What if?

AngryCorvair wrote: I wouldn't disappear, but I'd buy the shuttered Triumph dealership up the street and open Resurrection Motors, doing "practical classic" resto-mods. Hire my wife and both my kids, naturally I'd provide housing, meals, and education as benefits for my employees, etc.

I like how you think.

House in Colorado....

Buy one of these:

Tour the Americas.

I would do so much travel. There are just so many places I want to go.

Already won the lottery when I got born as a white male, to a middle-class family in North America during the 50's.

If I were a ship, and money were the water I sailed in, I would say I have have plenty of under-keel clearance, adding millions would be like sailing with 20" clearance or 1000" deep; don't really matter.

If anything, I would consider a change of scenery. But having traveled the world pretty well and the USA not being an option, I am not sure where I would go to. Maybe a couple of laps with business-class around the world tickets to cover a few spots I have missed.

The shop would be getting a few new tools.

Since most people that win big money eventually declare bankruptcy, I would make plans so this doesn't happen to me. I would take half of the money and put it into "safe" investment and that estimated amount would become my annual income.

I would retire and spend my time traveling, racing and volunteering. I'd also take part in random acts of kindness. anonymously of course. Something along the lines of buying a good used car and giving it to a random person/family in need.

Two chicks at the same time.

Datsun310Guy wrote: Buy a place in Santa Barbara, CA on the ocean. Walk to a local seafood place and eat fish tacos or a lobster roll for lunch. Walk back home and work on my three 1970 Datsun's; 240Z, 510, and a 2000 Roadster. Ride my beach cruiser back to watch the sunset every night.

Or you could move to Biloxi, do all those things, and save $9,875,000.

1- Quit job
2- Buy house in Utah
3- Build cool cars/trucks/bikes
4- Do impossible races/trips/adventures with said vehicles
5- When done with a given vehicle, auction it off. Give proceeds to charity.
6- Return to step 3.

conesare2seconds wrote: Hate to admit it but I'd still have to work, or work after a fashion. Need something to do to stay active and sharp, so would open or invest in a business. And buy a few supercool cars and secure a place to keep them. Hope your question is more than hypothetical and you've had some good fortune. Best to you if so. Edit: there is one very special collector car I would buy. It would take a fraction of the $10m to buy it but $10m is on the low end of lottery money I'd want to have in hand to buy it and look after it in the way a million-dollar car needs to be looked after.

Strictly hypothetical....just fishing for the pulse of the hive. I suppose some travel would be in order....primarily stateside with a limited(very) selection of other worldly spots. A shop (50'x70') would definitely be in order to maintain a sense of purpose/sanity. Volunteering...YES. Chasing Wayne Carinni....perhaps

Woody wrote: I would learn how to play the saxophone.

It's funny what triggers an earworm. This is stuck in my head now.

Learn to work the saxophone
I play just what I feel
Drink Scotch whiskey all night long
And die behind the wheel
They got a name for the winners in the world
I want a name when I lose
They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
Call me Deacon Blues

What fun thought exercise. I would quit the work I have been doing the last few years. I would still need to work at something. I know myself well enough that making contribution is a critical part of what makes me happy. I think teaching math part time would be rewarding.

I would also buy a couple small week-end get away spots in places like big bear lake here in California and Kamakura outside Tokyo where my wife and can spend time each year and let our siblings, cousins and their off-spring use it when we are not around.

Huckleberry wrote:

Woody wrote: I would learn how to play the saxophone.

It's funny what triggers an earworm. This is stuck in my head now. Learn to work the saxophone I play just what I feel Drink Scotch whiskey all night long And die behind the wheel They got a name for the winners in the world I want a name when I lose They call Alabama the Crimson Tide Call me Deacon Blues

^Ugh.

When I was a kid, I shared a room with my older brother. He owned an 8-track player and every Steely Dan tape. He'd turn it on and Steely Dan would play on an endless loop all night. Every night. There a great band, but I can't stand listening to them anymore.

Screw the saxophone. My lottery winnings are now going to be squandered on cars and girls in their 20's who make bad decisions that they will undoubtedly regret later.

I'm gone. You can try to find me wandering up a canyon or across a mesa somewhere in the southwestern US.

In reply to Huckleberry:

There's an interesting idea, maybe I could use a bit of that $10M to bribe Donald and Walter into letting me play bass for them.

First, I would take the chunk of money that I have to pay out in alimony for the next nine years and put it into an account with automatic payments, so I will never have to think about that again.

Then I would sleep for a week.

Move to Nepal or Bhutan where you can live on $2/day and people are peaceful and life is simple.

What I'd like to do is open a detailing shop. That's a huge passion of mine and having that much capitol would mean the pressure of needing it to make money would be off.

In reply to Nick (Bo) Comstock:

I would hire you to detail my car's. That is the opposite of a huge passion of mine. I'd rather listen to Steely Dan all night than detail a car.

Since I just bought life insurance recently, I know that about $1.5 million will get the practicalities out of the way - house paid off, kids set up for college, monthly income stream until I hit "retirement age". So, the first million or so would go to that. Then, I'd probably take the rest and invest it, so I could work on something I care more deeply about than what I do right now - I don't think I could do nothing for the rest of my life, I'd need something to pour my energy into.

