So, how would you really handle the money if you hit a multi-million dollar jackpot in one of the lotteries? Or if you don't play, suppose a rich relative died and left you umpteen millions - same question.

I don't mean what stuff you'd buy or who'd you share it with but how would you realistically manage a sudden influx of thousands of times your annual income? Would you put it all into an account managed by a financial advisor, put a tax lawyer and accountant on retainer, do it all yourself?

Where would you put it - straight principle protecting income accounts, play the market with a mix of equities/income, put it into real estate or some lasting commodity like precious metals? Would you try to see how much you could grow it or just aim to spend the last penny the day before you died?

Everybody always thinks about the wonderful things they'd do with the money (or just make jokes about farming until it's all gone) - from expensive toys to buying a whole new church for the congregation to just blowing it all on hookers and cocaine; or maybe build the church to get right with God after all the hookers.

I've been rearranging my finances getting ready to retire early next year and the thought struck me about how folks would handle the actual mechanics of dealing with sudden wealth.




P.S. If you don't play the lottery then good for you, but no one cares to hear your holier than thou attitudes about it so please spare us.

I'd probably ask a professional what SAFE options I might have to provide the most regular income from it, and then choose from those options.

(I appreciate your "P.S.", but I'll bet you'll still hear from people who don't have a TV set.)

I would turn most of it over to a money management expert.

How is one to watch HOCKEY without a TV set when one lives miles from nowhere?



Jim,

My wife and I have discussed this some. Depending on the number of "millions" or fraction thereof, we have some ideas. Both of us like Hawai'i. If enough was won (coupla millions) or inherited we might move to the Big Island, we could afford to live off our present retirement but we can't afford to buy any sort of a nice place there now. I'd like to have enough left over for a decent size offshore boat, though.

If it were in the multi millions, as in more than 5 million, I'm sure we'd find some sort of very safe account to add a few bucks to our present yearly income and perhaps we move out of the wilderness here assuming we could afford a decent size property somewhere closer to modern medicine (one of her big concerns).

If it were a very BIG inheritance or win, I'd like to think I'd find some sort of deserving cause or charity to get a good chunk, after leaving enough for our nieces and nephews on both sides. We have no kids of our own.

I might take lessons in "sports betting"..................................................but the odds are against that.............

That's pretty much how I've decided to handle my retirement. We've already had a meeting to go over my situation and determined that barring a true economic apocalypse I can keep my same standard of living indefinitely and even grow the principle quite a bit by the time I'm 90. The "standard of living" is what I was concerned about more than actual dollar amounts.



I'm also clear to get a red sports car and a 23 year old girlfriend. If I got the 23 year old girlfriend I'd be flat broke in 3 years but dead in 2 1/2 so that would work itself out...

If you got a 46 year old girlfriend could you stretch that to 5 years and die broke so no one gets any of your hard earned money?

I'd ask strangers on the internet for financial advice. Then I'd throw my phone in the drink and disappear.

Hey, I like that idea! You want a job as a financial advisor?

If I was your financial advisor I'd tell you to get a 19 year old girlfriend, a red sports car, a big boat, and maybe an airplane.................. as I'll make sure all the money is gone within a year................





but you'll have fun

Can’t say, I wouldn’t even give it a thought until I actually had to think about it..you got something you’d like to share with us?

Wish I did, but unfortunately nothing earth shaking. Have recently been consolidating various pensions, company retirement accounts and whatnot accumulated over the last four decades so I've been dealing with those decisions. That got me to wondering what other folks might do to handle a certain amount of money, and winning the lottery seems more interesting than 403(b)'s.

Just making conversation, but you never know when someone will come up with an idea you hadn't thought of, like the 46 year old Valsdad mentioned.

Before I even claimed the prize I’d sit down with my tax attorney to understand my options. Claim it as an individual or as a trust ? I’d want to start in the most tax efficient way. Then set it up to produce steady increasing income for the rest of my life. What I wouldn’t do is buy toys with the money. Most large lottery winners are broke in just a couple of years.

Hard commodity assets physically held.

I knew the Luck family in Virginia. They turned raw land into successful quarries.

E Carlton Wilton was my boss as a boy. He had spent a decade draining swamps which he bought for pennies and then built the very wealthy West End of Richmond.

When I was in South Florida I knew the Torcise family... they had turned worthless land in northern Key Largo into Florida Rock and Sand as well as the Ocean Reef Club.

The paper mill in West Point Virginia is worth ten times more then it last sold for. Why? It is grandfathered. No way in hell such a plant could ever be built again without incurring 10x the cost.

