Do you have a lottery fantasy? Post it here...

[By the River]

One of two winning mega million tickets on Saturday was sold in Fort Myers Florida.  I hope that it's a large group of people who split up the cash prize of $124 million to help get their lives (and community) back in order.

[simonsez]

My lottery fantasy is twofold.
I do not know how much money it would take.

#1. Start a business manufacturing highly durable washer and dryers meant to be fixable by the owner or any tool-oriented person, with parts readily available, and which can be readily dissembled at life end for recycling. Set up a manufacturing plant in BC or Alberta to make them. Destroy crooked home appliance market by providing a product that is designed to last instead of breaking down.

Start a lottery ticket gofundme….I’d toss a couple bucks to help this fantasy come true!

I wish I knew how many millions this would cost. Probably it would be cheaper to contract out the metal parts.
If that got going well, the next project would be microwaves that don't beep.

@Missy B
Many microwaves have some sound programming built into them even if it's not in the manual or anything visible on the keypad that would indicate as such.  When I lived in my old apt, I also hated the beeping especially if you didn't open the door right away, it would just keep on beeping at you demanding your attention.  After some research, I think I held the '2' (it's usually either the 0, 1, or 2 button) button down for 5-10 seconds and it emitted a quick series of chirps and then everything was silent on it.  It was bliss!  It also usually works as a toggle feature so if you need/want to bring the sound back then hold the same button for several seconds again and it should chirp to let you know the sound is back on.

You can probably get more specific results online if you have your brand and model handy.  Good luck!

[Cawl]

But Rooster Teeth, replace everyone there with people from the Black Pants Legion.

[talltexan]

So a co-worker of mine just bought a Subaru Outback earlier this year. He's talking about buying a ticket for tonight's massive $1+billion jackpot.

If he wins, and takes the lump sum, which do you think will last longer? The jackpot, or his Subaru?

[stylesjl]

which do you think will last longer? The jackpot, or his Subaru?

The jackpot, he'll buy a new car with the jackpot!

[Raenia]

DH and I had a little what-if over the weekend.  With a jackpot that big, we would want to buy as much land as we could get our hands on and start a conservation/reforestation project rebuilding native habitat.  Maybe set up a foundation and hire some ecologists.

We even talked ourselves into buying a few tickets when we went to the grocery store, but then we couldn't figure out the machines they use now, it wouldn't take our card, and we didn't have cash, so we decided the universe was reminding us it was a bad idea, and we walked away.

[MrGreen]

When I think about winning the lottery I think more about the moment of absolute shock I would have upon learning I had a winning ticket than I do about what I would do with the money.

Though I do think of Russ Hanneman from Silicon Valley a lot and his reference to a billion as "a B!" and his obsession with being a billionaire simply for the exclusivity of it.

It would be cool to buy as much ranchland in the mid-west that I could get my hands on and rip up all the fences and let it return to its natural state.

[redhead84]

Selfish fantasy - buying a lake house big enough to fit all my sibliings & their families (and the $$ to pay for someone else to do all upkeep).

Less selfish fantasy - funding large scale expansion of the cycling trails in our area; paying to pave the trails that are currently crushed limestone

[Zamboni]

One of my children bought FIVE Powerball tickets this past week.

I have failed as a parent. Or lost out to the influence of TikTok. In any case, if anyone in his state had one I would have pestered him incessantly until he proved to me that he did not win, lol.

[talltexan]

I think Children who are old enough to have studied statistics are particularly vulnerable to the PowerBall.

[bacchi]

Using the latest mega-millions lottery $(~700M USD) amount, I'd start a development company that would build out a true carless subdivision/town. It would draw inspiration from the few towns around the world (some built fairly recently via a public-private partnership) that allow cars but only parked on the outskirts. Pontevedra is one example.

Like others, I'd also buy and restore a castle. With a real drawbridge and moat.

Someone beat you to it:

https://culdesac.com/

Nice. Too bad it's in the hellscape of Arizona.

