Powerball Saturday: $150 million

What would you do with your first check?

http://www.walb.com/story/21545812/powerball-jackpot-hits-150m-for-saturday-drawing



• Quit work. And quit again, just to make sure it sticks.

• $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

• Give my sister $1 million. Take my mom on a trip to Europe. Give eight chsrities $250,000 each. Buy an apartment in Manhattan, one in Paris. Sit tight and not work.

• #3, you're giving away $3 million right off the top- no questions asked? That's a lot of money.

• I'd finally pay the $18

• "Give eight chsrities $250,000 each." Would that include Chris Christie?

• Pay rent/utilities I owe, buy some healthy food for a change and most of all help a woman I know who found out she has lung cancer. BTW, she never smoked.

• Oh and give tons to some animal charities and two charities that I know personally are legit and very worthy, The Coalition For The Homeless and God's Love We Deliver.

  R7

• Buy some top quality excrement to eat.

  The%20Streep%20troll%20%28tm%29

• Invest wisely to bring me more money, find a good, trustworthy law firm to deal with (now there's a challenge), buy some real estate, maybe even some fixer-uppers that are worthy of being fixed up with the help of "This Old House" PBS program and choose a couple to live in depending on location and season of the year. Give to environmental organizations that plant trees especially to reverse global warming, prevent urban sprawl, restore rivers (American Rivers is one example) or even are in the early stages of cloning back into existence animals made extinct by human stupidity such as the Carolina Parakeet, the Great Auk or the Passenger Pigeon. Erie, Pennsylvania, one of the ugliest cities in the US, would be my pet project to fix it up to the point of being actually habitable. Find old movie theaters that are still standing but abandoned and restore them and run constant and varied old cartoons pre 1970, as many old newsreels as I could find, especially Pathe News for myself and a select group of people by invitation. Opening to the public for free or an admission of under a dollar (1940s or 50s prices) would depend on rowdyism being kept to a minimum. All this would take more than 150 million I'm sure, but it just goes to show you how useless many of the wealthy are when it comes to "noblesse oblige" in this day and age. One more thing, I would work with countries in the Mediterranean that want to completely restore old Greek or Roman ruins. Further restoring the Colosseum in Rome might be one project.

  Anonymous

• Wouldn't show up at work on Monday, pay off the mortgage, renovate the house, buy a new car, buy a new camera and start traveling.

• Lottery is a tax on the stupid. So I guess the homosexuals will be overtaxed this year AGAIN.

• My first checks would be to open accounts in a variety of places so no one bank has all my money!

• eBay here I come plus rent very large storage locker. Maybe buy one.

  Hoarder%20wannabe

• Get the hell out of the U.S. Set up a philanthropic trust to give away 2/3 (after taxes.)

• I want to buy some land where I own it as far as I can see. It would have forests and wetlands on it. Sort of an informal sanctuary for wild animals.

  NO HUNTING

• r13, wouldn't more of your money be sucked up in maintenance fees by the various banks? Better to have just one bank doing that I would think than several, unless it is worth it to you to keep it that way. I deal with a credit union--started at work a number of years ago. I dealt with Washington Mutual then Chase briefly then switched to the credit union because if I call them with a simple question I can get through to a live person and not have to wade through a bunch of numbers to press, including pressing 1 for English, which annoys me that I have to do it.

  Anonymous

• Aren't banks only safe for up to a couple of hundred thousand and then if something happens to the bank you lose everything above that. I'm not saying this is so. I'm asking. What I'd like to know is how does someone with no experience with anything find a lawyer and someone to help with investments and not get totally ripped off? I mean even people with tons of financial experience trusted Bernie Madoff. When that much money is involved wouldn't even experts that are sort of honest give in to temptation and rip you off, especially if they can tell you know nothing about anything to do with money. It's like going to a garage and they see you know nothing about cars. You're a walking victim.

• [quote]You're a walking victim. You hire accountants to watch over them. If there's anything funny going on, they notify you.

• Maintenance fees, R17? Banks don't charge maintenance fees on deposit and related accounts, certainly not when there's any amount of money involved. They will pay you for the privilege (though not well.) Investment companies (including banks that provide investment services beyond simple interest accounts) have expense ratios for handling more complex investments, but these are typically on a percentage basis -- 0.16% or 1.23% or 2% on X dollars is the same whether split into two dozen accounts or just one. Firms offer some incentive to consolidate investments, but it's a tiny one and available only at high thresholds of investment.

• R18, start out by finding a good tax lawyer. Once you've gotten started with tax planning, ask for a referral for a financial planner.

• Pay off my student loans.

• Pay my property taxes.

• Why isn't California in on Powerball?

• What is the lastest tim e to buy ticket?

• In Texas, the cutoff time is 9:45 p.m.

• I'd go to work as though nothing had happened just to see what it feels like to be there when I am no longer financially obligated to be there anymore. The first time someone ticked me off I'd get up, declare that I'm quitting and leave. I'd pay my tithes, donate to charity, help various family members (close ones that I see everyday)and take an extended vacation.

• Make Permaculture a household name via a children's education charity I'd run. I would draw a reasonable salary and use the rest for the chillins.

• Did someone win? I was too broke to buy a ticket...