does depend on whether or not I planned on spending that money quickly. Were you to take the lump sum and stick into something like a large cap index fund, it could easily earn more than the annuity could ever pay you merely by virtue of being there in a larger amount for longer. Never underestimate the power of compounding interest.

Although, to do that, you would have to not spend any of it for a good long time. Therefore, I would probably (after doing the calculations to make sure) take the annuity and just invest most of it. Like Hal said, thats still about 500k a year before taxes.

I would prefer the lump sum. Mainly because I could get all my debt paid off and pay for a house for myself and one for my family up front, then start investing which is what I'd be doing with the annuity anyway. No reason to wait 2-3 years before you get done with everything you would want to get done right away.

Quit my job, buy a nice car like a G35 and another project car to work on in my spare time. Go back to school and become a teacher if I could, and work for free.

Two chicks at the same time, obviously.

retire in rio

I'd go lump sum. Invest in some more real estate, start a couple of businesses (not at the same time but one at a time) that I have plans for, and buy two homes, two boats, and a couple of cars. The rest (should have about $5MM left over after the above) would go into investments (some retirement accounts and some to generate income in case the businesses don't work out).

THERE'S the answer I've been waiting for. ;)

You all mention paying off debts. What is this "debt" that you speak of?

Lump sum. (Although I've heard that insurance companies will purchase your annuity at a higher lump sum than the lotto people will give you. )

Obtain professional counsel.

Travel.

Build home.

Travel.

Donate some money.

Travel

Repeat.

I don't care how I get it, I wont be spendin too fast.
I'd buy a cabin I Northern Wisconsin and go fishing all day. I'd also buy a cabin for my dad.
Season tickets for all Cards games.
The fastest machine with the fastest internet connection (A person with alot of money should not have to experience lag).
I'd make a hefty donation to TFP.
I'd Travel around the world.

id buy games and computer stuff

I believe that you CAN get by without giving any money to anyone. Besides charities of course. When a family member asks you for money, just grin at them. YES, I AM A SELFISH BASTARD! :)

Take 'em out for dinner or something, but within a few months, they are gonna realize that you're hard as a rock.

I would buy a small, uninhabited isalnd and see how I could do in real-life Sim City.

If I won more than 10 million, I'd sign over half of it to World's King.
Just to watch what he would do. :D

If I can invest the lump sum and get more in the long run, I'd get that. Otherwise, I'd get the annuity. I'm not sure that becoming extremely rich would make me very happy. It might change my personality, and I really wouldn't want that. I really don't want to become a rich asshole who doesn't care for others. I don't think that would happen, but who knows, money can have a bad effect on people.
But once I get my money, the first thing I would do is pay off my college tuition and give money to my parents to help pay their bills. Then I'd buy a new car, a laptop, and some parts for my computer. If I had money left over, I'd look into building an entertainment system and donating the rest of the money to various charities. Other than that, I don't see myself going on a wild spending spree or dropping out of school. I'd probably just keep living how I do now, except I'd buy more "little" things like books, games, etc. I'd still get a job when I got out of college. I don't want to be one of those people that win $100 million dollars and then spend it all away in a few years. How the hell do people do that?

I'd get the lump sum, because I'm greedy. I want it all and I want it now.

I'd probaly put 2 million away, just in case I end up going too crazy and blowing it all on.. something like a Giant Statue of myself made out of gold.

I always fantasize about blowing very large sum of money on something you normaly wouldn't. Like leaving a 300 dollar tip at some small little Diner, or finding a webcomic or website that has a donate option, and donating 20,000 dollars.

Stull like that.

Land. I would buy so much land it would make your head spin. I love isolation--being out in the middle of nowhere with no one else around for miles is one of the greatest feelings in the world. I would buy a huge chunk of land in the Pacific Northwest, one in the southern VA mountains, and maybe one in Texas or New Mexico. Id put a little cabin on it, and be happy.

Oh, and another boat. I miss owning a sailboat :(

Annuity
Pay off all my debts
Build my own home - Under 100K
Buy an SUV - Jeep Grand Cherokee :D Leather (I know some people hate them - including hubby. lol)
Go into Real Estate - Not the selling kind. The buying ONLY kind.
With that much money though I could not just turn the financial planning over to one person. That's why I would go into Real Estate. I can be constantly working with people and yet my money would not be all in one place or in one person's hands. That is except my controller but he would be supervised anyway. Real Estate is one of the best investments. If I can get out of debt that is where I want to go investment-wise.

My dream life is to have my own home and have many children and many animals to care for. That would be what I would want to come home to at the end of the day.

