xepherys

So, I've read a few things recently about people winning large jackpots (like that Jack Whittaker that took home $113M after taxes as a lump sum). It got me thinking, if you had won $113M free and clear, would you GIVE any of it away? I don't mean to charity, I just mean to people. Obviously you wouldn't give it all away, but if you had it and someone just walked up to you and said, "Hey, I'm broke and you're not... how about you toss me a few hundred G?", what would be your response?

I'm not a bum... I work my tail off, drill with my unit and go to school full time. All that said and done, I'm not against a little charity now and again. I think I'd be keen to give the guy a few grand just for having the balls to ask. I wonder if anyone knows a millionaire or two I could try it with?

*dream*

omega2K4

I'd probably give half of it away to all of the people in Iraq who lost family and loved ones due to the US and "coalition" forces' weaponry. The other half would be given to AIDS research groups.

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solo2020

If you truely mean that, you are a good man. There are very few good men in this world nowadays

omega2K4

Its not that I'm a good man, its that I don't really have a need for that much money. I'm fine financially where I'm at now, and I wouldn't really need any of that money.

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roboshark

Don't despair, xepherys, your dream might just come true!

Apparently, there are philantropic folks out there willing to share their hard earned cash with just anybody who asks for it:

http://www.bbspot.com/News/2003/09/n..._millions.html

Who knows, this might just be your lucky day...

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Redjake

That article is a satire


I wouldn't mind a cool million either. I'd pay off all my debt, put half of the rest in the bank, spend a little bit, and invest the other half. Then after I've accumulated even more cash, I would start being a part-time philanthropist. Nothing huge, but enough to matter.

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RocketMan

I think that $113 mil is a stupid amount of money. I'd use a mil to pay off the house & car, buy some toys and invest. The rest I'd anonomously donate to family, friends and charities. Big amounts of money could only bring more stress and complication to your life, not less.

Rodney

I'd give some money away. But instead of waiting for someone to ask me, or just giving it carte blanche to some charity, I'd decide where it would go and how it would be spent. I'd probably give a lot to local organizations in my community, for specific things that would make their job easier, long-term: buy a house for the battered women's shelter, things like that.

Dane Bramage

113 million is a lot of dough. I would pay off all my debt, help my family get out of debt (houses, cars etc), do the same for my very close friends. Give some to charity, fund a few art projects. Possibly buy an island somewhere in the S. Pacific

As far as giving someone a few hundred G's just because they asked... depends on who it was. Perfect stranger... no probably not. I guess I'm just not that nice. I wouldn't expect anyone to do it for me, so I'm not gonna do it for them.

Y'all remember that scene in Brewster's Millions where Richard Pryor has a line outside his office of people looking for handouts. I can just see that happening once word got out that you were just handing out cash. Hell, they would probably start a line as soon as it was announced. At least the lawyers certainly would.

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the_marq

As much as I admire your generosity, I have to wonder: if you won $113million and the next week your friends and family started getting 'anonymous' cash gifts, I think they might make the connection.


If it was me who won a sick amount of money I am sure the first 3-4 years would be spent constantly on the road. I want to see the world and everything it has to offer. After that I'd have to build my dream house in the Rockies, complete with helicopter pad and sharks with frikin' laserbeams on their heads.

My friends and family would get a decent chunk and the rest would go into long term investments for my children (who don't exist yet) and grandchildren and so on...

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Cadwiz

I have to agree with Rodney. I couldn't see me just giving money away to someone who asked. I don't have a problem helping someone out that really needs it.

Charlatan

I'd give a million to each of my closest friends and family. That would leave me with about 100 million to live life. I'd set up a Charitable Foundation with at least 50 million and have it dole out cash to those who need it.

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rainheart

I'd live off interest and study everything I can in formal educational institutes

Then a large portion of the money I would make investments with, and donate the returns on investment to people who are important to me.

Then the last portion of the money I would make investments with again, and donate the returns on investment to charity and various things, read: philantrophy.

xepherys

I'm glad to see other people are so generous... Now if only one of you was wealthy and charitable! :-/

tropple

Having given this extensive consideration, I have decide that were I to walk away with $113 in cash I would:

1. Emigrate from the US.
2. Smoke a lot of dope.
3. Give the Salvation Army some money.
4. Give Navy Relief some money.
5. Get a really fast internet connection (t-3?)
6. Smoke some more dope and surf porn sites.

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World's King

I know a a few really rich people.

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stonegrody

I'd build a rocket ship and leave this sick sad world. Xepherys, you can have whatever's left. I probably wont have any use for it out in space.

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la petite moi

I think the worst people win the lottery. My grandfather is a total creep and won 13 million awhile back. He wastes it on cars and houses, as any millionaire would, and when my mother asked if he could help pay for a 4500$ piano (my sister and I were playing piano at the time), he said he didn't have enough. Jerk.

I would probably not give money to strangers. I'm just not generous enough. However, I'd try helping family members and friends out.

