I won the 640 $million jackpot

I would build my own subdivision and build about 7 homes on it, for now, and have a place for my children and some of my grown grandchildren.
I would also ask some of my closest friends if they wanted to move onto a section..
Put a large park in the middle for BBQ's and such.
Sink a well for water and since we have large pockets of natural gas, I would see about a small well to use for stoves and such.
Put in some solar cells.
And start raising some animals for food and a garden for crops.
Try to become as self sufficiant as possilbe.

Then after everything was running smooth, I would stop calling it a subdivision and rename it a compound. :)
 
Damocles said:
The first thing I would do is set up an account at a brokerage for my winnings to deposit into...

Then I would pay off all Mortgages on every property I own. Then I would start researching where to put a bunch of the money. Buy my wife a new car... then:

I would settle on a personal rule, no buying cool stuff until the money is settled as wisely as I can make it. Then I would get a property where I would build a garage in town, just a garage. Drive my truck out to pick up whatever car I wanted for that day. Sweeeeet.
Click to expand...

I would likely leave my job (frankly, I'd lose my desire to work there) and search for ways to invest the money. Some of it would wind up in my own company, although I may even lose interest in that. I'd probably just bullshit for a year.

I'd pay off my parents' house/other debt, and buy a couple houses and Audi RS8 for myself - possibly a boat as well.

I'd immediately begin considering where I could unload at least 10% of it.
 
WinterBorn said:
I buy a couple of chances in the Mega Millions and Powerball every week. I've won $150 a few times, and smaller amounts more often. I know I'm not breaking even, but I'm also not spending much.

The fun fact about the $640 million lotto jackpot is the US Gov't would blow thru it in 80 mins.
Click to expand...

What is a lot of money for one person is not necessarily a lot of money for 300 million persons.
 
I would build my own subdivision and build about 7 homes on it, for now, and have a place for my children and some of my grown grandchildren.
I would also ask some of my closest friends if they wanted to move onto a section..
Put a large park in the middle for BBQ's and such.
Sink a well for water and since we have large pockets of natural gas, I would see about a small well to use for stoves and such.
Put in some solar cells.
And start raising some animals for food and a garden for crops.
Try to become as self sufficiant as possilbe.

Then after everything was running smooth, I would stop calling it a subdivision and rename it a compound. :)

Came back to add:
My wife and I have some friends that we would make sure that they would never have to any more money worries.
And I would like to start a meal program for those that need the help.
Set up something like a large kitchen and provide two hot meals a day.
A simple breakfast of eggs, pancakes, sausage, milk, and juice.
Then a supper with something different for each day.
This would mean working with other organizations, to try and keep the scammers out, by letting them make the referrals.
Maybe I could work with some of the organizations and find a way to get people ID's, so that they could vote. :)
 
Damocles said:
The fun for me is to imagine what you would do if you won. I find that if you don't buy a ticket it isn't nearly as fun to do that. That being said... I don't spend much on it. $1 per drawing. So about $6 (Powerball is $2 per ticket) per week to imagine life with millions...

Worth it to me. And what if I do win?
Click to expand...

What if you win? Someone had to win. It's really not such an amazing occurrence. And although people often like to dream about having lots of money, desire is an endless cycle, and it won't bring you happiness. I am really not all that obsessed with being a millionaire, and attaining it through luck rather than merit would make it all the more meaningless.

I'm also an incredibly unromantic person. I do not get teary eyed and dream about the possibilities. I take a look at the investment, multiply the probability of getting the payout by the payout, and value the judgement based on that. Really, if anything, I'd value highly random payouts less, because certainty is a commodity in itself. 1 dollar is worth more to me than a 50% chance of 2 dollars. When it comes to the lottery, 1 dollar is certainly worth more to me than the Powerball's jackpot of 1/175,223,510 * 36,200,000,000 = 21 cents. It is like trading more money for less money - just stupid. The huge uncertainty involved, again, just makes me value it less. Sure, it's not a huge loss in pure numerical terms, but I'm sorry, I don't like knowingly participating in being so thoroughly screwed. I would rather burn the money than spend it on lottery tickets.

