Lottery$$$$$$$$
 

OK, you have won a million bucks, after taxes. Here you go, here's your check. Too much to spend at the Five&Dime store but not enough to buy (or influence much) the Presidency. Other than obviously buying me nice presents, what would you do with the money?

Pay da debts and throw a HUGE party then in a drunken stupor donate some $ to NAMBLA in NBN's name!:D

Oh jesus!! LMAO!!

Well lessee: Pay off the old debt, new wheels, clothes, camera equipment, open dream photo studio, invest, donate to worthy charities.

Not in any particular order. :D

Haha! Nothing But NAMBLA. I like it.

I know you could manage the drunken stupor part OK.

If I won a million bucks the first thing I would do is buy your house. You're wrecking the property values around here. :rolleyes:

The thing is, a million dollars isn't enough to live on, so I would use it to create some interesting, income-generating, productive, fulfilling business, and then live on the income from that instead.

Probably a recording studio, because that requires a lot of up-front money for which you can then just bill hourly time on for the rest of its existence. And for me it would be totally fulfilling as a combination of tech, computing, and creativity.

Either that or I would hire some friends and start a software development biz just to build a few ideas.

Alapaca farm. Maybe a few horses. Definitely an old stone farmhouse with matching barn.

I would blow it on stupid shit because lottery is for retards.

First: Trade condo for house with big basement. Pay in cash.
Second: Metalworking lessons. I've always wanted to be able to make metal oddments.
Third: Metal shop in basement.
Fourth: THIS

...For the techie who has everything?Actually it sounds pretty cool.I'll bet they make a fortune.Hi folks.First time poster.I've been lurking(and laughing my a-- off) for a couple of weeks.Peace.

my lottery dream
 

Geez, though Bruce. Only a million? Post tax?

oh well, better than nada

1) pay off my debts
2) buy two cars...Avalanche for me, Durango for Dagney
3) marry aforementioned Dagney
4) buy a small house (we picked one out already)
5) shopping trip to Woodworkers Warehouse for tools to go in my new woodshop, which I will build adjoining the house.
6) invest the rest as wisely as I can, for our "retirement"


I prefer my BIG lottery dream tho

same as above, but change step six to read:

6) buy big fargin RV, trailer one of the cars, and motor about the US, sightseeing and buying doodads for the house, which we will visit now and then to unload doodads and rest before setting out again. Goal, to see all 50 states.

I like this one best when the Powerball gets over $100 million, which is my minimum jackpot before I will buy any tickets.

Brian

Pay off the debts, get a big piece of land (one square mile minimum), coupla horses, some moocows, mebbe some goats, build charming survivalist bungalow with certain special someone, make charming country handicrafts (and handloaded ammunition).

A shotgun shell cozy, maybe? :)

I'd pay off the mortgage, and probably take a nice (but not extravagant) vacation. (I've always wanted to visit Egypt and see all the tombs & monuments, so that'd be a good candidate.) Maybe a couple toys here and there that I otherwise wouldn't be able to foot the bill for, like a digital SLR.

With what's left, invest it, and use it for two college educations when the time comes, with an early retirement nest egg for whatever's left.

- Take a Cruise in the south Pacific for about a month to unwind and relax and ponder the future as a potential millionaire with correctly invested funds.

- Once returned from the cruise, purchase an A Class Automobile.

- Buy an old federation home and convert the building in to totally internally renovated Real Estate office, to be the first of a national chain of agencies all profiting solely to me.

- Become Australias most prominent business woman and estate agent in history

- Once a multi millionaire, start up a charity fund in my agencies name for the protection and rescue of animals and their habitats.

- Then have a drink of Coconut Rum and kick back watching the money tree grow.
:joylove:

Re: my lottery dream
 

I would have put a woodshop next to the metal shop in my fantasy basement, but I was getting close to the million mark, and my dad has a decent woodshop already. All of my furniture (except my office chair) is handmade or other people's castoffs. I can't bear to buy furniture if I could make it...

If I ever manage to pick up a digital camera, I'll show off in Quality Images...

It is enough to live on, if you invest it. At 5% interest, that's $50,000 a year. Stick that money in the bank, and never work another day in your life!

