I’ve done one or two posts on the lottery before. It’s a little guilty pleasure of mine. I live frugally; I don’t smoke, rarely drink, and I don’t have a shoe or handbag fetish like so many women. So throwing $2 a week down on the Powerball or Mega Millions or the occasional scratch-off ticket comes out of my entertainment expenses on my budget. It’s fun to dream about winning the big one and being able to contact David Bromstadt to help me find my new Lottery Dream home, am I right?
My last post on this was about 4 years ago when the Powerball was insanely large. Wednesday night’s drawing will be approximately $343 million.
The nerdy accountant/dreamer in me has a great time thinking about what I would do if I won though. Cash option for Wednesday’s drawing is $233.3 million, assuming a deduction of about 40% for various taxes taken off the top, that would leave around $140 million. Disclaimer, I’ve never won the lottery so I’m just doing some educated guesses. Please don’t send me comments correcting my figures; go write your own blog post if you want exact numbers, I’m just daydreaming here.
Holy Cow!! What would I do with that much money?
First Steps
Well, number one…I’m not going to claim that ticket until after I’ve spoken to a lawyer and a financial advisor. (Actually, number one on the list is probably TRY NOT TO HAVE A STROKE!) And I’m going to tell VERY FEW people about my win.
Next: pay off all my debt (credit cards, condo mortgage, car loan, student loans. Michael’s debt (small car loan and LOTS of student loans for Bellarmine). Nick’s student loans (very minimal). That will take care of about $230K of my winnings. That leaves just over $60 million.
Dream Home
Definitely a nice place for me. I like condo living because I’m not handy around the house and don’t like yard work. With this much money I think I would probably buy a house in my current neighborhood though and just renovate it exactly how I want it. I wouldn’t have to deal with fussy/restrictive condo boards anymore and besides, I think I have enough money to hire someone to do that yardwork, lol.
What do I want in a house? 3 bedrooms with a waterfall shower and soaking tub in the master bath. I also want a fireplace in my bedroom (this is my dream-don’t judge me!).
The other two bedrooms are so the boys always have their own room when they want to come over and guests can use one of them otherwise. The boys were spoiled before with their own bathrooms and guests need a 1/2 bath so that explains that.
A nice kitchen with plenty of cabinet space (because I’ve never had that) but it doesn’t have to have a double-oven or anything fancy like that.
A fabulous home office space for me to do my writing because that will be my new career! It will have some type of nice view, maybe a zen rock garden or something.
A nice deck for entertaining my family and friends (also something I’ve never had). It must have a fabulous fire pit and a nice grill area in case my dad or guy friends want to come over and grill out for me ( I don’t grill but I do like to eat off the grill, lol).
Oh, and a dedicated laundry room. Also something I’ve never had and it’s a non-negotiable for my new house.
Just guessing that my fabulous real estate friends can help me with this and I can get a fabulous house in my preferred neighborhood with all the renovations to make it my dream home for $400,000.
Vacation Home
I promised my parents an ocean-front condo years ago after they took me and the boys in after Rick died. We’ll buy this together and they can stay there when they feel like it and I’ll use it for a writing retreat when they aren’t there.
Car
I don’t like my current car so I think I will just trade it in for a new Honda Accord. Maybe $20K after my trade in?
Parents
My parents currently live in an apartment. They have for years and certainly don’t want to deal with maintenance at this point. I’d love to buy them a patio home or condo. They could live there as long as they need it and then I would just add it to my real estate portfolio when they no longer need it. If they want to stay in their apartment then I would just pay for it.
Same deal with my father-in-law. He lives in a house now but told me recently he’d like to move to an apartment. I’ll pay his housing either way.
The Boys
This is a hard one. I’ve already paid their debts in my initial debt payoff so they’re starting with a clean slate (supreme peace of mind for me!). I think I would give them a generous down payment for a home or condo and then set up a trust for them where they would get a certain amount of money at different times in their lives. I think it’s important they earn their own way.
That being said, these two boys have worked their butts off from the time they could get jobs. Both made good grades so they could get scholarships, and they’ve worked to get their cars and pay their insurance and gas and car related expenses. They rarely ask me for anything. They’ve never once made me feel bad for not being able to give them more as a single mom. These two deserve a break (but I’m still not giving them millions of dollars right off the bat, lol).
Travel
Definitely would love to travel. There hasn’t been any money for this in the last few years. A cruise would probably be first on my list and then a trip to New York City with the boys because I think everyone needs to see Times Square at night. Also a trip to Alaska to see the Northern Lights.
Friends and family
Currently you can give $15,000 to an individual without having to pay a gift tax. Between siblings and some close friends, I can think of about 25 people I’d be happy to gift this amount to. Here’s the thing, I know a lot of people whose lives would be immensely changed with a gift of $15,000. This, to me, would be the best part of winning a large sum of money. I have had many people, both friends and relatives, that have been blessings to me over the years. I would love to be able to bless a large number of people in the same way.
Guess what? Even after all this, I would have so much money left. Of course the tricky part of all this would be arranging to distribute these blessings without letting too many people know about it. That will be really tricky when David Bromstadt shows up at my house. Guess I’ll just have to figure out because I love me some David-he’s on my celebrity best friend list. Don’t worry…I won’t let him talk me into some overpriced house though!
Leave me a note in the comments and let me know a few things you would do if you won the lottery!
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