Ken Meckley owns Meckley services in Northern Virginia. He got his start with his uncle in the Pennsylvania scrap iron industry. Used to cut up abandoned dozers and such for the scrap metal value. Sold it when the market was high.

Knowing the value of things. Anticipating the future value of things. Hard work and strategic timing.

Hard commodity assets physically held.

I doubt you could lose it any quicker on whores and coke

Multimillions?
Both kids would get 1 million in separate trusts

With the rest I’d put a chunk into hunting/fishing land.
More and better woodworking tools.
Normal size house and shop.
Move there.
Stop being a pharmacist but continue preaching and doing woodworking.

I’d keep a chunk in reserve to make sure I don’t go broke and provide me a yearly income of what I make now.

Use the money I already have to travel and hunt and live on.

I would hire a cpa to advise me about taxes and stuff but would basically handle my own investments and spending.

If like almost everyone that ever wins a big chunk of cash I would handle it poorly and be broke in 5-7 years!

Actually I would hire pros and get it right.

Simple enough, I would purchase a new Denali and a caravan then travel this wide land for twelve months whilst pondering the issue.


And if I am still undecided I would probably spend the next ? months hunting and fishing 'til I got my answer.


I am nothing if not thorough.

Kids get really nice newer car after 1 year of driving.
Would buy an ice cream stand for my 13 year old daughter to run
with me. An education over the next 5 years that is invaluable.
College loans paid off after graduation, they work during school to help room and board.
A new car at graduation.
Set up with a decent home, if they are stable enough. Under 250k. No showplace.

Done with that.


Property.
Enough to never see neighbors, move around and not see foundries.

Gold/silver. If it's many millions, several million in metal. US held and foreign bank.
It's not about making money, it will yield behind the markets. It's about insurance.


Commercial real estate. Need to be sensible, but would not have to value shop
too much. It's not exactly about getting rich, you are. It's about getting this
money out thereprotected but working for you.

My mom has always wanted a '57 Chevy.

I happen to know (not closely) someone who won $60 million. I also happen to know (more closely) the lawyer who set up the companies, charities, wills and trusts for winner. He’s the first person I’d call.

The aim would not be growth, so much as preservation. Even a 2% return on that money is more than I could reasonably spend every year, so I’d just make sure the principal remained and the excess spread among my son, step kids and grandkids, and their get for future generations.

It’s not going to get any easier for young people. The income gap is too great.

Again I lost $4 on powerball tickets last night. All my long lost kin will stay lost for another week. My army of lawyers will continue to chase ambulances etc.

a variety of diversified passive investments to enjoy a modestly rich existence and then some play money to do things like donate to local organizations, set up scholarships, buy large tracts of land to put it in a trust for conservation and various philanthropic stuff.

oh and hookers and blow too. almost forgot.

Put it in a trust, one at the time 'marry' all of my own kids and grandkids............... give them money, because gifts to a 'spouse' are NOT taxed with the gift tax............ the gift tax is 40% by the way.

If the Government wants to make a joke of marriage, then I can use that.

There is NO gift tax or inheritance tax for gifts up to $23,000,000 for a married couple (thank you President Trump). That's in addition to (a) setting up a 529 fund to pay for college educations and (b) donating $15,000 per year to anyone you can think of. All that is tax exempt too. The Bolsheviks promise to lower the $23mm exclusion to $3.5 million if Creepy Joe gets elected.

I don't bet on the lottery but when I sold my company I set up irrevocable trusts for my descendants in perpetuity. No Inheritance taxes forever. Also, they are exempt from lawsuits, divorce proceedings, etc. Ever wonder why the Kopechne family didn't sue Teddy? A money manager manages my funds and, at my direction, sends me a monthly check.

Contrary to what someone posted above, a good money manager (check references) will not squander your money.

Probably come up with a way to put young kids from bad situations onto a good path. Don’t know if that would mean an orphanage-like setup or something else. It just tears me up seeing little kids grow up in homes with no food, physical abuse, and worse. Many couldn't be worse off if someone smoked the parents and they went into foster care. And that is a horrible situation. Don’t see how I could be rich and simply spend my life enjoying the trivial benefits of that money. Would have to use it in some way to right some of the wrong in this world.

I’d start buying Governor's tags and tuck the rest away for retirement.

I'd buy land with half of it, around here land prices are fixin to boom. the other half I would invest through a financial advisor.

I would do what I currently do and sit down with my Fidelity advisor and work out an appropriate solution.

Abststract question?

One of my Ontario friends is big on buying tickets, sometimes I'll buy a ticket, and mark it with both our names.

It's all for fun, I tell him if we won, and did not know it yet. And here we've been going around being nice to people when we didn't need to.