I'd take the lump sum. There are things on my list that I'd rather have *right now*, like:
- A nice house somewhere pleasant, with a nice roof I can put some couches on and have a barbecue.
- A badass telescope, also on said roof.
- All the "L" lenses my camera can stand.
- A nice car
- Some premium-quality musical instruments, and lessons for using them well
- A comfortable life for all my family

When it comes down to it, I doubt I'll be able to just sit there and not work. I'd start a business of some sort, which will be very viable considering I can invest decent sums into it, and will hopefully leave me with a very comfortable life long after the lump sum has been squandered on the material things.

Annuity, here is why: Most people that win the lottery end up bankrupt. Why, you ask? Most people are dumb and blow all the money and buy everyone they know a house/car etc. They end up in debt and the money is gone. With the annuity, you KNOW that EACH year you will get a restock of money, say $500,000.

My plan: Retire, become a teacher.
With $500,000 each year you could buy a million dollar mansion (let's say mortgage it for 5 years or so, at a $1.5 million dollar house; $300,000/yr). That leaves you with $200,000 for a car/bills/etc. plus the teaching money. You buy a top of the line Mercedes/BMW for you and your wife/husband. That is only the first year. After your mortgage is paid off, you both have cars, you now have $500,000 of disposable cash each year for 35 years. Now you start saving and just enjoying life.

If by chance you should win the lottery, and want to take the annual payment, for Christ's sake, Do NOT turn in the winning ticket right away.
Go see a good lawyer, establish a corporation/company in your name and then, once you are incorperated or whatever, then you present the winning ticket as property of said company. That way, even if you die, the company can still be paid the remaining annual payments.

As for me, I'd open up my own bar/restaurant. do it first class all the way, exactly the opposite way of all the shitholes that I've had the misfortune to work in and asshole bosses I'f had the misfortune to work for over the years. I'd also design my own house, from the ground up, in the prime location of my chosing, and probably buy a nice sailboat. That's about it.

$20M?

Call my wife. "Honey, just won $20M. Start packing."
"Oh, that's wonderful! Where are we going?"
"I'm not going anywhere."
(Joke. It's a joke.)

Buy all the girls on my block silver plated six shooters and a quart of the finest highland scotch. (kidding)

OK: Hire lawyer, accountant, nanny, maid, architect, personal trainer. Take the accountant's advice on how to get the money.

Spend $1M on designing and building an estate, and another $1M on the land around it.

Start a microbrewery.

Give two weeks notice and quit my job to "go back to school". Go back to school for 1) Applied Mathematics and 2) Brewing.

I figure, that's a quarter of the total $20M at most. Use another quarter to half on the items I list below, and the rest to make sure I never had to work again.

Charity gets NOTHING (unless my accountant advises they do for tax puroposes, in which case the ACLU and NORML have a new friend), but I will help to fund politicians who try to get a welfare state going.

Pay off all family debts & health insurance for 10 years (consult with accountant on exact amount feasible). Ask favorite aunt if she wants to go to college. Get favorite cousin a nose job if she wants it. (She's drop dead, like Veronika, but has an unfortunate proboscis). Buy best friend's mortgage and pay it off. Track down some folks I owe money to from way back (they have probably forgotten) and pay up with interest and apologies. Explore setting up college funds for friends and family's children.

Nuff for now.

Wow. My political and social sensibilities really hate that part of your response. Otherwise, sounds good. ;)

Depending on how much the amount was for, I would have to decide from there.

If it was a large amount, in the tens of millions, I would definitley take the annuities, as you would eventually get a lot more out of it. I would first buy a home, and fill it with furniture. I would put at least $200,000 away for my wedding, whenever that comes.

I would take a private vacation- just me and Ryan- around Europe. I would take a huge family/friend vacation on a cruise around the Caribbean.

I would put a large part of it away for retirement, because I do want to keep working, but stop when I am 40.

I would then buy all the essentials- nice car, some clothes, some land with farm animals.

I would also put some away for future children's college fund.

I wouldn't get a lump sum.
I would invest in real estate (spend money to make money).
I would buy two motorcycles, a starter bike, an Aprilia Mille, and necessary protective gear.
I would go to medical school without having to worry about debt.
I would then travel around the world and volunteer for non-profit organizations like the Peace Corps. and on the side work on my photography.
The money I don't spend would go into savings (for retirement or whathaveyou).

And I would feel no obligation to pay a fee to any of my family members/friends/acquaintances, even if they are in times of trouble. It is at my discretion to give money to whomever I want, if I want.

Lump sum baby, you'll end up making way more money!! And as we all know a million bucks will get me two chicks (see Office Space)...I'd have to invest 1/4, spend 1/4 on toys and take the rest to Vegas.

In Canada the prize is lump sum, no tax.

Start my own kind of 4H Club... Holland, Heinekin, Hookers and Hash.
Oh, I would also have to send a photocopy of the cheque to the ex-wife.

Vegas would have a field day with you, Ralvek. At least you'd be helping the economy, I suppose.

