Someone from My Town Won the Lottery...

The owner of an eatery that we frequent won 4 million about a year ago. He took the payout of $200,000 a year for the next 20 years. Still lives in the same house, still drives the same 15 year old Ford Ranger, but just bought some land so he can fish in his own pond. :) Other than that the school that his only grandchild attends will probably see the most money from him. It is nice to see him enjoying life finally because he was/is a hard worker and deserved it. Funny thing is that he actually won $500k about 6 years ago and used it all to pay off his wife's medical bills. She sadly passed of cancer a short while later. It is nice to see that money doesn't change everyone.

House, car, charity. I'd probably start a foundation, with that kind of money. Something for kids.

I don't, but I know someone who recently got an unexpected inheritance. If I won the lottery, I'd pay off my debts, get good financial advice, and probably splurge on some home improvements and a car (ours are all older vehicles). I'd pay for the kids' college. I would also make some charitable donations. No Kardashian nonsense here.

I have heard that if you have an idea, you are much less likely to blow it, be it money from a raise, or a new job, or an investment.

House and car for my family, help my dad and in-laws out (either buy house or fix the current one up a bit...)

Pay to finish college, and help siblings with theirs as well.

Have some fun!

Become a contributor to my favorite charities.

Invest the rest so that it will pay out a livable wage for the rest of my life while I indulge in whatever exciting hobby I decide to pick up. :)

The first person we would contact would be our financial advisor, legal and tax counsel. Then, we'd go from there with investments, gifting, etc. We would not become an ATM for anyone.

Many people who do win lump slums of money have no idea how to manage it and the money is gone within a short time. It is really sad because if they were smart about it, they could possibly have an instant retirement or at least speed that process up. "Instant" money tends to burn a hole in a lot of people's pocket.

I have a SIL who plays the lotto often and has won up to $15,000 at a time and it is sad to see how she still lives in a run down, dirty, area in squalor when all she has to do is practice some delayed gratification to help sustain her for the rest of her life.

We practice delayed gratification and while yes, we'd probably blow a small portion to get it out of our system (hubby daughter and myself) bottom line is that we'd be setting up our family for years to come, including potential grandchildren, etc. with college funds, retirement and homes.

The only change a lotto win would make in our family is that the investments would facilitate an earlier retirement and we would not change the way we already live. We would most likely keep it as secret as possible to keep the vultures away and donate to our local city to improve programs for children and animals.

My husband and I would both quit our jobs and travel for a year, for starters. Then I'd finally go back to school for a masters and just be able to focus and study without working a job at the same time and/or worrying about the debt piling up - that would be amazing! Oh, and while I'm in school I would hire a personal chef so that we could eat delicious healthy homemade food every meal without stressing. That sounds like my idea of heaven right there.

I would keep it a secret if that's allowed. Honestly, I would live my life just like I am now. Me and my DH are very good about saving money, so we have a lot put away. The best part of our lives can't be bought with dollars.

Do more work on the house-- second full bathroom in the basement and a half-bath upstairs in our attic master bedroom.

A car with A/C would be lovely.
I could splurge on a whole collection of Smartwool socks and some high-falutin' houseslippers too.

Donations to charities, esp. the ones which provide micro-loans for women in developing countries. And Heifer International-- I would buy a lot of livestock for people who need it! What was left would go into college savings for Kiddo and to use for some nice vacations. Rent the beach house with the hot tub-- that sort of thing!

If we were to come into some money, we would move to Colorado and open an Irish BandB. We would brew our own beer, and have a bistro.i would also teach the kids to be ski bums.

And I would have a house that had a massive library, a music room, a art room and then your regular rooms.

I would love to be able to pay off my mortgage - and all the homes of my extended family (MIL, FIL, brother, sister, SIL) And then college for my kids. I would put a lot of money into our town. Education and parks. I also have had this pipe dream about a getaway house that can fit the whole family comfortably. Perhaps in the mountains.

