If I won the Lottery...

[Aggie]

Just LOOK at the number of gullible idiots who purchase LOTTERY TICKETS, for a FINE example of the number of people totally ignorant of STATISTICS.

I actually figured out the odds for our local lottery, and occasionally when they get a BIG jackpot, the expected value is slightly above the price of a ticket.

Personally, I see lotteries and gambling to be entertainment: I approach it like I would the movies.  If I play craps (which I haven't done in a while, but I do like it), it's for the fun of the game; the money I'll probably lose is the cost of admission.

I've been thinking that I should start playing the lottery, despite the odds.  Given that I can afford the $104 a year (used to be $1 to play the 649, bleah), I should grab a set of numbers and play it at one ticket weekly.  My fiancee' usually will buy multiple tickets, on occasional large jackpots (3 or 4 times a year), and she's been lucky to the point that we are ahead so far... probably have spent <$100 to date and one a small prize of $110 plus a few free tickets and $10 prizes.  But it needs to be approached strictly as lost money (good point on entertainment) with no chance of return.  Those who are scraping money from necessities and depending on the "big break" to get them ahead are in deep doo...

In any case, I prefer the Meat Draw.  Better odds, and I'm definitely close to break-even on that (2 turkeys and a large ham last time, for <$30 in tickets, and a couple of hours entertainment for me, fiancee' and Grandma).

Ach, thread drift.

[The Meromorph]

For $10 a week (2 five Dollar quick picks), I can legitimately spend as much time as I like in daydreams of how I'd spend millions of dollars. The real Toadfish Monatery is gonna be so beautiful and peaceful, and y'all are coming there for long vacations for free...  .
And there's a few people gonna have to find something else to worry about, if they really need to worry, 'cause there's so many things that can be fixed for just a substantial chunk of money... 
It's worth the price, just to know it could happen. It doesn't have to be very  likely, but it does have to be possible.

[goat starer]

looked at like that it is value for money! I play the UK lottery as part of a syndicate (6 lines at odds of 14 million to one on a jackpot). It does offer all of us hope when work is at its worst that come wednesday there might, just might, maybe be a way out 

There never is though and the other day some other blinking sydicate in my home town won a £14 million jackpot 

[Sibling Chatty]

The "What would you do if..." threads are always so interesting.

Hmmm...do we have a "Useless Speculations" folder?

[The Meromorph]

We do now...   

[Sibling Chatty]

Heh...I was figurin' we would.

Lottery? After taxes, fix the house, buy the lot next door and build there for Mom (leaving my vacant lot/garden open in between), all the ramps and chairlifts, decent cars, and stuff needed to survive, then start with the water things... I want a climate controlled therapy pool. I'd also build a "public pool" for this town, right after I built a library. It'll take more than a million, that's for sure.

Just put it in somebody else's name, because the first $5-7 million would go on my medical bills otherwise. (Somebody with insurance would have been charged a fraction of that, but uninsured is expensive. The ultrasound of the eye that your insurance pays $95 for cost $380, plus an interpretation fee of $88. Your insurance pays $18)

It's interesting to see where people actually draw the lines on limited money...

[Aggie]

I seem to be starting a lot of threads that I didn't start today. 

My big winning plans would be similar to Mero's.... a physical Toadfish Monastery / Hostel.  Of course, mine would be in the Philippines, either beachfront or an island, with mooring for the Pirates' ships.

A smaller win, and I'd put the Monastery in Nelson, plant a bamboo forest, and open a restaurant with the rest.  Next year, as opposed to eventually on regular income.

[Vita Curator]

I play the Powerball lottery here in the states, but only when it gets ridiculously high.

I dream of helping a lot of deserving people that have struggled their entire lives, of making their lives easier and helping as many as I could break free from the cycle of poverty.   I'd give some to my local library because they do so much for the community.  I'd give money for research for cancer, (especially childhood ones), Alzheimer's, ALS, and MS.  I'd like to help some deserving impoverished kids obtain a college education.

I wouldn't mind traveling and seeing the world.

Nice to dream, isn't it?

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I play the Powerball lottery here in the states, but only when it gets ridiculously high.

I dream of helping a lot of deserving people that have struggled their entire lives, of making their lives easier and helping as many as I could break free from the cycle of poverty.   I'd give some to my local library because they do so much for the community.  I'd give money for research for cancer, (especially childhood ones), Alzheimer's, ALS, and MS.  I'd like to help some deserving impoverished kids obtain a college education.