I heard a guy call in to the Dave Ramsey show that had won one. Dave told him to hire a Tax attorney, a CPA, and a financial advisor. None that work on percentage. And if you ever feel or suspect they don't have your best interest fire them.

To start with, I wouldn't tell anyone other than my wife about the money until it was all in hand and invested. The fewer people who know about it, the better, especially relatives. If the wife can't keep her mouth shut, don't tell her about it either.

You do know, we are better off as we are.

The follow-up stories we read on these 'rags to riches' situations is downright depressing. Within just 10 years it seems, most these folks lives just turn into train wrecks. The most dangerous job in the world used to be a child movie star...but maybe it's sudden wealth.

Land land land.

Anything else is make believe.

I would spread it around and deposit it in a bunch of banks and not spend a penny until one month went by. By then it would sink in the money was mine and not something to just pizz away.

depending on how much were are talking......right here......bob

One thing I've often thought of would be to buy a bit chunk of property
and follow the Thomas Magnum thing.

Buy it under an alias, then go to live there as a down on my luck friend of a group
of doctors and lawyers that bought it, and hired me to manage it.

If I had claimed the money with a trust, my new community would never
know I was filthy rich. They would think i was a Redneck hanger on living
on my rich friends money. That's ok. I wouldn't care they thought I was
living in someone else's nice house, getting nice trucks every few years for
"The Farm"....

Not really. But I'll stipulate that's because few, very few, are prepared (taught) how to handle any amount of money, let alone large lump sums.

Pick a number, 50 million? I've got a good tax man, he's very good for the working class / farmer class. He would probably get fired in favor of a great tax man that is used to dealing with protecting larger holdings. I would seek out a very good estate planner. Third, a wold class real estate broker that is used to dealing with larger real estate transactions.

As far as the money? About 5 million goes into a very diversified stock market portfolio. That should produce around $500K in income a year, which is a lot of money where I come from, more than necessary to satisfy all needs and many wants.

20 million goes into a real estate account to purchase properties as they come up for sale around the farm. The goal is enough land to be able to manage it for both live stock and wild life, so I can shoot deer and elk off my porch in my dotage.
10 million goes into the farm for a capital expansion project, including greenhouses, co-generation plants, a mini hydro plant and three pivots.
5 million goes into a trust to benefit any future grand kids, nieces and nephews, to get them off on the right foot in life. It would be set up to reimburse them for college expenses at a decent school to study something sensible, and would match down payments on houses, etc. No freebies per se, but some boosts along the way to adulthood.
The final 10 million goes into a charitable trust for the benefit of local youth, particularly those "at risk" of following into their parent's footsteps. I still have not seen any model that deals with this issue successfully, consistently and economically. It would be by far the biggest challenge, and probably the most frustrating, but potentially the most rewarding.

Not that I've thought about such things much.. .

That's exactly right, which is one of the reasons for starting this thread.

Most folks will dream of possessions or travel or charitable acts for kith and kin or whatever, but few will think about how to actually accomplish that without blowing it all and ending up with nothing. We all tend to have a certain economic mindset, i.e. we can only safely handle the amount of money we expect or are comfortable with; the "millionaire mind" is what one author called it. Folks that can wisely manage $80,000 per year might quickly lose 20 million dollars until they are back at their former level of comfort. Same with those comfortable with $250,000 per year, they might go crazy with 100 million.

Or not. To be honest, I don't really know what I'd do with a 100 million dollar lottery payout but would most likely see it as almost a burden. Beyond a good house in a decent location and reliable transportation more possessions just means more stuff you have to maintain. You can only travel so much, and at this age my monthly budget for hookers and blow probably wouldn't exceed $1000.


I'm a tactician and planner at heart - individual goals are as numbered as the people on Earth but the paths people will take to reach those goals is what interests me. Ending up with nothing actually isn't a bad goal if you don't want to leave a big estate but timing that nothing with an unknown end point is an interesting problem.

As long as we are just speculating, I always felt that college bound kids got all the gravy as far as grants and scholarships, and that's not a bad thing. But if I had some fun money, I'd like to think up a scheme to help young people showing a willingness to work, maybe some potential talent, to further themselves in skilled trades. Maybe provide some financial help to young men who have talent and skills to start a small business, kind of a Mike Rowe thing. I think it would be fun to watch young people with a little "fire in the belly" reach their dreams.

Definitely hire some professionals. A CPA, tax attorney, and investment person come to mind. I would be very involved and start a on a new career of wealth management.