[glacio09]

I have a lottery fantasy of winning between 2-3 million. Put 500k in a bank account to buy a house with cash at some point in the near-ish future. The rest goes into investments account. Continue to work for a year to finalize the next plans. It would probably involve getting a van and doing van travel around the US for about 2 years, Then maybe hiking the Appalachian trail. Last would be moving overseas permanently (hence the importance of cash for a house). It's basically my FIRE plans a bit accelerated.

The problem is the cats. I have three cats (well, I married into three cats). Two are 12 and 13 and would not do well being away from husband or travel well. The idea of either forcing them into a large vehicle for months or leaving them with my in-laws makes me feel like a terrible person. Funny enough the 4 year old could probably be good with either of those options.

I can't connect my wants and my realities. Any time I start day dreaming it turns into a circular argument about what to do with the damn cats. It's not even an issue that more money would fix because the two are just straight up incompatible. I'm...hoping? expecting? planning? on at least one of the oldest not living by the time we get to actual FIRE in 5 to 10 years, which will make things much easier.

Maybe this goes into MPP, but I can't do just a normal lottery fantasy without worrying about logistics problems!

[talltexan]

Our cat is the treasure of the family. No shame in that!

[talltexan]

My Sister-in-law said she has one neighbor she hates terribly: she'd buy that neighbor's $400,000 house for $1.4 million if she wins the powerball. Through a shell company, of course.

[Zamboni]

Maybe this goes into MPP, but I can't do just a normal lottery fantasy without worrying about logistics problems!

Cats or no cats, logistics is definitely the first problem when one wins a billion dollars. In my state the winner's name becomes public record when they claim the prize, so I'd have to go into hiding while I figured out security details.

Right now my home security is a wood door that I sometimes lock and a psychotic little hound who would lay down her life for anyone in her pack. Plenty of people would plot to easily get around the door/hound security system if they thought that doing so would get their hands on some chunk of a billion dollars. So bye-bye, cute little 50's ranch-style house that I live in. I would miss my pink bathroom with the square tub, lol.

[zolotiyeruki]

Maybe this goes into MPP, but I can't do just a normal lottery fantasy without worrying about logistics problems!

Cats or no cats, logistics is definitely the first problem when one wins a billion dollars. In my state the winner's name becomes public record when they claim the prize, so I'd have to go into hiding while I figured out security details.

Right now my home security is a wood door that I sometimes lock and a psychotic little hound who would lay down her life for anyone in her pack. Plenty of people would plot to easily get around the door/hound security system if they thought that doing so would get their hands on some chunk of a billion dollars. So bye-bye, cute little 50's ranch-style house that I live in. I would miss my pink bathroom with the square tub, lol.

With a billion dollars, you could afford to take the house, foundation, and entire yard, and transplant them to a more secure location.  Intact.

[ATtiny85]

Maybe this goes into MPP, but I can't do just a normal lottery fantasy without worrying about logistics problems!

Cats or no cats, logistics is definitely the first problem when one wins a billion dollars. In my state the winner's name becomes public record when they claim the prize, so I'd have to go into hiding while I figured out security details.

Right now my home security is a wood door that I sometimes lock and a psychotic little hound who would lay down her life for anyone in her pack. Plenty of people would plot to easily get around the door/hound security system if they thought that doing so would get their hands on some chunk of a billion dollars. So bye-bye, cute little 50's ranch-style house that I live in. I would miss my pink bathroom with the square tub, lol.

With a billion dollars, you could afford to take the house, foundation, and entire yard, and transplant them to a more secure location.  Intact.

Lol, loved this little addition. 100 foot tree? There’s a price, but one could afford it.

[Zamboni]

Yeah, we have lots of 100 ft trees on our little patch of dirt.

It would be harder than you might imagine to move this house because a church architect had it built using methods that keep cathedrals standing for 1000 years. But, I agree a billion dollars would do the trick.

It's also obviously enough money to convince the city council that my entire neighborhood should become a walled compound. Ooooh, I could do that and rename it Zambonistan!

[zolotiyeruki]

Indeed, there's a point where it's so much money that even stupendously silly ideas become possible!  I love it!

[Purple_Crayon]

Now that I'm retired, I suppose my biggest fantasy for myself is never having to cook again.  Maybe a personal chef, and a lengthy vacation in Europe.