Carno

I'd help out my family, and then I'd spend the rest of the money on whatever I felt like. I don't think I would do anything outrageous, I'd probably continue living where I'm at, but I'd definitely buy a nice car. After school I'd travel around the world. Probably take a few friends also.

bermuDa

If I had that kind of money I wouldn't be against helping some people out, but I would be VERY careful about who i gave it to. I don't like to see my charity go to waste, I would want to give it to someone who actually knew how to save and invest their money rather than blow it all on unnecessary shit. It seems that in America those people are hard to come by; it's more common for people to spend 3 times their income rather than saving 30-50% of it.

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xepherys

Care to introduce me?

maleficent

Mine all Mine - not sharing...

Well, maybe....

If I won 113 million, figure I'd have a million or two to blow, I don't really need anything... so it would be fun to just hand money out to people... Just for the reaction, increments of 10K would be fun, it's not life changing money, but it's enough for a person to really splurge. that'd entertain me- and maybe I could devise a television show around it.

Then Give away 100K to people, that's life changing money - it'd be fun... but not sure I'd want the responsibility of deciding who's deserving? What criteria would you use?

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JumpinJesus

We had this conversation one day when I was living in San Francisco. There are (or were 10 years ago) many vacant apartment buildings in the city. Many homeless people would squat in them. The mayor at the time, Frank Jordan, made it his personal crusade of eradicating the homeless problem by locking them out of every place he could imagine, thereby hopefully driving them from the city.

My friends and I decided that if we ever won a large amount of money like that, we would set up a foundation similar to Habitat for Humanity where we would buy up some of these vacant buildings and offer them to the homeless as homes. The condition was that their labor in refurbishing the buildings would be their downpayment. They would also receive job training and skills that would enable them to obtain work (for the non-mentally ill, that is). Once they were gainfully employed, they would pay a flat 20% of their income as a home payment.

Sure, we didn't think it through completely, but we felt it was a hell of a lot more humane than what the mayor was doing at the time.

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DDDDave

The problem is most people (including 90% of the people here ) have no concept of how much money this is.

I used to work in a bank Trust department where you had to have 3 million in investable assets to even be one of our clients. We had our share of lottery winners but mostly they were people who inherited money from someone.

There are as many different types of people as there is money.

Some give it away, but you would be surprised how many people who are the beneficiaries of these gifts are ungrateful. Just as several TFP'ers said themselves 'he has plenty, he should give me some'. Why? Because he has it, somehow he should give it to you? Why? If you had it, would you give it to him? Really? Think about it now. If you gave the homelss guy $10K he would either drink himself dead or be right back on the street next week.

Next subject: How much money this really is. WOOHOO we won, let's start spending. New car - nice one without being too pretentious, say $50,000. Now one for your spouse, your parents, maybe another one just for fun. $200,000. $112,800,000 left.
Really nice house - this one could have a large variable. $500,000 could be the nicest house in town in 90% of the country. Big cities it would take a few million to really step up. Just for grins lets say 1 million, new house for parents - 500K, one more for vacations - 1 million. $110,300,000 left.
Don't have a boat yet?? Sure why not - $300,000. $110,000,000 left.
New plane? Don't bother, just buy a share of a Lear Jet so you can fly wherever, whenever, pilot included. $250K down, average usage $250K/year. Say 1 mil. $109,000,000 left.

OK, now, since you think I'm being cheap,,,, double everything. $ 105,000,000 left. Whew.

$105,000,000 at 5%. (I know not a great return, but let's just play it safe) = $5,250,000 per year in interest. Tell your accountant to just wire that into your checking account every Friday. How much? $100,961. a week. Every week. $14,400 every day. What would you spend it on? Food? Movies? Gas for your cars? My point here is most people have no concept of how much money this really is.

Now we haven't spent anything on investments, but if we do, it will just give more money every day. We can't spend what we have. How would you spend your day? Spending money? Even the clothes, cars, and shoehogs among us would get tired of it pretty soon. You have to have some time to enjoy the boat, cars, planes and vacations sometimes.

OK, next. Charitable foundations. You can give anonymously. Even hire someone to research lots of cool causes. Lets say you take half of the remaining money after buying everytrhing you can think of. $52,000,000. By law, a charitable foundation must give away 5% of its asset value each year to keep its status. $2,600,000. That is a lot of 10K scholarships, $100k buildings, etc. Every year. How many new buildings does the ASPCA need? Girl scouts, boy scouts, church, humane society, etc.
I know this used to happen to us when people wanted to give money to small local charities. Your local humane society has a budget of around say, $100,000 a year. What would they do with a million? I can tell you, they say no thanks, we'll just take $100,000. A lot of charities will lose their government support if they accept too large of gifts.

Of course, now you would have to live off, $50,000 a week.

And remember, we haven't touched the principle so you better figure out who you are going to leave it all to when you die. Damn. Maybe I'll just spend it instead.