Just remember to never, ever touch that million dollars. It is your revenue generating engine, and without it, you won't receive the $50,000 a year, which you will live on from now on.

hey now! just remember who mows your lawn when i feel like it:D :D :D

-future fund for my son
-finish college for perth
-pay off house
-nice car
-new computer
-sock the rest away

that's easy. first, i would use $15,000 to pay off all of our credit card debts, then like $2,000 for the rest of the car, $800 so my husband can do his paperwork and become a citizen, then we would go to the virgin islands for the honeymoon we never had and i would give my husband $7,000 and tell him to go pick out a nice diamond for me to wear with my wedding ring. i would want to spend the rest very wisely. i would contact a financial advisor as well as do personal research to see how we could invest the money and use the interest. or maybe we could move and put a nice down payment on a house...

juju, the problem is inflation. In 20 years that $50,000 will still be $50,000 but inflation will make it worth $25,000. You could try putting it into stocks to fight that inflation, but if you're risking it anyway you might as well risk it in something productive. IMO

since jinx and i both get a million, i think i'd build a barn with a woodshop even nicer than BrianR's on her alpaca farm, and manufacture hand made furniture and sell it to the locals. (i'm thinking somewhere in Colorado) Definitely would do the RV thing too, bri. we did that a little bit in a vw microbus when i was 21, but i'd love to do it in style. And I'd have big dirt bikes instead of horses. 2 mill should be enough to change our life.

but why think small?...



If anyone else wanted to pool thier million, i think we might do a millionaire's commune. instead of eating beans and rice, though we'd be having steak and sushi. and instead of singing around the campfire, we'd just invite dave matthews over to hang around.

let's start with a 100 acre ranch in the foothills of the rockies. we'll build a great hall to gather in and several smaller log cabins for individual families to retreat to. One big barn for the livestock, and one for the workshops. we would need teachers and a healer......security people, maintenance, administrator, accountant, entertainers, and a council.

anyone interested? more ideas?

.......bruce, where do we get our million?

I'd invest it into the Vanguard Medical Fund, yes the one that does ~20% every single year.

Yes. Thats right. Thats ALL I would do.

Okay Lumberjim...but I want an airstrip. I miss flying.

And Dag and I are STILL doing the RV thing.

Brian

airstrip? no problem.....should have plenty of room for that....

i assume that you'll fly people to important meetings, etc? it'd be good to have a pilot. and we could get a greyhound bus type RV and take turns going wandering......i'm liking this....now all we need is the money!

First action: half goes into a low-yield, low-risk account to churn out rainy-day interest for future use.

Second action: Large down payment on a decent house with a big kitchen, a finished basement that'll become a gameroom, and DSL capabilities (the latter of which will disqualify much of suburban Philly, sadly).

Third action: spoiling my close family with some gifts. (Savings accounts towards my nieces' college funds, helping out with whatever may be needed among older relatives.)

Fourth action: MAME cabinet with a control panel from hell, and a couple of pinball machines. ;)

Fifth action: A couple of grand to the EFF, just because.

VSP,

Philly suburbia is VERY DSL happy. I've had 1.5/768 DSL for almost 3 years now in Springfield. My friend has 3.0/768 in Wayne.
I have NOT heard of anyone having trouble getting DSL in the Philly suburbia.

Oh and... Health Care is about as low risk as you can get.

Seriously. Everybody always needs health care..

http://flagship3.vanguard.com/VGApp/...undIntExt=INT&

Look at the performance of this fund. Yes it did drop in 2001 and 2002...but what didn't? It already made the money back...

I really want that fund..I can't wait to move my IRA to it, but I don't have enough $$ to enter it. Need $25k minimum...

Oh and I did give money to EFF...I got the cool EFF hat to prove it...and NMA (www.motorists.org)

You mean besides doing two chicks at the same time?

I'd pay off my debts, spend around $50,000 on getting my own business off the ground, then put the rest in the bank and use the interest as part of my income. If my business were successful enough, I should make enough to live comfortably, while slowly adding to the savings account.

Being my own boss is my dream... I waste too much of my life working for the financial gain of others. An injection of money like that would be exactly what I'd need to take the risk out of starting my own business in earnest.