I really think that the lottery, and gambling in general, only works because of the human minds lack of ability to intuitively grasp randomness. We are always looking for patterns, to explore something and trying to figure it out. We fail to realize when there simply is no pattern. Plus, many people seem to irrationally believe that God or the Universe favors them in some way, when in reality, the Universe doesn't give a shit about you. Again, there is no romance to this. They run some atmospheric noise through a pseudorandom algorithm, and someone is going to be picked from that. There is nothing amazing at all if it happens to be you. There was a 100% chance that someone was going to be picked. It's really the most banal thing in the universe. You are like a blade of grass on the course that the golf ball happens to land on, turning and thinking "Wow! What are the odds! Surely this means something!" The odds, my friend, were 100%. No, it doesn't mean anything.

And this is why humans are so easy to exploit, and thank the Gods for their own exploitation. Suckers think about possibilities, leets think about probabilities. It's no coincidence that so many poor people buy lottery tickets. The kind of thinking that convinces them lottery tickets are a good investment is the kind of thinking that results in poverty.
 
Alexander Hamilton said:
What if you win? Someone had to win. It's really not such an amazing occurrence. And although people often like to dream about having lots of money, desire is an endless cycle, and it won't bring you happiness. I am really not all that obsessed with being a millionaire, and attaining it through luck rather than merit would make it all the more meaningless.

I'm also an incredibly unromantic person. I do not get teary eyed and dream about the possibilities. I take a look at the investment, multiply the probability of getting the payout by the payout, and value the judgement based on that. Really, if anything, I'd value highly random payouts less, because certainty is a commodity in itself. 1 dollar is worth more to me than a 50% chance of 2 dollars. When it comes to the lottery, 1 dollar is certainly worth more to me than the Powerball's jackpot of 1/175,223,510 * 36,200,000,000 = 21 cents. It is like trading more money for less money - just stupid. The huge uncertainty involved, again, just makes me value it less. Sure, it's not a huge loss in pure numerical terms, but I'm sorry, I don't like knowingly participating in being so thoroughly screwed. I would rather burn the money than spend it on lottery tickets.

I really think that the lottery, and gambling in general, only works because of the human minds lack of ability to intuitively grasp randomness. We are always looking for patterns, to explore something and trying to figure it out. We fail to realize when there simply is no pattern. Plus, many people seem to irrationally believe that God or the Universe favors them in some way, when in reality, the Universe doesn't give a shit about you. Again, there is no romance to this. They run some atmospheric noise through a pseudorandom algorithm, and someone is going to be picked from that. There is nothing amazing at all if it happens to be you. There was a 100% chance that someone was going to be picked. It's really the most banal thing in the universe. You are like a blade of grass on the course that the golf ball happens to land on, turning and thinking "Wow! Aren't I special!"

And this is why humans are so easy to exploit, and thank the Gods for their own exploitation. Suckers think about possibilities, leets think about probabilities. It's no coincidence that so many poor people buy lottery tickets. The kind of thinking that convinces them lottery tickets are a good investment is the kind of thinking that results in poverty.
Click to expand...

have you ever had sex? palmala handerson doesn't count.
 
Alexander Hamilton said:
That was not implied by what I said. The question is not of value, but of excess. His statement was equivocating between the excursiveness a single individual spending 600 million dollars on yachts and mansions to society spending 600 million dollars on providing medicine for 10's of millions of elderly people and funding a world class military to protect the entire nation.

It's not shocking that an organization tasked with providing for the needs for all should spend more than you could ever imagine spending on yourself alone. This is as if a cell in your body suddenly got indignant that the brain collectively eats up far more resources than it could alone. Of course it does!
Click to expand...

my bad, i didn't read the post you responded to. makes sense now.

but i think you're taking his statement out proportion. but i'll let WB take that up because i don't know exactly what he meant.
 
none said:
you're like me...i only gamble for fun and stop when the losing becomes far less than even.

interestingly, the revenue from the sales are (at least i remember reading) as much, if not more than the payout.

i have no problem with voluntary taxes like this.
Click to expand...

If the government needs to tax, it should at least tax honestly. A tax should be judged by it's overall cost/benefit ratio to society, and the lottery is shitty in this regard.
 
Alexander Hamilton said:
If the government needs to tax, it should at least tax honestly. A tax should be judged by it's overall cost/benefit ratio to society, and the lottery is shitty in this regard.
Click to expand...

i disagree. you're merely looking at dollar allocation and not any other benefit to society. many people get a non-monetary benefit from playing the lottery.

more importantly...this is not a tax. you are not forced to buy a lottery ticket, in that, there are no penalties for not buying a ticket. it is completely voluntary. that is the opposite of what a tax is.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top