My friends and I spent an evening crowd-sourcing predictions of what each person present would do with an ungodly amount of money, followed by that person confirming or denying. I'm very well known as being the most low key (boring) person in that group, so they literally couldn't come up with anything that they honestly thought I would spend money on. When they finally asked me what one luxury I would have if money was no object, I answered like you have: a personal chef to cook meals that are always delicious, interesting, and still somehow great for me.

[onward19]

I had so much fun reading the first few pages of this thread! (Then I skipped to the last page to see the current talk). But reading everyone's creative ideas of how they would give away most of their winnings, and their diverse ideas to solve problems in the local community and beyond - that was awesome.
  Wouldn't it be fun if such a thing existed? If there was an organization that just had millions to give away, and they could have a team who did nothing but brainstorm great ways to give those funds to better the lives of those around them? :D

[GuitarStv]

Wouldn't it be fun if such a thing existed? If there was an organization that just had millions to give away, and they could have a team who did nothing but brainstorm great ways to give those funds to better the lives of those around them? :D

That's basically the purpose of government.  :P

[Morning Glory]

Yeah, we have lots of 100 ft trees on our little patch of dirt.

It would be harder than you might imagine to move this house because a church architect had it built using methods that keep cathedrals standing for 1000 years. But, I agree a billion dollars would do the trick.

It's also obviously enough money to convince the city council that my entire neighborhood should become a walled compound. Ooooh, I could do that and rename it Zambonistan!

Those poor trees. I read something about how their brains are at the end of their roots so moving them essentially lobotomizes them.

Sounds like a really cool house though!!

[SpeedReader]

It's fun to see others with the same "problems" I have -- can't indulge in a travel fantasy because of cat care, can't imagine anything more self-indulgent than a personal chef.  I suppose if I had insane amounts of lottery money, I'd move back to Snohomish County, WA to be closer to friends, if only because the family member I moved here for is planning to move further away!

[zolotiyeruki]

I've got one to share!  If you have money burning a hole in your pocket, you can go to Disney World and pay for a VIP tour.  Basically, you pay about $500/hour (minimum 7 hours, plus admission tickets) for a Disney employee to act as your tour guide/concierge, and take you anywhere in any of the parks, riding any ride you want, without waiting in line.  Your guide will get you snacks while you're on the ride, arrange for a van to whisk you from park to park, take you through shortcuts so you can avoid the crowds, etc.

So here's the stupid fantasy:  sign up with DW for a VIP tour.  Show up at the gates early, and find a family (or two!  You can have up to 10 people on the tour) and give them a day they'll never forget.

[Serendip]

Wouldn't it be fun if such a thing existed? If there was an organization that just had millions to give away, and they could have a team who did nothing but brainstorm great ways to give those funds to better the lives of those around them? :D

That's basically the purpose of government.  :P

What a dream that would be :)

Fun to read through these...I love the idea of buying land to protect from development (reminds me of Doug Tompkins who started North Face & Esprit and then bought huge tracts of land in Patagonia).

[zolotiyeruki]

Wouldn't it be fun if such a thing existed? If there was an organization that just had millions to give away, and they could have a team who did nothing but brainstorm great ways to give those funds to better the lives of those around them? :D

That's basically the purpose of government.  :P

Unfortunately, there's seldom a feedback loop (let alone an effective one) to weed out/discontinue the ideas that aren't working.

[GuitarStv]

Wouldn't it be fun if such a thing existed? If there was an organization that just had millions to give away, and they could have a team who did nothing but brainstorm great ways to give those funds to better the lives of those around them? :D

That's basically the purpose of government.  :P

Unfortunately, there's seldom a feedback loop (let alone an effective one) to weed out/discontinue the ideas that aren't working.

At the finer grained level, that is the primary raison d'etre of the various ombudsmen, regulators, comptrollers, etc. in government.

Ultimately, a democratic government reflects the will of it's people.  If a government is undemocratic, or if it's voters are tribal thinking dumbasses then it all falls apart quickly.

[erp]

I have one!