Lump sum baby!!!

Buy a place in Cabo and drink the rest of my life away whilst young ladies in bikinis dance around me....

Charity, sure, I'll have to grease the palms of the local constabulatory

Oh yeah

I guess that means it's time to move to Canada and start playing THAT lottery :D

I'd probably take the lump sum...just because. Let's see...what would I buy...a Jeep Wrangler, a house, a modest boat, a new computer, some other little things. The rest would probably go into either a CD or some other type of savings account and a few different charities.

lump sum, pay off debt, get a house, pay off family's debt, get them a new house, and the fucking travel for the rest of my natural days. and get stinking drunk for a week.

If it was a small amount I would try to pay of my mortgage.

Big amount I would travel, open up a bar or a recording studio.

I'd let an accountant figure out which way i'd get more money, and come collect my prize with a lawyer present. if I got a lump sum I would set up a savings account and put in 3/4 of my cash to gain interest. The rest I would use to pay off various debts. I would set aside 100k for the rest of the year, and whatever was left from the 1/4 I'd go spend gloriously and frivolously. I'd probably give quite a bit of that to my best friend, as he is quite materialistic and I can imagine he would be very happy with that.

I’d blow 1 million and then save the rest, make some wise investments and live off of interest, as for the million, id probably travel with a friend to Europe for a year or so. Have some fun.

Paid over time, and being me, I would probably blow the first check.

What kind of chicks do you expect you can get for a million dollars?

I'd get the lump sum. Then I'd start up my own pr0n website and go around campus asking chicks if they wanna do shoots for my site. Of course I'd have to buy a totally awesomely powerful server to run the totally awesome site off of. And umm... it would be the most totally awesome pr0n site ever! Because none of the models would get nekkid until the very last picture of the shoot! Heh. See, I'd be making a killing just off the website. Of course, I'd have to buy myself a nice house. Actually, I think I'd just buy a big plot of land and build a normal house (three to four bedrooms) in the center of it, and have half of it paved so I can drive my F1 around like a maniac in my own property. Also handy for when the kids (someday, if I ever have any) want to learn to drive, they can just drive around on the private property (but not in my McLaren of course, they can have the Skyline GT-R 35 for that) ;) The other half of the land would be one big playground/backyard/garden for the whole family.

Lump sum!!

Things I would do (in no particular order)

--Big donation to the TFP

--Two chicks at the same time (the Olsen Twins preferably)

--One big celebration party/drunken orgy (All of you are invited, clothing optional)

--Bitch slap my boss. (I'd probably do that one first)

--Buy a new house in Paris, London, Canada, Hawaii and Jamaica

--Buy a Harrier Jump-jet to get me back and forth from all the houses.

--Go back and bitch slap my boss again

--Buy the Detroit Red Wings

in Washington your unpaid moneys go to your estate in the event of your death. nice huh?
http://www.walottery.net/cashop.asp
as for me,

take the lump sum anyways, i'd rather have ten million now, than 500k or the rest of my life.

10 million- put 8 in savings, investments, mutual funds, cds.

2 million left. help out all my family financially.

probably leaving one million after that, spend a year on vacation.
Europe, Hawaii, Fiji, all the tropical islands, to find ourselves.

come back build a house, hopefully if i have done well, live well off the interest off my original 8 million. that's the root of it, of course i would do meaningful things with my life, to better everyone.

^^^^I'd hate to do this to him, but I would snake a good chuck of the $ and give it to a variety of charities.
Other than that, the rest i agree on!

I'm a big believer in the idea of "a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush". If you subscribe to the Mike Tyson School of Financial Discipline, you can kiss your cash goodbye, but if you are normal and have kids and don't have a coke habit the decision can be smart and personal and lucrative. I think the annuities are a risk onto themselves.

Id get an annuity (monthly payments) and a financial advisor. Then:

-pay the bills
-get a huge house with a huge underground garage in the caribbean, colorado, british columbia, naples, fla.
-hire a good cleaning company
-hire an in-home chef to cook my dinners
-buy many, many cars, motorcycles, a speedboat or 2
-many, many live-in ho's, I mean girlfriends!
-get lifetime executive suites at all my favorite sports teams buildings
-work as a delivery person
-put my kids in private school
-major de-stress time somewhere warm

I'd take the money up front and do my own investing. I can do a lot better than the annuity. I would set aside a certain amount to donate to viable charities and live a comfortable life. As for leeches that come for a handout, Buy your own damn lottery ticket.

Lump sum, that goes into our family trust.

give each of the six kids a 1/2 million.

Add to my investments..

Buy a new car...

A ranch would be nice...(over 17 acers is a ranch in Texas)
with a swimming pool...

a nice donation to my church...

...and a good travel agent...

we be gone.....