What would you do if you hit the lottery?

[villiageidiot]

What would you do if you hit the lottery or suddenly became very wealthy. Me, I would join the rollercoaster enthusiast club. You get to travel the world and ride all the best coasters, usually the club gets into the parks before they open and get to ride over and over again with no waiting. Since I live in northeastern Ohio I have a good place to start, Cedar Point is an hour away and they have 3 of the best coasters on earth. Winter sucks. Time to renew my season pass.

[Mr N8]

I think I would give most of it away to my church, and some other missions/charities that I would like to support. (Healing Hearts Ministries in Regina, SK and Shepherds Home for the mentally disabled in Union Grove, WI). Then, I would pay off my school loans and set aside enough to pay off my last year of college. Buy my wife a nice diamond, and that Dodge Ram she's always wanted. Wash my '88 lebaron, and drive send it into eternity. Then I think I would go back to living life like I always have. My philosophy is the more money you have, the more you can give.

Nate

[mbossman2]

I would financially take care of my family and close friends, provide for my own financial future (it takes about $10 million US or so) and then spread it around to worthy causes.

Hey, once the 1st 2 are taken careof, what they heck else are you going to do with a boat load of money that you can never possibly spend in your lifetime.

[aym]

i would buy a car.

[Reedimus]

if it were enough to retire on, my wife and I would retire. anything less and I'd invest it until it became enough to retire on. if it were much more than enough to retire on I'd start a business with it. if I still had some left over I'd give it to my employees in benefits.

[alan]

1) Set some aside in a long term investment to take care of the educational needs of my godsons, nieces and nephews (have no kiddies of my own)
2) Purchase a new house, but still take a mortgage. My current place is nice but why not upgrade? I could keep my current place as a rental or something to bring in more money!! That way I will own 2 homes but only paying mortgage on one!!!
3) Do something nice but not too elaborate for my deserving parents. They would kill me if I squandered too much money on them rather than spend it wisely for the future.
4) Depending on how much new wealth was received, I could use a new car. I have a 1994 Mercury Capri Convertible for the summer that could be retired. Sell the Capri and upgrade to a Mustang GT Convertible.
5) Set up a small business to minimize my tax exposure. If there is anything I hate is paying taxes.
6) Unfortunately minimizing taxes will probably mean donating some to charity. I hate charities too. The exception is an educational scholarship. I would probably go back to my old high school and set up some sort of fund or endowment to send someone to 4 years of university.
7) I collect so many things (Guns, Star Wars/Star Trek Toys, Baseball cards, comic books, model railroads, etc.) but never had enough money to really have a worthwhile collection. I would look for some of the more rare pieces.
8) If the $$ is high enough to retire, I will need to build the ultimate gaming PC since I'll have plenty of time to practice and kick your A$$ online gaming!!

[Nuclear Krusader]

1)Get married
2)Build a house for my family
3)Assemble the fastest and coolest gaming rig. With a lota games, of course.
4)Buy lots of books.
5)Invert the money to make more.
6)Help others in need.
7)Restore my car and buy another one
8)Start making PC games.

I don't really care about having too much. My concern is to trascend not to live it up.

[RenegadeKing]

I think that the rollercoaster enthusiast club sounds very fun . I would like to try that out and I'd build about 20 top of the line $2500 computers and invite all my friends over for LAN parties!

RenegadeKing

[HAL9000]

1) I would change my shorts after filling them when I realized that I won.
2) Quit my job.
3) buy a house with new furnishings (A computer or two counts as furnishing, doesn't it?)
4) Buy new clothes for myself, and my wife and daughter.
5) Burn all our old clothes
6) Buy a Dodge Viper
7) Pay newly aquired speeding tickets
8-37) I dunno... fill in with whatever.
38) Get back into RC Helicopters
39) Get into turbine powered RC Jets
40) Build a radio controlled scale replica of the Avro Arrow... totally cool plane.
41) Get my pilots license.
42-???) I dunno, isn't the above enough?

[AzCoastie]

I'd be glad that I didn't have to get loans for med school... I'd become an MD and spend my life helping others with free medical care!

Of course, I'd build that computer I've been dreaming about since finding PCM!

[Orcmonkey]

Two Words: Falcon Northwest.

[doctorgonzo]

I probably wouldn't change much. Still would probably buy used cars, invest sensibly, and not think too much about it. I would need a job or else I would go crazy, but I would probably freelance and not get into the organization bit. Maybe politics. I don't think it would be earth-shattering for me, though. The wife, on the other hand, would find all sorts of kitschy things to buy!

[PMich]

I would like to just sit around and think for a couple of years (maybe I can catch up?) kind of like a modern day renaissance man.

If you look at history, Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, and the rest of the turtles are viewed as great men because they had the means to sit around and think all the time. Even more recent men like Darwin, Linnaeus, and other men of the Age of Reason got to be great because they had time to think.

Also, it would be nice to have the opportunity to sit down to dissect and process information rather than put out one fire just so I can get to the next one.