Broadly speaking, my entire industry is a nightmare of patchwork legislation which intersects in weird, unexpected ways and makes it pretty normal for companies to hire people like me to try and work out what they actually need to do to follow the law. I sort of suspect that you could automate relatively large pieces of this work, but that it's such a weird niche (with very high consequences for failure) that no one has taken on some of the bigger pieces of it.

I know that it'll have to happen eventually, but the standardization is a long way off (years, maybe a decade). If I were sitting on lottery millions then I'd probably end up in the software startup space to actually build this sort of system rather than working for the companies trying to navigate the damn stuff. I figure the risk of failure is too high for me right now in my accumulation phase, but someone needs to get this sorted out and who better than a person who's got all the money they'll ever need.

(This is basically my FIRE plan too - there's lots of problems that I'm reasonably sure could be solved well by someone if they were mostly unconcerned with making money off their solution)

... my lottery fantasy is working on the same problems as I do now ... for free ... hmmm. I guess I could also buy a boat or something?

[Extramedium]

I have one!

Broadly speaking, my entire industry is a nightmare of patchwork legislation which intersects in weird, unexpected ways and makes it pretty normal for companies to hire people like me to try and work out what they actually need to do to follow the law. I sort of suspect that you could automate relatively large pieces of this work, but that it's such a weird niche (with very high consequences for failure) that no one has taken on some of the bigger pieces of it.

I know that it'll have to happen eventually, but the standardization is a long way off (years, maybe a decade). If I were sitting on lottery millions then I'd probably end up in the software startup space to actually build this sort of system rather than working for the companies trying to navigate the damn stuff. I figure the risk of failure is too high for me right now in my accumulation phase, but someone needs to get this sorted out and who better than a person who's got all the money they'll ever need.

(This is basically my FIRE plan too - there's lots of problems that I'm reasonably sure could be solved well by someone if they were mostly unconcerned with making money off their solution)

... my lottery fantasy is working on the same problems as I do now ... for free ... hmmm. I guess I could also buy a boat or something?

Good for you, and probably for all of us, too!

[LibrarIan]

I live in a state where name release is optional but the names of winners can be obtained via open records request. So the odds of my identity being revealed are probably higher than in some places because I'm sure a journalist would be nosy.

Anyway, I'd do everything in my power to remain anonymous. I would establish trusts for all my nieces and nephews. My grandmother would get whatever she needed for the rest of her life. My wife and I would start buying historic homes and old farm houses in order to restore them. Just moving from house to house and having fun saving old places. I'd donate a chunk of the money to certain charities. I would also start my own film production company because I love screenwriting and filmmaking.

I'd just ghost my employer. I'd block all their numbers, mail back my equipment, and never give an explanation. Fuck 'em. I've thought it would be fun to do something crazy when I quit but honestly I'd just immediately block any further brain cycles from being used on thinking about them at all.

[Leseratte]

My fantasy today: tell my one brother he can keep 100% of our inheritance, if he never contacts me again....

[Villanelle]

Since this thread is bumped up, I've realized that after buying a house in a VHCOL area, our biggest splurge would be services.  Chef to come in twice a week to cook and meal prep, in-home massages 2x/month, lawn care, housekeeping probably 1/week, and maybe even a personal assistance to keep track of deadlines, run some errands, tend the chickens I'd get (clearly I'd still have to do that some days, of course), schedule appointments, etc. for 2-3 hours a week.  Yes, if I had insane money (like well into the 8 figures), I'd probably splurge for some or all these things, even though they would make MMM cry.  $20,000* year on various services out of, say, $50 million?  Yup.  Without hesitation. 

(I figured $600/mo or $150/week for the chef, $200/m or $100 per session for massage, $150/mo for landscaping, $400/m housekeeping, and $300/m or $75/w for personal assistant.  I have no idea if those are the actual going rates for any of these service though.)

[JAYSLOL]

Since this thread is bumped up, I've realized that after buying a house in a VHCOL area, our biggest splurge would be services.  Chef to come in twice a week to cook and meal prep, in-home massages 2x/month, lawn care, housekeeping probably 1/week, and maybe even a personal assistance to keep track of deadlines, run some errands, tend the chickens I'd get (clearly I'd still have to do that some days, of course), schedule appointments, etc. for 2-3 hours a week.  Yes, if I had insane money (like well into the 9 figures), I'd probably splurge for some or all these things, even though they would make MMM cry.  $20,000* year on various services out of, say, $50 million?  Yup.  Without hesitation. 