Once the business grew to where I didn't need to spend all my time running it, I'd spend my time wringing all of the writing and artwork ideas out of my head. Bliss.

I live just east of West Chester Borough. The only reason I have DSL access _at all_ is because my apartment complex is wired for it, and even then I can't get a 1.5 line -- I've tried, but they've said I live too far away from the substation to get more than 768/128. My dad lives about a mile away from me and has never been able to get DSL, and this is someone who worked for Verizon for 30 years (if anyone could pull strings to get a service, it'd be him.)

My closest friend lives just south of Exton, in what is still considered to be West Chester as far as the post office is concerned. He can't get it either.

Much of the rest of my family lives in Newtown Square. THEY can't get it either.

I was SURE that Newtown Sq can get DSL. I moved to Springfield 3 years ago and we did look at some houses in the Newtown area. I am fairly sure that they were within range.

Also, I think West Chester is finally getting some DSL connections. I know they were not able to till maybe March of this year IIRC.

How 'far' away are you from the CO?

i'd pay my debts, set up a college fund for my son then finish up all of the flight ratings that i was working on before my divorce and eventually join the airlines. man that would be sweet!:)

With a million dollars you would be able to afford a better circuit than the very best cable and/or DSL.

(my T1-level frame relay connection is $850/month on a two year contract for example)

I had actually been told by one Verizon drone that I'd qualify for 1.5, but then was eventually told that I'd have to be within 12,000 feet of the CO, and I was fifteen-thou-and-change or something like that. My throughput has been excellent for 768k, at least.

Here are my results from DSL reports:

155 Grandview Rd
Delaware, Springfield
PA 19064
Phone: 610-338-XXXX

about 14870 feet

Wire center (CO)
SPFDPASF

Technical limit for DSL is about 20k iirc.

Call up Speakeasy, they're by far the fastest in giving you a meaningful response.

Oh and Verizon has been sucking recently I left them because they're confused about services they offer. I had SDSL at one point and when I called them up regarding an upgrade they didn't believe me. I wanted to upgrade but they said I could only downgrade..so I left.

Well. with just the million, I'd pay off the house, invest the rest and write gpl code and teach computer science the rest of my days.

But with really big bucks, I'd buy homes in Phoenix, Seattle, rural new england, and a time share in Colorado.

I'd spend summers in Seattle, fall in new england, and winters in Phoenix- perfect weather and scenery all year long.

Oh and the timeshare in Colorado is for snowy christmases.

If you want perfect weather and scenery all year long...just buy a house in Sydney Australia. It's late spring all year round.

Really? I'll have to take the family for a visit one of these days.

Don't think I'd move that far though. I'd miss family and friends too much.

So you say now...but with perfect weather, the beach 5 minutes away, cheap as hell tropical fruit and the freindly population...I don't think you'll have time to miss them.

http://www.voyeurmagic.com.au/panorama.htm

This was a 15 minute walk from where I lived. I didn't miss much of anything.

You forgot:
(10) Give $10,000 to FNF

You know..10 is better than 9...like the 10 commandments thing. (Always bugged me..10? Why 10? Why not 7? Does God have a fondness for round numbers? If God was British would it be 12 commandments?)

Oh man, you lived near THAT?? Ohmygod, I'd never leave the general vicinity! :D

Yeah I miss it.

But wasn't really my choice to leave. Life sucks like that. I figure that when I save up enough money as a corporate slave in the US I'll retire to Australia. I'll buy a house, a convertable, rollerblades and a surf board. That will be all I'll need till the day I die.

Oh and it's way better if you take a 1 hour drive somewhere father from the city. You can find a beach maybe 1/10th the size but with only about 5 people there...or completley abandoned bays...

Also, to me one of the hardest things to get used to in Australia was that parrots flew all over the place like they were pigeons..

Yeah but...
 

....noone will stop if you run your car into a tree.

Re: Yeah but...
 

Having already run a car into a tree I know that I can take car of it myself so it's not an issue.

Alright it was a stump and I went OVER it and gutted the car..but thats not the point.

LOL

I trashed my car, hit a stump.

You hit a what?!?!

Sigh...STUMP. Skidded out at the end of an 'S' turn, my rear didn't straighten out and I couldn't complete the turn..couldn't stop, could only go straight...it was down hill.