Remember, buying 'stuff' is just trading one type of asset for another. The only way you can just get rid of the money is to spend it on food, travel, and/or recreational drugs, and 'personal services'.

Yes, I do know two guys who are billionaires. They cannot spend all their money. But damn, they try. Every Fourth of July they have everybody over to their houses on the beach and spend $25,000 on fireworks. It is better than the town sponsored show.
These guys are self-made and enjoy the hell out of it. Nobody seems to think they should just give their money away. ???

Why do you think most people just withdraw --- having that much money can really be a pain in the ass. You don't even think about somebody kidnapping you or your kids now, you would if you had $100Mil.


Anyway, just some food for thought.

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skills1

I'd give it away to people I know and to some foundations.

xepherys

DDDDave-

I understand what you're saying completely. Realistically, $113M is a retarded amount of money. I think I might sponsor families. Find a family that is poor, or even middle-claas and working their asses off. I'd set up a fund for them where they could live off the interest. Why not? What would it cost me? $1M will give ~$50K per year, right? That's enough for most families to live on. They'd be welcome to still work on their own. I'd rather set someone up with an account like that then just give them a million dollars.

Actually, realistically speaking, I'd like to find a wealthy philanthropist who'd do such a thing for me! ;-) But seriously, if you HAD that kind of money, you could help a LOT of people. With something like the above funding for a family, you could help a dozen families (for say $12M total) and nver actually SPEND any money... you just give them a weekly stipend out of your own interest. *shrug* Why not, right?

VitaminH

While I agree with DDDave that I'd have more money then I'd know what to do with, I'd definitely pass some on to Aunts and Uncles, as well as probably funding all of my cousins' college educations should they decide to go. (I've had to stuggle my way thru on loans and working my ass off and I wouldn't wish this on anyone) Also I'd at least pay off my two roomates' college debt because they've put up with me for two years, and since next year is the last of 4 years of professional coursework, I'd likely tell my ~150 classmates who I've been in this program with since we finished undergrad that next years tuition was on me. All of that still probably wouldn't kill more than 5 mil. Then then normal buy myself and parents a house etc. I'd absolutley pay off my older brothers medical bills (been fighting cancer for a few months now) and probably give him and his wife a nice "per diem" to enjoy as well.

After that, I'd invest enough so I wouldn't have to worry about money, and hopefully pay for my kids' lives and college and enough to get on their feet once out of college, I'd do what I could for appropriate charaties, and probably try and start some sort of organization of mine own.

I don't think I would just give money to people with the balls to ask, because for one like has been said: once word got out, a LOT of people would have the balls to ask. Not to mention could I really trust they need the money? Doubtful.

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Fire

my friends and family would get a lot of nice things- all of them would live well, and their needs would be provided for- as for the rest- time to build my empire.......

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whocarz

I've never really been interested in money. I understand that it is needed to live atleast somewhat comfortably, however I have never really had the yearning to get more money. If I somehow won 113 million dollars, I would keep perhaps a few million, lets go overboard and say 13 million. The other 100 million I would give to people that I feel deserve it. I really wouldn't know what the fuck to do with the 13 million though. I wouldn't desire a massive house or a fancy car (or any car for that matter). I would most likely buy a modest house, and a couple hundred acres or so up in the moutains where I would build a cabin, to have a place to get away from it all. Perhaps buy a ridiculous amount of guns, some suits of combat ready medieval armor, shit to play around with. Put a good amount aside in case of emergencies.

Of course I could be full of shit, and be a total money grubbing scrooge, hoarding my vast wealth until I die, then having it buried with me. But I'm pretty certain I'll never be in a situation to find out.

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MSD

I will not lie about this. After paying off my immediate family's debts and setting some aside, I'd probably blow every last penny on stupid shit I don't need. I do it now, I don't see why I would be any better with that much money than I am with what I have. I rarely have more than $20 to my name as it is. I'd like to think that I'd do better, but it's not going to happen.

Well ... maybe I'd hire an accountant and give him a cattle prod.

ARTelevision

I wouldn't want to receive that amount of money. A large percentage of the people who win lotteries end up miserable and that is quite understandable. I researched this previously in response to a similar thread. It makes perfect sense that the instantaneous infusion of that sort of wealth into a person's life causes more problems than it solves.

I suppose there are many people who feel that because they have to work for a living they are somehow enslaved. I never understood that either. It also stuns me how enamored people are by the kinds of frivolous things that can be purchased. I don't think of life in terms of moving through a succession of products but it looks like many folks do.

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farcryer

Yeah with that much I could afford to toss a few mill around. I'd probably give it in the form of scholarships to poor kids who were "not quite poor" but "not quite rich" like I was, would have saved me a lot of stress.

tropple

MrSelfDestruct,

Nice answer.

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krwlz

I would probably selectivly give some away, as in pay off all of my familys debts, retirements, etc. Lots of gifts. Probably research and donate to charitys of a few sorts, but to a random stranger? Nope.

And I would continue to go to school, but probably without working my part time. When finished with school, I would work my engineering career.