[Hpro]

I would set up a FOND for the poor ones on this earth - with half of the money - where it would be assured that at least a few of those people get a life together - and then choosing only those which work hard and had been hit by whatever thing which keeps them poor.. not for the lazy ones..

Then another 25% I would invest into a non- provit School for the kids of those poor ones where anyone kids is welcome to get education free - whos parent's can't afford to send them to a good school..

And of course the rest would go into the bank for my soon arriving old days yet to come..- to keep my Wife and kids in a healty envirorement-
Do I need anything ? NO have everything I need already..

[Gintaras]

I would buy PC Mech from David

[DFastLane]

I would do PC work for free...wait, I think I already do that!

[shecky981]

FIRST i'd get a lawyer and an accountant. THEN.......

1. give notice at jobby job
2. fully fund design firm i partially own forever
3. give enough $ for both parents, so that they can retire and move to Cabo San Lucas immideately with at least $200,000 per year in interest coming to them
4. set up my brother and his wife so they will have a nice $200,000 interest cushion coming to them a year as well.
5. give my newborn neice a $250,000 college fund and a $1,000,000 trust fund to be payed when she is 35, payable ONLY if she graduates with at least a bachelors degree.
6. buy a House/condo/whatever
7. buy a BMW M8 convertible
8. buy a Aston Martin Vantage
9. buy a Range Rover
10. fund a foundation for the Arts in my local community for struggling artists to have a communal place to live and work.
11. fund "WasteOfTime.com" to get tax write-offs
12. get good chunk of cash invested so i can have at LEAST a 7 figure interest payment a year till I die.
13. now that i have time on my hands and the money to travel, have more sex with more people than should be humanly possible.

[StunGunz]

Fly to Vegas and let it all fly on one roll...

[azscary]

quit my job, pay off my accumulated debt, and then go to Hawaii and lay on the black sand deciding what to do with the rest.

[Kubie]

shecky981,
If you got a lawyer and an accountant, you could't do all those things>
Carl

[shecky981]

Originally posted by Carlgif shecky981, If you got a lawyer and an accountant, you could't do all those things> Carl

CURSES! FOILED AGAIN!

ahhh ya gotta love the dream tho, y'know?

[Nuclear Krusader]

Do I need anything ? NO have everything I need already..

That is almost true for me too. Besides, what I need canst be gotten with money.

[HAL9000]

Originally posted by StunGunz Fly to Vegas and let it all fly on one roll...

yea... go to the roulette wheel and put it on black. I watched a show about Vegas and the one pit boss said that the largest bet that he ever approved was when a guy walked up to the roulette wheel with a briefcase with 2 million in cash. He put it on red. It came up black, he turned around and walked away.

[troysvihl]

buy a sailboat and sail to the Caribean and deposit the money in the Caymens. Then just sail the world.

[cmillion]

1. Get a few years of collage!
2. Buy a hummer
3. Go to flight school and get my ATPL
4. Buy a business jet
5. Build on hella cool PC!
6. Get wireless internet!
7. Buy a home next to Britney Spears.
8. Make a bigger firarms collection!
9. Buy on of those $50,000 side by side 12 Ga shotguns.
10. Build a sporting clays course of my own.
11. Then give some of the $$$ away!
12. Support my family.

[Karel]

I wouldn't WORRY anymore, especially not about possessions...
It would also buy me the time to get healthy again (all kinds of healthy).

[eshort]

First--id hire the best accountant(s), lawyers(s) to ensure the $$ will come in the most efficient form/format etc

Quit my lousy job

Move out of my apartment and head about 1500 miles south (I live in Boston, Ma area)

Buy a home..then equiop it with the latest state of art communications-computer equipment

Set up a fund to aid the poor/homeless/sicj etc--but--with guarentees that the $$ donated would go DIRECTLY to the people involved (and NOT to some "administrator" etc)

Lay on the beach and contemplate what to do next

[Iman74]

1. Pay off all my bills except the morgage.
2. Sell the house and buy the house we always wanted.
3. Set up a T1 connection in everyroom in the house including the bathroom.
4. Build the best, fastest, PC money can buy.
5. Sell my car, and my motorcycle, and get one SUV, one Sports Car, and one top of the line motorcycle.
6. Determine what I can do to invest the rest wisely, so maybe I can quit my job; money doesn't last unless you invest it. Well you can be Bill Gates and live off what he has as long as you don't spend it like he does.
7. Light up a Cuban Cigar with a hundred dollar bill.
8. Sit back and relax on my new couch and with my new Flat screen tv and the best surround system you have ever heard.

[Computer Hobbyist]

In the bad old dot.com days I had occasion to consider this question seriously. Unfortunately, the bubble burst and I was brought back to reality.

As one famous man said, desire is the root of all evil.

After much reflection, I think I'd just go back to work the next day.

CH

[Kassia]

Share some with my family.
Give some to charity.
Buy the things I've always wanted.
Then make sure the rest is handled properly to last me the rest of my life.