And lastly, there's that trip to Italy for my husband and me.

I would take a long vacation with my family, all of them that wanted to go. Heck, I'd invite everyone I enjoy spending time with. I think a cruise to start off then when that's over we'd go off on our own trip.

Of course we'd hire full time help to go along with us and we'd stay in the bast largest cabin.

After being totally pampered we'd decide where and what we were going to do next. We've thought about how fun it would be to travel and do a world cruise but they don't stay in one place long enough to really see or do anything.

We'd probably give our current house to someone and work with a designer to plan the perfect home. We have newer vehicles but I imagine we could find someone to give them to and buy ourselves new dream ones.

I also think I'd go to fat camp....I don't know of any other way to find new ways to live. My cousin went to a place as a older teen, Schick I think, and they taught her things like ice cream looks like pus when it starts to melt, chocolate looks like poop, etc...to this day, in her late 50's, she's never eaten those things again. She is thin and healthy and gorgeous.

There are many charitable things to do with money, time, and effort too, but those are organizations that need to be researched so that the money you give away is not used to do detrimental things to people or animals.

Being able to have money to go to the doc, get prescriptions filled, never have to go hungry again, never have to get stranded on the side of the road in a vehicle with kids in a snowstorm due to old vehicles breaking down again, and so many more things like that. Security for the rest of your life. What a peaceful thing to have.

How fun it would be to know "I have a million dollars in my petty cash account and I can have anything I could possibly want". Then not having to have anything because you don't have any needs.

We would take the payout over 30 yrs. That way we always have money coming in. We would pay off everything, including my mom's stuff. Setup an account for my husband's mom so she will always have access to money. And donate to specific charities. And we would totally remodel where we live, put up a new fence and make our yard (huge yard) fun instead of just a mowable grassy yard. And then we would make sure we have fun. A summer long vacation comes to mind.

I don't know anyone who won that kind of jackpot. About 20 years ago, I had a coworker whose fiance won $15,000 several months before their wedding. They cancelled their Miami honeymoon and went to Italy and Spain instead :)

I would not want to win $120 million dollars. That's more money than I'd need in my lifetime and need to leave to my two kids. I don't want to live a Khardashian lifestyle, no interest. It would be a fulltime job to research what charitable causes were reputable and worthy of my money. I'm 46 and have no desire to retire at my age.

If I won a significant amount of money, I'd pay off the mortgage and make updates to the house. I'd buy my 18 year old a car - or probably buy myself a new car and pass mine on to the teen. We've never had a budget for vacations, so I'd plan for us to travel a couple of times a year. I'd still expect my kids to work and I probably wouldn't indulge in too many luxuries, but I probably would take myself into the city and see any Broadway shows, ballets and operas that I wanted. I'd just be glad for my kids to get through college with no loans! That would probably be good enough for me.

I would get financial advice asap. I would tithe 10% to my church. Then I would do the basics...buy a nicer house, newer cars and furniture. I would set up funds for each of our kids. For our immediate family, I think I would give them a ONE TIME flat amount, say 300k, and tell them they can do as they wish with it but I will NOT give them any more. I would also give money to charities and churches. I would probably go on a REALLY nice trip with the kids each year. I can't imagine going totally crazy and blowing it all like many people do.

That's so cool! Oh, the possibilities!! I think I would take the lump sum, too. With good investments, you'll end up with a lot more over time.

I would pay off my house, buy a vacation home/condo in Maui and probably get a second vacation home in Mammoth (or our local mountains) for ski trips. And maybe a third one in Europe somewhere! :D

Other than that, donate to charity and my kids' schools, help a couple of close friends out of debt, and add a huge chunk to the college funds for my kids. I'd probably give my sister some money to add another bathroom on in her house. I'd probably give a chunk to UCLA, my alma mater, as well.