(I figured $600/mo or $150/week for the chef, $200/m or $100 per session for massage, $150/mo for landscaping, $400/m housekeeping, and $300/m or $75/w for personal assistant.  I have no idea if those are the actual going rates for any of these service though.)

I would at least double or triple those numbers, not that it would matter for someone with a $50m portfolio.  I don’t hire any of those, but I am a landscaper and you won’t get much for $150/m, that’s only a bit more than neighbour kid cutting the lawn once a week money.  Very dependent on the yard for how many hours of work, but I’d plan on more like $150/visit+, which is an hour or twos work for a pair of pros who have all the right tools and experience and are insured and have all worksite safety gear and permits, because the last thing you want with a $50m stash is to cheap out on contractors who hurt themselves or someone else and aren’t insured or have the right permits for your area and you become target number 1 since it’s worth peoples time to go after you. 

[Villanelle]

Since this thread is bumped up, I've realized that after buying a house in a VHCOL area, our biggest splurge would be services.  Chef to come in twice a week to cook and meal prep, in-home massages 2x/month, lawn care, housekeeping probably 1/week, and maybe even a personal assistance to keep track of deadlines, run some errands, tend the chickens I'd get (clearly I'd still have to do that some days, of course), schedule appointments, etc. for 2-3 hours a week.  Yes, if I had insane money (like well into the 9 figures), I'd probably splurge for some or all these things, even though they would make MMM cry.  $20,000* year on various services out of, say, $50 million?  Yup.  Without hesitation. 

(I figured $600/mo or $150/week for the chef, $200/m or $100 per session for massage, $150/mo for landscaping, $400/m housekeeping, and $300/m or $75/w for personal assistant.  I have no idea if those are the actual going rates for any of these service though.)

I would at least double or triple those numbers, not that it would matter for someone with a $50m portfolio.  I don’t hire any of those, but I am a landscaper and you won’t get much for $150/m, that’s only a bit more than neighbour kid cutting the lawn once a week money.  Very dependent on the yard for how many hours of work, but I’d plan on more like $150/visit+, which is an hour or twos work for a pair of pros who have all the right tools and experience and are insured and have all worksite safety gear and permits, because the last thing you want with a $50m stash is to cheap out on contractors who hurt themselves or someone else and aren’t insured or have the right permits for your area and you become target number 1 since it’s worth peoples time to go after you.

We get leaflets stuck in our mailbox or on our door pretty regularly, and most of them seem to be in the $50 per visit range.  They are licenses and bonded, according to the many ads (from various companies)  I've seen them do my neighbors' houses.  It's a mow and edge, quick weed and bush trim.  I think they are there less than 30 minutes. I also wouldn't want property with a huge lawn or yard, so that would help as well.

But you're right; at $50m net worth, if I have to pay more, so be it!

[Serendip]

After having a disturbed sleep from loud neighbours doing bad karaoke at 1am, I have another lottery fantasy—I would buy the townhouses on either side of us. Would turn one into an art studio for myself
and maybe some other artist friends and the other could be for guests or folks who needed short-term (-and exceptionally quiet) housing.. :)

[By the River]

Our office building is getting a makeover.  Replacing 20 year old carpet, painting some walls, etc. on a section by section basis.  Next week will be the time for my area so we have been throwing out stuff that no longer needed and moving other stuff to long-term storage.  We have to have all items removed from all furniture.  I now have 4 boxes in my office.  2 of active files and 2 personal items.  I will put the personal boxes in the trunk of my car and work remotely next week with a laptop and whatever can fit in the laptop bag. 

I decided to buy $8 of lottery tickets for next week (1 per drawing).  If I win, all my stuff is already packed.  Wouldn't have to come in to get pictures or anything, just put the laptop in the mail.  (I'm sure I would end up working a few weeks handing off projects).