If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money?

[Yander]

I hate to break it to you, but a million bucks is not "big money." If you stick it in retirement savings and pull the standard 4%/year, that's $40,000. A nice boost to spending money, but it's not going to make you rich. You can't even afford a new pickup unless you kick in some earned income.

Edit:
Have to call Bull on this... $1m would change 99.9% of all yall's lives and you know it. Some more than others.

I wouldn't move or retire but I would probably help a lot of folks... that is life changing and not just yours.

.. How's that Snobdds?

 

[Snobdds]

Have to call Bull on this... $1m would change all yall's lives and you know it. Some more than others.

I wouldn't move or retire but I would probably help a lot of folks... that is life changing and not just yours.

Never argue in absolute terms...it may get you.

 

[Jstpssng]

Have to call Bull on this... $1m would change all yall's lives and you know it. Some more than others.

In some way, shape, or form it will. Some for the better some not, depending on how well they managed it.

Years ago somebody at the local general store won just $500,000 on some type of ticket. Some how word got out that it was John Bates, who lived just down the road from me at the time. I had worked with him for 3 years and even went to his wedding; yet hadn't seen him much for a few years so it would have felt awkward to stop and congratulate him.
Eventually it came out that the ticket had been won by another Bates, who lived 40 miles away and was no relation whatsoever to John.
Not long after that he was out, so I stopped to say hi and congratulated him on his win. We got a laugh out of it, and he said that he'd gotten calls from people he hadn't heard from since graduating from HS 20 years earlier. Consider that he would have gotten around $250,000 from it...

In hindsight, I doubt that he's ever bought a ticket in his life.

 

[Yander]

Never argue in absolute terms...it may get you.

It will NEVER get you when you are talking in hypotheticals

 

[CADplans]

Because the timber was just harvested...

I paid $1,000 per acre for the land a decade before I sold the timber.
I did "fight" for the sell price,, two times the timber was put out for quotes,, with no takers.

Then, out of the blue, one guy came up my driveway on a Saturday morning,, and he had a blank check.
He needed the timber for some contract,, and mine was the fastest available.

So, it was a WIN-WIN,, from my point of view,,,

 

[Snobdds]

It will NEVER get you when you are talking in hypotheticals

Also...never assume you know all things with blanket statements.

 

[Jstpssng]

I paid $1,000 per acre for the land a decade before I sold the timber.
I did "fight" for the sell price,, two times the timber was put out for quotes,, with no takers.

Then, out of the blue, one guy came up my driveway on a Saturday morning,, and he had a blank check.
He needed the timber for some contract,, and mine was the fastest available.

So, it was a WIN-WIN,, from my point of view,,,

A lot of it's markets. Right now wood is selling for record prices. Two years ago we could barely give it away, and I spent the summer running in front of a harvester finding wood we could sell. I chased out over 300 acres scattered over 8 miles of road, to find 1500 cds of spruce, cutting around the hardwood because we couldn't sell it. Normally I can find that on 100 acres as we would be taking all mature trees. Mapping those cuts at the end of the year was a real PITA.

OTOH with today's diesel prices they would never be able to chase it the way they in 2020.

 

[YanmarFever]

I would buy a million dollars worth of gold American Eagles and put them in a safety deposit box !

 

[MossRoad]

I hate to break it to you, but a million bucks is not "big money." If you stick it in retirement savings and pull the standard 4%/year, that's $40,000. A nice boost to spending money, but it's not going to make you rich. You can't even afford a new pickup unless you kick in some earned income.

I’m with you on this Larry. Sure, you could spend the $1,000,000 principle pretty quick, or donate it, or help your kids, but then it’s gone forever.

If you invest it wisely, you can get a modest stream of income that will last your entire life to supplement your other retirement savings and SS, or, reinvest the interest and historically double it in 7-8 years to $2,000,000. And then double that again in 7 more years.

So if I got it today, I’d probably put it in with our other investments and sit on it for 14 more years and leave my kids $4,000,000 more than they’re gonna get if we both croak at age 75.

Yeah, it’s life changing a bit. But not that much. It’s a safety net for our kids until they get in the same position financially as we are now. Then they’ll be able to continue it for someone else.

 

[JasperFrank]

There was never an advantage to buy precious metal coinage unless it has some sort of collector value as being rare.

You never know anything for certain.

My Dad played the Meg-a bucks Lotto Hard. $10 or more on each round.
I thought it was idiotic, and told him so, and all the probabilities, that he was just wasting money.

I was all smug in my assessment, of how stupid he was for doing this till my younger brother called me up and said, "Dad won the lottery." I just dismissed it, thinking, Okay, so he won a few thousand dollars or something on a scratch off. Thought nothing of it afterwards for years. So, I then visit years later, and he has his standard fishing cap on, and it has a little gold wishbone pin on his hat. "Where did you get the pin? That's kinda cool." And he goes "The Lottery People gave it to me." And then explains how disappointed he was that he had to share a 1.5 million dollar winning, with two other people. To his last day, he resented that those two other people picked the same numbers.

Since the new wife and her kids got all the money, I still never gave it much thought, aside from the fact that he got the last laugh on something I knew could never happen... and then it happened.... I still don't play.