I wouldn't mind traveling and seeing the world.

Nice to dream, isn't it?

*raises glass in salute*

That has to be the most selfless thing I've read in a good long while - and you were only dreaming, but you put others' needs first.

Your seeming afterthought about travel is almost with the words (if there's any money left)

And I had about decided there ain't any true altruists left in the world ...

*sips from glass*

*raises glass in salute, again*

[Aphos]

I will show a bit of my hedonistic side.

I don't really know why, but I have always had a yen to own a vintage Stutz Bearcat...mint condition of course.  And, of course, I would have to be filthy rich to justify such a toy.  But one can dream.

[Bluenose]

I usually only buy tickets when the big draw is on, there's one on Saturday night for AUD$21 million and I've got me a ticket!

My wife and I like to day dream on occaision about what we would do if we ever did win it big.  We have no real expectation that it will happen, but it's fun to speculate.

What we have come up with is this, obviously first off we would pay out our mortgage.  We would give a sum to my sister, put some in trust for my wife's sister (she is intellectually disabled and suffers from bipolar disorder) we would give some to my wife's mother and my parents and we would do something similar for my kids (grown up), but maybe we would put it in trust until they are 30 or something like that.

Beyond that we would buy a decent 4WD and off road camper, put most of the money into a boring safe place (or several) and head off for a couple of years around Australia to give us time to digest what to do with the balance.  We would expect that our requirements are pretty modest and would end up with a large sum to play with, which can be used for a great deal of good.

What I expect I would do with that money would be things like establishing trust funds to provide funding fo scientific research on native fish (one of my favourite hobby horses) and set up a scheme to help people get a leg up.  Perhaps providing micro loans or something like that.  I like the idea of things that will work at the base level, right down among real people rather than larger more abstract things.

If it ever happened, I would not want to rush in too quickly, it would be so easy to do the first thing that pops up and then find out later you could have done something so much better.  That is the point of the time out.  Probably I would find things I could do while away that would make a real difference to people as we travel.  A few thousand buckazoids well spent helping establish some sort of community resource, for example, could easily make all the difference to some people.

The main thing is, I would not want my name all over everything.  I would want to find ways to help out quietly.

Oh well, it's only a dream, but it's a nice one...

Bluenose

[Sibling Chatty]

I volunteered for and worked with non-profits/charities for years.

There are tons of people willing to give you 'some' money for LOTS of recognition. Hardly anybody wants to give you ANYthing for no recognition. (My charitable legacy is set. Right before my cancer diagnosis, when we knew it was coming but wasn't made yet, an insurance exec on a charity board I was on was talking with me. He figured out what it would cost him to buy a paid-up whole life policy on me, naming the charity as beneficiary. I'm not worth much alive, but i'm worth a quarter-mil dead for one charity. And neither name is on it, it's to be an 'institutional donation'.)

I guess i'm limited in my 'what if' scenarios. Too realistic...you note I paid the taxes first, even in a blue-sky situation.

Mostly, I want to be secure...

[Opsa]

I'm with you, Sustah! (That's what my neighbor the Baptist preacher's wife calls me. She's a hoot!)

I've always had to be practical, so the first thing I'd do would be to pay off mortgage and debts.

Then I'd buy some land and build a monastery for us and set us up in a couple of businesses through which we could both sustain ourselves and do charity work.  These would be: (in the monastery tradition) a bakery, a brewery and a working studio to produce inspirational art, jewelry, printed matter and Siblingwear for purchase by the public. We could generate income by selling our products and giving tours of the gardens.

[Sibling Chatty]

Ya know, you get interesting discussions when the money is limited, not an intangible "lots" of money.

New thread coming.

[Griffin NoName]

I gave up the Lottery when I worked out I'd need at least an £8 million (UK pounds) win to build the best hospital in the world. You can tell how long ago that was by the sum involved.

Since that was before I had these health problems I think it best I don't join in this dream thread - I don't want to think of all the things that I'd do if I won now (..............and then need afterwards when I hadn't won........  ) <sigh>

Edit: that sounds less than humble, ok, I'd hire a first class chef for ever. Just for me. Well, I might spare the left-overs for the local poor. Well, yes, now you come to mention it, I'd give lots of lovely food to the deserving starving millions and the way I'd do it is to hire a chef..... I'm getting a headache