Life Changing Money.

[Rusty Edge]

I live in a Power Ball state. The jackpot hit a new record last week and didn't pay out, but it has gathered news attention, and people are talking about it. Potential lump sum payment of over half a billion dollars.

Life Changing Money.

Normally I profess that lotteries are taxes for people who are bad at math. There have been previous  times when a lottery reached a new record and we bought a ticket for the hell of it. There are things we could do with a windfall that we wouldn't do otherwise. My wife was a chief accounting officer. She knows the value of a dollar , and she knows the value of a billion dollars.
It was fun to speculate what we would do with various amounts. I get that. That's kind of the point to this thread. What would you do with a big windfall? Somebody nearby hit enough numbers to win $50 K , not a bad consolation prize.

This one doesn't excite me because, in short, it's life changing money, and mostly, I like my life the way it is. The things I don't like are mostly medical, and there's little anyone can do about it.

[Unorthodox]

"Life Changing" can happen with much lower $ than billions. 

Basically living it with the inlaw's passing.  Though not the way one wants to go about getting money...

So, hundreds of thousands:  Pay down debts, invest for kids schoolin, etc. 

2 million:  Open a restaurant.  (probably not, in reality.  still low enough to focus on paying off the house, hEt quitting, etc)

Hundreds of Millions?  Wonder how much of the Raiders I could buy...

[Rusty Edge]

So, hundreds of thousands:  Pay down debts, invest for kids schoolin, etc. 

2 million:  Open a restaurant.  (probably not, in reality.  still low enough to focus on paying off the house, hEt quitting, etc)

Hundreds of Millions?  Wonder how much of the Raiders I could buy...

It's a great feeling to pay down and pay off debts.  You really that appreciate when you lose a job or get hospitalized, not to have that stress.

Open a restaurant? Hmm. Tempting. Not the sort of business you want to have if you can't be there to keep an eye on things. I would love to open a Jimmy John's in the airport, just to prove it would make money, and for the convenience of having  quick service and fresh food.  Then I would probably give it to my niece, who works part time in one. She might not manage it herself, but she could oversee it.

The place I would like to hang out in myself is Famous Dave's. I love the food and the music, and I like the décor and the scents. I could hang out in one without  pigging out every day. It's sort of like dark chocolate- delicious, but satisfying. Probably couldn't do that with a French or seafood place. I could remotely watch video of one, too.


Buying The Raiders? That sounds cool. I'm sure you could become a major partner, even if egos wouldn't let you have a controlling interest. I was more interested in college ball, probably because I lived closer to a major college than a major league city. I didn't think in those terms.


My wife says that with that kind of money we could take a world cruise to lie low for a while, and pay people to box up our house contents and re-locate them in the meantime. I said - but we wouldn't have our pets. She said we can charter a yacht. Okay. I love Fjords, and I've never been to New Zeeland or Scandinavia.

[Unorthodox]

Yep I'd open an Uno's bar and grill here in Utah. 

Likely Layton area. 

Been 10+ years with that idea.  Being the anchor store would give me certain franchising rights to Utah...

[Rusty Edge]

With the $100s of millions to spare, I would like to sponsor vaccine research.
Boomers like me got the chicken pox. The virus embedded in the nerves, and is re-appearing as shingles, Bell's Palsy, Meniere's, etc. No fun. Hopefully the chicken pox vaccine will greatly modify, if not eliminate that.

More recently we have developed a human papilloma virus vaccine, that should prevent a lot of throat and uterine cancer.

There are a lot of problematic viruses that having a vaccine for would be of great potential use, eliminating a pesky problem disease, and maybe putting a dent in certain cancers, too. Particularly in the measles, herpes, mononucleosis, Epstien-Barr group. That's what I would like to see happen for humanity.

------------------------------------------------

And another thing.  That lake resort where we go fishing every year used to belong to my wife's family. The family tends to complain about certain things the current owners do, and with a few million, I'd be tempted to buy it back and give it to one of the younger generation. They love the place.

[Rusty Edge]

Once upon a time, my brother won some lottery money. Several thousand, I think. He took me on a trip to Iceland and Scotland.

[Buster's Uncle]

I mostly think of this in terms of enough money that no medical problem could possibly clean me out.  Call it ten million.

[Rusty Edge]

Well, we finished out of the money, so no disruptions to my fairly comfortable life.

My wife did very much like the idea of buying the fishing resort back into the family, though.

[vonbach]

Honestly I don't know what I'd do with a fortune like that.