The Powerball lottery is up to $1 billion tonight. If you won it, what would you do?

  • migo@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Keep a million for fun, everything else, buy a very conservative and diversified portfolio, borrow against it and purchase real estate worldwide in places with water access and least affected by climate change. With profits start funding antifa, anarcho-syndicalist, ecosocialist, and similar movements.

    • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      If you are buying real estate, you won’t be funding “antifa” or any of the other things you are fantasizing. Profit-bearing RealEstate is directly counter to all of those movments, and once they start threatening you, you’ll immediately pivot to funding the status-quo.

      • migo@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I guess you’re calling me ignorant and a hypocrite without knowing anything about me or my value system.

        My recommendation to you would be to read again and instead of assuming ignorance and hypocrisy, assume that I know very well what I’m talking about. And then meditate on it.

  • rambos@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I would come back here and give 1 mil to everyone who upvote me and 2 mil for op

  • LegendofDragoon@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Talk to a major law firm about accepting the prize as anonymously as possible. Take the lump sum -payment to the lawyer team and divide it into thirds. One third goes into a trust that I can direct friends and family to with instructions to offer assistance for major life events, weddings, funerals, education and the like. That way I never have to be the bad guy who says yeah, no.

    The second third will get invested into low risk bonds so I have a stable income forever

    The final third will become what people normally do with lottery winnings, new home, that kind of stuff

  • DrQuint@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I would honestly just disappear.

    If I had enough money that I can just go “fuck you”, that’s what I’d do. I’d obviously help my family financially, but probably not as a lump sum except to help them buy property to make houses on. But beyond that, I would basically be away and uncontactable. No one would know where I am and what I’m up to except maybe a couple times a year.

    The bigger question is actually what type of charity I’d end up doing. I have some distrust for charities, so I’d want to take a more direct approach, so in all likelihood, I’d be helping a number of small creators I believed in to see if they could get a chance at establishing themselves better.

  • Behaviorbabe@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Cut my hours back at work, maybe take a sabbatical spend much more time with my kids, and go to art school. I’m pretty good at it, but it wasn’t in the trailer park cards.

  • BananaTrifleViolin@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I’d keep it a secret except from the closest people to me. I’d be incredibly boring about what I’d do with it.

    First I would pay off my mortgage and invest a chunk in “safe” investments - so shares in utility companies, funeral business - boring reliable investments - and property and land, across borders. All to try and guarentee I would stay financially secure long term for the rest of my life, and weather financial storms.

    I’d help my immediate family financially (siblings and parents, and closest friends) but would not go over board - I’d make their lives better but not ruin them, and would aim to keep most of the money ready to keep helping for years to come rather than splurge out. And I wouldn’t tell them how much I had so as not to ruin relationships.

    For what I do for me I would think very hard. I’d probably not quit work immediately and I’d try not to ruin my life.

    I’d probably look to travel but in bursts - either nice holidays and keep working (I like my job) or quit work and live 3 months at a time in places I’ve always wanted to be for a bit before settling down again.

    Anything I do or buy I would do as someone “middle class”. So I’d travel economy plus, I’d stay in decent hotal but not the most flashy, I’d buy a decent home but not a mansion (I don’t need a 10 bed home, I’d just get a nicer version of what I have now - 3 beds but maybe detached and in a nicer area).

    Basically I’d upgrade my life a little but I wouldn’t go wild. I don’t see the value in the conspicuously wealthy lifestyle - I’d see money as buying freedom but I wouldn’t want to be wasteful, and I wouldn’t want to be a target for criminals or leeches.

    And the rest i’d start puting to good causes. That would probably be conservation charities, green charities, social projects I believe in. Id want to use it to create some kind of legacy even if anonymous - for me that would be something that meaningfully improved the world in some small but realistic way.

    Basically I’d be very boring, stay anonymous and try and make relatively small but meaningful changes to my life and those I love.

    • 1chemistdown@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      You think you would get to live in the same place with no one knowing you won the $1B lottery? Interesting.

      Me, I would go to a top law firm and see a senior partner about getting out of being publicized. Have them set up sale of property and disconnect my phone lines and internet accounts after creating new unknown ones. I would have the lawyers present the ticket for me through various layers of holding companies and trusts, but I would be a ghost for awhile. The legal team would make sure all family members got some money with a nice non disclosure agreement. Immediate family would have my contact information with a request to never disclose. All money Would be dispersed between several low fee brokerages where I would invest in a combination of treasury backed securities, short term CDs, total stock market ETFs, and cash would be dispersed between several high interest savings accounts. I would be unreachable for 6 months while News died down.

  • scytale@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago
    1. Hire a fiduciary consultant/accountant to ensure the money is invested into accounts where I can live off the interest more than comfortably.
    2. Travel to all the places my wife and I want to go.
    3. Buy citizenship (via investor visa) in the best developed country that fits our lifestyle and life priorities.
    4. Buy a nice but not extravagant house.
    5. Buy all the non-essential stuff I’ve always wanted to buy.
    6. Hire a personal chef who will cook healthy AND delicious meals for us everyday, so I only need to cook when I actually want to.
    7. Give a lump sum to each of my immediate family members and my wife’s mom and brother. We trust them enough to not abuse the privilege of having a billionaire family member.
  • DrTautology@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Well now that I have “fuck you” money there’s a few things on my mind.

    First, I’m going to eat at a lot of restaurants. I’m going to enjoy my meals too. Through the whole meal I’m going to be buying iced milks for another random patron. I’m going to make sure the waiter is aware that this good gesture needs to be anonymous and I will make sure that as long as the waiter keeps delivering the iced milks I will keep adding $1000 onto their tip. These iced milks will not stop coming until there is nowhere left for the patron to reasonably sit. This waiter will not have to work for a long time afterwards.

    Second, I’m going to buy a shit ton of gold bricks. Like the big one’s you envision are in Fort Knox, also known as “Good Delivery” bars. I’m also going to hire an elite team of private security forces whose sole job will be to transport that gold in plain sight everywhere that I happen to go. If by chance my gold is not allowed with me into an establishment, then I will just attempt to buy the place right there on the spot. If that doesn’t work, then my team will take the gold and wait with it on public property.

    Pretty sure that $1b is long gone by now, but finally I’m going to be throwing parades—a lot of parades. I will have permits for parades on the streets in front of the houses of all my enemies. These will take place at the most inconvenient possible times that my team of schedulers, planners, and event organizers will be able to find. I will have the dumbest fucking floats in these parades and the shittiest marching bands. I will not stop until I’m sufficient conviced I have broken the spirit of my enemies.

    This is why they won’t give me money.

  • electrogamerman@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Honestly, nothing in my life would change. I would still go to my 9-5 job, then gym, then food, then sleep. But knowing I have a billion dollars in my bank account.