OT: $675 Million Powerball Jackpot -- What's your plan for the money?

vertical rectangular building, convert the money to gold coins, and take swim in it every other day.

So rather than buy a new one, I think I'll just move somewhere where I won't need a furnace.

Drop enough on family and friends so they're debt free and kids can go to college. After that, vanish into ether.

The only time you would see me is in my suite at the big house alone. Just me, in my jammies watching the game like I'm on the couch...

Actually... I would clear the entire suite and put one big ass lazy-boy in the suite.

Lonely?

And drama free folks!

2. Contact President Schlissel and offer a $100 million donation for the University - if they appoint Brian as a Regent for Life

3. Armani sunglasses

That's about it...

I would start a special scholarship for poor kids. If you qualify for a Pell Grant you get plussed up to cost of attendance so no student debt. I would also include a mentoring program to help the kids develop study habits and find extracurricular activities that will help them prepare to enter the workforce.

I have a great job where I don't work very hard and make six figures. I grew up very poor and I am the only person in my family to go to college let alone graduate. I would hope to transform lives of people in a similar situation.

buy a private island, install a golf course, go kart track and airstrip.

save up some money to go with it and then pay off my student loans.

In my press conference I'd give a shout out to Kate Beckinsale and tell her that I'll be waiting for her on a jet at the airport and we'll fly anywhere in the world she wants for a candle lit dinner.

2 chicks at the same time.

Slow day at work.  Not that I've spent any time thinking about this...... /s

My boring but accurate plan for winning "game over" money in the lottery.  I'm married with a very young family.  A thought to keep in mind--money can't buy happiness.  It usually just amplifies your life for better or for worse, and then also lets you live in cushier surroundsings.  So if you're miserable and prone to shooting yourself in the foot, all the money does is allows you to do is accomplish that on a grander scale--perhaps in lethal fashion.  

Fortunately I already like my life, so much of what I'd do with the money is just do what I'm already doing but "better."  I'd arrange for the more stressful elements of my life to become less annoying or stressful, and I'd use the money to leverage what I'm already doing up to a bigger scale.  Our plan:

1. Tell my wife, then mmediately put the winning ticket in a safe deposit box and tell a trusted family member (likely my father or my mother in law) where the ticket is in case a meteorite kills me and my wife before we can claim the ticket.
2. As soon as practicable without ruining my or my wife's career, take a 2 week vacation to a cushy resort somewhere in the tropics to figure out the rest of our plan in detail.
3. Likely come back and select tax & estate planning attorneys, an accounting firm, and a private banker to set up handilng the money in a responsible way.  As others have said, if state law permits, figure out a way to claim the money anonymously, although I think in our state they force you to claim it publicly for lottery PR purposes.  Bummer, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.  My theory is part of the reason people fail when the encounter large sums of money is they just don't have the infrastructure (responsible service professionals, etc.) to deal with it all.
4. Wait several months and select a time to claim the prize during a crazy busy news cycle.  Hope that my name never hits the papers or if it does it's on the back page somewhere.  During the several months wait, set up other kids of infrastructure like an unlisted phone number, fresh email accounts, a PO Box, a personal secretary to open correspondence etc. so that if our names do become public, we have at least some buffer from the scammers and sob stories that would come our way.
5. Lump sum after taxes it's about $250M.  Put it all into some temporary super safe accounts until we can interview who we want to use as financial planners & figure out our long term investment plan.
6. Immediately pay off all our oustanding debt (student loans, mortage, cars, etc.) and drop about $200K into our active checking/savings accounts so any temporary expenses/payments can ben drawn easily.
7. Set aside about $1M each for my wife and me, for our "mad money"/"no questions asked" accounts.  If my wife shows up one day with 4 carat diamond earrings, I don't say a word.  If I roll into the driveway with a $500K vehicle, not a peep from her.  Basically a "no judgement" zone where we can go crazy and get it out of our system, but we cap our allowance at $1M.  After that, it'll be group decisions, prudent purchases, setting regular allowances for ourselves (even if the allowances are large), etc.  We are pretty traditional people, so I doubt I'd be driving around town in a yellow lambo anyway.
8. Set aside some direct ONE TIME ONLY cash payouts to our family ( a few million for siblings and parents; maybe $100K each fo cousins & aunts/uncles).  Set up a family educational & health care trust that will also encompass cousins, and also our personal friends to pay off any outstanding student loans and future kid's college, as well as any crazy healthcare eventualities.  Also perhaps subsidize life insurance policies on all relatives with kids so that in the odd chance somebody gets killed in a crash and is dumb enough to not have been insured, their spouse w/ young kids don't come running to us asking to be permanently on the dole. Have a family meeting and issue the letter/ground rules at the same time.  Make it crystal clear that this IS IT.
9. Start interviewing people to help us invest the money on a more sustainable/permanent basis.  No, we will not be "investing" with counsin Eddie and his strip club/bowling alley/laundrymat idea.  At first invest in only passive stuff like stocks, bonds, etc.  Likely break up the investments among several different people so that we don't get Bernie Madoff'ed.
10. Set a family budget/allowance that is significantly below what the annual interest would be on our principle investments.  At first likley set it at maybe 20% more than what our current disposable income is.  This has two benefits. First, if we let the huge principle balance grow even for just 2-5 years without touching it too much, it'll grow an enormous amount.  Second, my other theory as to why people fail when given large sums of money is it happens just WAY too fast.  By restricing our allowances to a very modest level at first, it allows us to psychologically adjust to the wealth.  Then over the next 5-10 years, gradually increase the allowance over time, although almost never touching the principle unless making a generational purchase like a family compound (see below).  
11. Set up a very large ($50M+) charitable trust.  Likely start pretty local.  We live in a very large metropolitan area.  Instead of donating to large international, national, or even metro-area causes, we'd largely start by making a big impact on the communities within a 10-15 mile radius of where we live.  Scholarship funds, park districts, the arts, our church, local food pantries & medical clinics that cater to the poor, etc.  I'd rather be a big fish in my suburban county or a medium fish in my metro area than be a smaller fish at the national level.  This would include being a pretty big booster of Michigan Athletics.
12. Set up a very large poltiical PAC. I am very politically active in my community.  I keep my opinions off this board as is the tradition, but the political PAC & political activies would occupy a large part my workweek from here on out in all likelihood.
13. Hire an executive director to help me run # 10 and #11 above.  Also likely hire a personal assistant for our family just to help me and my wife get mundane everyday stuff done (laundry, grocery shopping, household chores, etc.)
14. Start finding a location to build a custom home for my family on a few acres of land & hire a design firm to work for a year or two designing our dream home.  Something very nice in the 5,000-7,000 square foot range, but nothing too crazy like a $20M or $50M mansion.  Something that would still fit in one of the nicer suburban communities in our county.
15. Seriously consider pre-emptively visiting a child psychologist 
16. As time goes on, start to get more active in some of my investments.  Basically take 5% or 10% of the portfolio as "play money" and start investing in either good business start ups, patents/inventions, or buying local existing businesses (small maufacturing firms, equipment rental companies, restaurant franchies, etc. or buildings/real estate) that have a good investment profiles.
17. Start methodically hunting for prime locations for an eventual 'family compound" in both the tropics as well as a lake/mountain setting, then buy the land.  Likely a bunch of privacy/acerage.
18. Once the novelty of our new custom home had worn off after a few years, pull the trigger and design/build the aforementioned family compounds.  Try to legally tie it up so that it's in a trust so that the family can use it for generations (earmark principle investments so that the interest alone is enough to pay taxes & maintenance on the property, etc.).  Make it a point to invite old friends & family members to spend time at the vacation compounds on a somewhat frequent basis.
19. At some point, plow a few million dollars into crazy contingency planning, like collapse of civilization.  Basically like those nutty survivalist shows on TV.  Because let's face it--although they are nutty, they aren't THAT nutty.  If you're sitting on $150M+, it doesn't hurt to earmark maybe $5M of that to make sure your family would be safe in some crazy zombie apoocalypse.
20. Continue working on my PAC, charitable trust, active business investments, and spending time w/ friends/ family.  Likely network w/ movers & shakers (although this would likely happen naturally with my charitable/PAC work) so that in addition to my family wealth, our rolodex gets a significant upgrade.  That way, if my family or friends need additional help, I can leverage the rolodex for favors/internships/job opportunities, etc.
21. Sky box at the Big House.

I would hire a professional group to manage the money. Too much for a small firm to handle. I would set up endowed scholarships for several athletes and researchers at Michigan. I'd build a church or a few. I would create a foundation that treats the root cause of poverty not the symptoms. Wife and I would travel and serve. Keep active. Fish. She would shop a bit. Serve more. Wouldn't think of giving up my seats in the stadium. The only thing you give up by winning is not worrying about money. Everything else is still there so that stuff would be a focus still. That's about it for now.