My brother is a retired attorney. My BIL is a successful accountant and investment manager with 40 years' experience. Between the two of them, they could set up a trust to collect the winnings anonymously, and manage the money for the best return and least tax liability. I'm pretty sure my BIL would love to have one client, not several, at twice his current income.

I’m only 69 yo and never have bought a lottery ticket and don’t have any relatives that are remotely wealthy.
If I came into a lot of money, I’d do some kind of mix of buying land and professional financial management.
Might buy one high end shotgun also.

I have always thought that after I hired a good CPA and Attorney,
I would hire another set, not in any way acquainted with the ones doing my
work, just to audit the workers.


Hiring people you know to manage your money has led many to the poor house.
I'm sure you trust these people.
That's how you get screwed.
And often it's not intentional, especially with those that are close
to you. They don't have to cheat you.
Maybe they try too hard.
A bad investment, don't want to lose your money, so...
A risky investment to make it back....
You are broke!

think big! Two 23 year old girlfriends and die in 1.25 years!

Trust with strings to keep the family from becoming idle rich. After restoring my f150 and a few frivolous things. Land and homes in Colorado are set for a bust IMO.

Old age and a very sick wife cannot be overcome.

Once upon a time I wanted my own steam railroad and a cnc hobby shop (old machinist).

Any chance those numbers in the fortune cookie are right?

Pay off all debt, buy land and build where you want, and find a way (annuity, life policy, mutual funds, etc whatever fits you best) to grow the principal and feed you monthly checks to live on.

Personally I would also work in some philanthropy as well

i'd buy as much of southern bedford county as i could afford.

I have a couple of EXCEL files that I use to play "what if".

The cash option will gross a winner around 76% of the entire jackpot. For example, the current estimated cash pay out of the $116M Powerball Jackpot is $89.5M, about 77.155%. Then, the winner would have to pay Federal and State income tax on the $89.5M. Federal Income Tax would be 37%, so that reduces the net to $56.4M. State Income Tax will take it down a little more, depending on the State in question. In Colorado the State Income Tax would be 4.63%, around $4.1M, so the final approximate net for a Colorado resident would be around $52.2M.

You can set up a charitable trust with pre-tax money if you're willing to follow all of the rules. If you try to avoid legitimate taxes the Feds or the State will look at your trust with a microscope and if you try to get over on them you'll eventually get caught. I think that one of the biggest things that you need to protect against are your heirs being divorced without prenuptial agreements that shields both trust and generational family money from any potential future claims. Bearrr264 told me that if you have money, someone will always be trying to get it away from you, no matter what you do for a community, someone will feel that it isn't enough or that they got slighted, and if you loan money to a friend you're unlikely to ever get repaid.

I'd keep farmin' till it's all used up!

A man might could run out of money too soon that way.

There's got to be a proper mix somewhere.

After paying the initial Fed/State and Local depending on location, with the 52.2 million it might just be possible to buy an island somewhere, pay off the local authorities, invest in tax free bonds wherever available, and live tax free like a "Big Man" in the comfort and style one should be accustomed too.

With enough income from the investments, one could make a nice hunting trip to whatever locations on might choose. Fishing also. Golf excursions for those duffers too (egad, not GOLF )

Colorado Rockies +30000 for the 2021 World Series!

In all seriousness, those who just say "land" may not appreciate the tax liabilities and other issues down the road if you have family you want to include.

10's of millions of dollars really deserves a team that rigorously protects the capital, understands the intricacies of the tax implications, and more than anything, understands trusts and such.

Chit, I am far from a 10's-of-millions-aire and *I* have people that do the above for me. I bet plenty here do, too.

x2

I'd sink a bunch of it into a Campground or a shooting range maybe even a combo of the two.

Those saying “money managers”. You do realize the stories all over the place of famous people having the “money manager” steal the money? A sudden influx and having too much cash is as bad of a problem as not having enough.

First I would see if I could move to nevada or Wyoming for a year so as to potentially not have to pay state tax on it. The amount might be such that a nice piece of real estate there could be paid for by the savings, back to money managers. Most aren’t good at managing their own money and aren’t wealthy themselves. Don’t take advice from people who haven’t made lots of money themselves. Beyond that I would buy real estate that produced cash flow and rate of return.

if you won a million or more you would be a idiot to do anything other than to spend it... Investing is for investors to make money from stupid ass people that don't know they will never live long enough to spend it all...

I believe that if you win a lottery, you pay State income tax based on where you live on the date that your number comes in.

When we sold the assets of our company, we purchased other assets with the income. 2/3 went into resort rental properties and 1/3 went into farm ground, both investments producing a reliable cash flow during "normal" times. The resort condo business is, for lack of a better term, "dead" right now.

No one ever spends it all on more tickets.