The stable would include:

1.575 Maranello

2.early 2000's twin turbo

3.the imsa banned audi 200 Quattro

4.'29-'31 model A five window w/3"chop on a 'Z'd frame, sportin' bones and a SBC w/3dueces

5.mid 2000 Aston Martin V12 with a manual trans

6.superperformance Grand AM '63 split window

7.Ford GT...black w/siver stripes

8.and the MGB/GT sporting box flares with a 500+ hp & AWD

I'd get one of the industrial warehouses near me that would become my garage/shop/storage/man-cave. Move all of my crap into that while finally fixing my house.

Build a small RV and toy-trailer. Travel the country.

Learn to sail. Get a catamaran. Travel the world.

I'd probably add a few dream cars to the collection, but I already have enough to keep me occupied.

Walk into work. Tell them I'm starting a business with my brother, and that this is a 6 week notice (I really like the folks I work with). Be willing to stay up to 8 weeks, but the extra two weeks would come at a cost of about $20,000 (for charity).

Then go and start a business with my brother. Assuming the 10 mil is after tax, it'd be 1 mil to the business (although only $300k that would really be pledged, the rest would be for later investments), 2 mil to houses I want to buy (3 in total), 5 mil in savings/dividend paying funds, 1 mil to probably a new boat or three, a new truck, old car, and new car... and then I'd never mow my lawn again, change my oil again, etc. The rest would be used for my racing/sailing/fishing/vacation funds.

Man, I love these. I fantasize about this sort of thing when I'm stuck at work.

My plan:

Quit my current job and get another, less time consuming job just for the insurance. One where the schedule is flexible enough for me to be more involved in the lives of my children. AFTER going back to college.

I'd set aside enough for each of my kids to earn a Bachelor's degree, to be safe $250,000 each.

Sell our current, awesome house and buy a similar, maybe slightly smaller house with some land, trees and a river or lake. Most likely NOT in central Illinois.

Annual trips to Disney World and Disney Land.

Embark on Clive Cussler-esque adventures, seeing the amazing places I've read about.

Participate in every banger rally I can find.

Set up a not-for-profit to teach manufacturing and money management skills to people who were basically hosed at birth.

Live on a boat for a while.

Man... I could go on and on...

A rumor started that my brother had won the lottery once and it was a sad scene. What had actually happened was that he took a good look at his spending and money matters and started to get out of debt and save for stuff. During this time it appeared as though he was a normal person with no money and making do with being cheap. Once he paid off everything, including his house, he was a bit slow to unclench from his frugal habits. Then one day a number of things happened. A planned vacation was due and was their first real extravagance. But just before this happened, his AC unit and water heater gave out. But these were budget items and had funding available. A kitchen remodel was planned while they were away and his wives car just expired. Well in a months time everyone saw a 2 week vacation, major home repairs, a new SUV and his classic Mustang finished! This was also the time I got ambitious about the shop so I had a lot of activity at my house only 3 blocks away with wiring, cleaning, land clearing and such. People noticed!

It was odd that a number of family members kinda dropped hints about this wonderful opportunity for a business dream they had. One wanted to open a restaurant which was a really good plan until economy took a dump and no one was buying house in their area. The Spa in Arizona was a pipe dream from the start but caused some bad blood because he tore apart the business plan.

Some folks asked outright if he won and refused to believe that it was a 15 year adventure in money that did it!

He did tell me that if he ever won I would get an envelope with instructions and legal stuff that basically dumped his old baggage on me (with compensation)and he would just disappear for a while or forever.

Bruce

$10mm invested conservatively would net you $400k/year in free cash flow. I would do that - invest it all - and live off the $400k/year. I might be able to manage.

I'm very happy where I live, and don't see changing things a whole lot. I'd just use my new found income to make my projects happen faster.

First things first - tear the roof off my shop and add a second floor to the apartment areas and a higher ceiling to the garage area. Or tear down the whole thing and rebuild from scratch so it's a small guest house (1200sf should do) with a double height 4+ car garage.

On the house, have what unfinished walk-out basement space is left turned into a new master suite with serious noise insulation between it and the rest of the house. Have the whole inside of the house painted.

There goes about $300k in the first year, but that's not going to be an ongoing expense.

Hire a cleaning person. I'm so tired of cleaning, especially with everything else I have to do - squeezing in two - three - four hours of cleaning here and there is so tiring.

Hire a landscaper and have my 3.5 acres cleared of all invasive species and have native trees and plants generously sprinkled all around.

Redo the driveway.

And then .. buy one fun car at a time to play around with until I get bored of it, go on road trips and just live. Right now I want a C7 vette but who knows what I'll want when the next 400k annual stipend hits the checking account. My wife loves to travel so we would definitely do a lot of that.

The first thing I would do is pay Rage Against the Machine to play in my back yard for my bestest friends.

Then maybe dabble in motor sports ala:

Then knowing me I'd probably disappear in Europe somewhere.