I would use the money to start hunting man for sport.

Provide free room, board, and gym memberships for my harem of 99 women.

Wow. A lot of you guys have thought this through and are pretty responsible sounding. I figure I would join a large majority of former lotto winners by slowly losing my mind before eventually offing myself. Just keeping it real.

Run for president and make America great again.

Id prob take the winnings and buy my team a nice steak dinner...That would prob use up most of the winnings

I'd give away all but about 30 million. Spend 10 million on a "main house" where I already live (SW Michigan) and a vacation home that sleeps 20 on Lake Michigan (south haven area). Then buy the 5 vehicles I desire.

With the remaining 20 million I'd live off the interest and spend my days drinking, smoking pot and enjoying various psychedelics.

Fuck moving to a tropical place. Michigan is the greatest location on the planet. Hands down.

I would buy the Knicks!

All the hookers and all the blow?

to buy the Lions and try to keep Calvin Johnson from retiring?  Probably not huh. 

I'd buy new servers for MgoBlog and a proper forum license.

I would grab some friends and family and hire a driver, buy an RV and drive every bit of the US and Canada. When that is finished, dump the RV and travel to another continent and start over. Who wants to go?

I'd give it to the government.  I know they would spend it wisely.

"win (sic) $600 million, and they will find you, unless they think you're already dead."

Call Dave Brandon and tell him I have 3x the money he does, tell him he’s poor

I've seen a handful of "Two chicks at once." I don't know much about the going rate of prostitutes, but I have to think it's less than $675 million. 

233 posts and you've all forgotten item #1.

1.  Hit Beveled Guilt.  Hard.

 

I have an existing "lottery pool" so that the folks I want to pass money to get it pre-tax and then can pay their own taxes. The lump sum is typically about 63% of the annuity or $428 million. The spread sheet divides $43 million among family and friends. Leaving a paltry $385 million for me pre-tax or about $235 million post tax. I already have a a relatioship with a money management firm with experience managing portfolios of that size. I'd let them actually deal with distributing the pool and paying the taxes etc.

I'm a widowed, childless, old fart so I don't need to worry about preserving the money for later generations.

1: $15 million to A round a friend's new startup. 

2: Condos/apartments in NYC, San Francisco, and Chicaago.

3: House on the ocean in Fl.

4: Net-Jets level 5 (international range) or equivalent. $200 million isn't enough to actually afford a reasonable jet. But the top shared jet service is just about as good with far fewer headaches.

5: I wouldn't be able to afford the Ferrari 250 GTO so I'll make do with my #2 dream car a 1936 Benz 540k.

6: High performance 55-60 ft yacht.

7: Several cars including a new vette, new suv, a bentley, ford 450 pickup, a race prepped vette and enclosed trailer for track events, M-6. 

That leaves me with around $150 million to afford staff, maintanence, expenses etc and I'll just play for however much time I have left. Travel, scuba, race cars, ski, create an extensive wine cellar, chase greedy young (to me) women, party hearty, and see every single MIchigan football game for the rest of my life. 

Whatever is left when I die will get split between, UofM, the NRA-ILA, wounded warriors (or similar organization, and brain cancer research.

 

I'm gonna win! I'll pay my tithes, trust fund for my kids, invest in me and my wife's business, put 8 figures in my mom and dad's bank accounts, put 7 figures in my siblings bank accounts, invest in various business, put some away to build interest on, take a vacation and live off the rest while collecting residual income.

Get with Brian and see how many drinks it takes to convince him to move MGoBlog to virtual servers with a variable bandwidth plan (or whatever the proper techtalk is), so that I never have to endure 50x errors.

I guess that would benefit you guys, too.

Also see about getting moderated chat software so MGoBlog can host its own gameday liveblogs and not pay out the wazoo to someone we used to use. And if we can't make that work, pay out the wazoo to someone we used to use. And all my comments get posted, and I can wield the banhammer.

And find out if I can get fiber internet to my home so I don't have to use Comcast. Also is that enough money to buy some politicans, start my own ISP and provide better service than Comcast at lower rates while still making a decent but not outrageous profit, at least in SE MI? (Hey, as long as I'm dreaming.)

And if not, fund the resistance and ensure that Comcast executives, Comcast-enabling politicans (and others to be named later) are the first ones against the wall when the revolution comes.