My every day life wouldn't really change though. I like my house and we already did a full remodel when we bought it, so there really isn't a lot I want to do to it. We love our town and my kids would stay at the same school, keep doing their same activities, etc. The one change to my daily life that I'd consider - someone to cook for us a couple of times a week!

I would have it changed into smaller bills and fill the bath tub with $$$ and just soak.

Seriously the first thing I would do is get a finance lawyer and a financial planner. Then RAK in a big way. It would be great if it happens around Halloween. I would dress up as Oprah and do my version of "my favorite things". Then I would homeschool the kids for 1 year so we can do a year long road trip.

The first thing I'd do is make sure the tax situation was in order.
The second thing would be to pay off the house.
Then I'd set up investing most of the rest so that the principal can be largely untouched and the investment income would be the part to use when necessary.

My husband has a dream of setting up a foundation to issue grants towards aspiring independent filmmakers, so we would work towards that goal. It would be off the proceeds of investments though so it would take time to establish.

So many lottery winners end up bankrupt within a few years because they strap on a party hat and spend the money on 'stuff' and vacations. Even the generous folks make a big mistake by using the winnings to paying off their parent's mortgage, buying a new car for their brother, donating large sums to worthy groups. You have to plan, wait, be cautious. Then you can help many people for your whole lifetime instead of a few people all in one go.

It is not pleasant to think about but I can think of several people we know that would show up at the door with their hand out. Winning a lottery would create a huge amount of drama and stress in that regard. My state does not allow anonymous collection.

OH!!! I have this fantasy often! LOL

Not THAT much money, just enough to a "few" things.

Be a stay-at-home mom, volunteer at my kids' schools, adopt 2 more kids (after I build or buy the house I need to fit us all in!), college accounts for our kids, nieces, nephews and some close friends, and buy my brother a house. Actually, my hubby and I also have talked about a hard working couple we know and love that we would buy them a house as well. We also have a couple that we would want to give our current home to. We have outgrown it, but it would be perfect for them!

I always wished to be able to do most of it anonymously, though. I also have actually sat down and figured out how much it would cost to give all the employees in my school district a nice "bonus". We have had some pretty rough times lately. Like I said - I dream of this often!!

I know a family that won...it was around 8 million. By the end of the second year the wife had to go back to work full time to cover all the bills they had racked up because they only got one check a year for 25 years.

They did not listen to their financial advisors and follow their advice. They got sued by clients that were previously happy with the work the husband had done as a contractor.

Their lives became a big fat mess...

So, first of all I would contact my current financial advisors. Find out how to set up trusts or whatever is needed to safe guard the money and then not do anything rash or in haste. I would want to pay off all our debt. And I would like to take the kids to Disney. Other than that i would just want to wait and see how it all works and how much we could earn in interest each year on the money...then using only the interest see if we could live on that amount. Or if we need to keep on working and save the interest (rolling it over a few years and then retire). Pretty boring but I would want to play it very very safe and not end up in worse shape than before.

Good for them!

As the slogan either is/used to be in PA - 'You've got to play to win'... I will never be winning ;-)

I have an aunt that used to work with these type of people. She's got a lot of stories to tell! She says it's better to set up a non-profit with your family on the payroll than to just hand them money. She also said few of her clients would listen-and many would show up in a limo wondering why they have so little left.
I wouldn't change much-but it'd be nice to afford occasional vacations, a car that didn't break down so often, and a better school system (ours is good-but there's always better).
I don't live far from the lotto winner (young woman) that made the news a few years ago because she continued to collect food stamps after her win. She also made the news for arguing with neighbors (who claimed that she partied constantly), and when she overdosed and passed away. Sad.

One of my fears is that my husband and I would divorce. It's not as easy for him to say no when folks ask for money, although he assures me that he would not have that problem with lottery winnings. He says that we wouldn't even tell anybody. I know how to say no and not feel guilty about it.

Charity and beach house. :)

(Awesome news for that family, but at the end if the day, the lottery is a sucker bet.)