So I rammed the stump, the car went over it and sideways.

It tore the radiator, smashed the oilpan, cracked the axle and took some bits out of the transmission box.

It was late firday night on a suburb road. I was doing proably 40 on that turn, it's a turn I take all the time. Still not 100% sure of 'why' my rear started to skid..

1992 Nissan Maxima SE dead. At the time it was only worth about 2.5k so I never bothered to do anything with the insurance about it.
Cops gave me a $100 ticket for "failing to maintain a safe speed" whatever that means...

[quote]Originally posted by hot_pastrami
[b]You mean besides doing two chicks at the same time?[b]

OMFG! Hot Pastrami - I love you!!!!! Office Space kicks ass.

Anyway - buy a house and invest the heck out of it for the 3 step-kids/1 little sister/1 god child college fund.

Oh - and pay off my own student loans. And build a really really nifty game room in the new house with reclining massaging computer chairs.

100 acres is nowhere near big enough.

Too fucking close!!!!

well, our funds would be limited by the number of participants.....so we buy a 100 acre lot at the end of a mile long road.........you're in charge of security.

If we choose the right area, land is cheap enough that we could get a "large" parcel (i.e., 700+ acres for the cost of that 100 acre parcel in Colorado.)

But yeah, security sounds good. I can do that.

I get that a lot. Careful though, my wife is willing and able to defend her territory. :D

Solid retirement investment, secure healthcare and travel travel travel. I don't think I'd like the headache of owning multiple properties. I'll just go visit other people's.

Lessee...I'd pay off my debt, Rho's debt and my parents' house. Then I'd sock away the money I need for grad school. Then I'd buy Rho and I nice cars (nothing grandiose) and we'd go travel for a while...maybe a couple of months or so.

After all that, there'd still be a lot of money left, so I'd probably buy us a nice place in Chicago and sock the rest away in stocks, money markets, bonds, etc.

Common thoughts; Clean up past debts, provide for kids education (not always ones own) and invest in a secure income for the future. The sort of rational and responsible thinking I'd expect from this group. :)
Since I have no debts (monetary) or kids and the future is nebulous at best, I'd often thought I'd like to be a mini-John Bearsford Tipton. I would imagine most of you are too young to know who that is. There was once upon a time a TV show called the Millionaire, where JBT through one Michael Anthony, gave strangers a million dollars, tax free. The catch was they could tell no one where they got it.
I know so many people that merely 5 or 10 thousand dollars would turn their lives around.......or upside down. When it comes to money people can get really strange. If people know you got a million and you give them $10K, there will be some that resent not getting more, some that will be eternally grateful even some that will refuse the gift.
My bet is it would get me laid....a lot. :blush:

I've always thought that it would be much more charitable to use that kind of money to build something, instead of just giving it away. I've always thought that building something was an investment in the future, that the jobs it could create ripple out improvements in lives all over the place.

Then I actually tried to start a business, and it died. My final month I was unable to pay one employee and it almost killed me.

So now I don't know.

Keep in mind Bruce that you posed this question to a more...shall we say, thoughtful lot.

As I've gotten older, I've grown more selfish. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, as I was ridiculously selfless growing up. But I can only imagine what would happen if I won the lottery...I'd have a bunch of punk-ass motherfucking "friends" and relatives that I could give two shits about beating down my front door, looking for a handout.

If I ever won a substantial sum of money, the first thing I would do is take care of myself and Rho. Everyone else is next in line. Depending on the amount of money, I may or may not quit my job. Even if I won a huge sum, I wouldn't quit right away, b/c I'd have to figure out the health insurance deal.

But the ultimate goal is to set myself up so that the Social Security check that I hope to collect beginning in 2045 will merely be "free money".

I don't want to portray myself as a wannabe philanthropist or building a better world for the children (cringe). I just thought it would be a fun way to play with the money.:D
Having a business fail can be devastating on many levels. Not the least of which being forced to reevaluate your core beliefs. I'm in awe of entrepreneurs that can start a business from nothing and then sell it with complete emotional detachment. Then again, the ones I've met, I didn't like very much personally.

TOAD....
i've been wondering......your title used to be 211.5...now it's 210.0.....this is your decreasing weight? what was the starting point?