Qotd: What would you do if you won the lottery? (01/10)

[Saar]

What would you do if you won the lottery?

[jak]

Oh I have this daydream quite often! Especially when I'm walking from the busstop to my office and pass a newsagency with billboards advertising the next $30 million lottery... I never buy tickets though.

If I did, I'd prefer it be a worthwhile sum (like the $30m!!), but hey, I'd settle for less. One of the first things I would do is go buy the weekly groceries and get whatever I want without worrying how much I'm spending. I'd quit my job - not because I don't like it, but the commuting is killing me. I'd take a couple of months to just hang out at home and pay to get things done that need to be done (e.g. new carpet), go to physio 2-3 times a week and get a weekly massage to help my neck/back... just ordinary stuff. I'd invest a heap of it, including for my kids so that they can afford to live in this ridiculously expensive city when they're grown up, and after that I'd think about what I might do for the next 20 years. That's about as far as the daydream ever gets!

[renatasluis]

Stoo working.buy a bigger house.
Travel more

[tanyiadeskins]

Definitely buy a house with lots of land and get a bunch of animals! Chickens, goats, cows, horses. Pay off all debt. Invest a ton for retirement, set up kids etc. Nothing crazy. Purely fun...add travel!

[Sasha]

Originally Posted by tanyiadeskins

Definitely buy a house with lots of land and get a bunch of animals! Chickens, goats, cows, horses. Pay off all debt. Invest a ton for retirement, set up kids etc. Nothing crazy. Purely fun...add travel!

same here.

[adi&co.]

I would pay off all my debt, and then the debt of my family members, buy a house and invest the rest.

[ChristineF]

Weekly cleaning service, a personal trainer (one of those who run after you screaming to make you work harder), take time off from work and travel with the kids and husband.

Get season tickets to the local football team, and the husband's favorite English team. Mostly I'd buy myself time and just have a great adventure.

[Neverland Scraps]

- Tithe my 10% to our church

- Pay off all our debt (mortgage, cars, etc)

- Put enough in to savings for the kids to have free education and housing when they graduate

- Buy my husband a new car so we can give the oldest his car

- Go on vacation to Disneyland and visit a bunch of places in between here and there

- Pay off my parent's debt (mortgages, cars, bills)

- Give money towards his family's debt (they own a business and I'm not paying that off!)

- Invest the rest for my children and ourselves to live comfortably.

[biancka]

Probably buy a bigger house (allthough husband says we will stay in our current house if we do ever win a lot of money) and also hire someone to clean our house....that would be richdom to me for sure Other than that.........finally get my drivers licence & buy a car, put money aside for my son's future (college, housing etc) and give our families money too.

[rach3975]

Just so you know, if I'm going to imaginary-win the lottery, it's going to be an *enormous* jackpot! Now I've got the money to do any and all things I'd consider.

My son has a rare genetic disorder, something that occurs in about 1 out of 25,000 births. It isn't well understood or funded, so first I'd donate some of it toward SMS medical research and organizations that help people with disabilities.

After that, I'd move onto things for us. We'd fully fund Jason and Lauren's college accounts and set up a trust for Ben, since we don't know yet whether he'll be able to live independently and find a job. We'd invest for our retirements and help my parents with theirs. We'd probably buy a new house and make some travel plans. We might look into special needs private schools for Ben and see how they compare to our public school system. Then I'd quit my job, spend a few months on other non-work priorities, and then start figuring out what I wanted to do with my life (work or volunteer-wise).

Oh--and I'd use the free time to finish all the scrapbook projects I say I'll get to one of these days.

[kim21673]

We would put an addition on our house (office space for hubby) and a wrap around porch on the front of the house. We would totally update the inside and I would get my dream craft room!! We wouldn't move because we love our area and the boys love their schools! Plus we have soccer teams we can't leave!

We would pay off all our debt and give money to my parents so they could enjoy their 70s. We would set up trust funds for the boys so they would be set for college and after. We would invest some too. We might possibly give money to my siblings but wouldn't give any to hubby's family.

We would build a vacation home on the beach somewhere warm.

We would travel A LOT more.

[joelsgirl]

Originally Posted by jak

One of the first things I would do is go buy the weekly groceries and get whatever I want without worrying how much I'm spending.

Yes. This. Not to have to think about every.single.dollar. is my dream. Not to splurge on something big (well, except for first class tickets to/from the States, I'd splurge on those), just to be able to live my everyday life without have to think about how much things cost and can I afford them.

[AmieN1]

Lol the hubby has this seriously all planned out!

1st- pay off the mortgage & the little bit of student loans I have left.
2nd- finish our basement, do all our home projects
3rd- buy a lake house
then he has a whole list of cars he would buy!

MY first would be quit my job! While I love what I do & my office, if I didn't have to work to pay the mortgage- I wouldn't!

[Saar]

It's so fun to read about your dreams and about what you would do with the money. Keep them coming!

[littlekiwi]

Pay my student loan
Put $5000 in savings of some sort
If I had enough to share, I'd help pay my mums mortgage off
Buy my own house (now I'd only do this if I was working and knew that once the lottery money had gone that I could still pay for the bills etc - that may seem like a weird idea but the last thing I'd want to do is get into financial trouble down the road because I made a rash decision with my money)

[anelia]

I'd buy a big house, a nice car, donate to animal shelters, travel some more, hire a personal chef (lol), invest some in real estate to live from the rent I'd get and put some into savings So, basically, I wouldn't work and would live a bit better.

[LJSDesigns]

I would start a scholarship or two to help young people go to college because education really can make a difference in our lives. I would give money to the charities I support, move my mom into her own home with a nursing staff, pay off my brother and sister's homes and then I would move to Disney and live happily ever after.

[kristalund]

Good one!

Pay off our Mortgage, Mom's Mortgage, IL's Mortgage
Buy a vacation home
Travel
Invest
Pay for Kids college
Buy new cars

The list can go on and on!!!

[LeeAndra]

---pay off all of our debt
---invest
---put money away for retirement
---put money away for my kids' college & weddings
---buy a nice house
---buy 2 nice cars
---donate to my church & the non-profit I sit on the board of
---take my kids to Disney World
---plan a trip to PEI with my bestie
---travel to Ireland and see my great-great-great-grandfather's book in person at Trinity College
---travel to the other 6 continents (yes, even Antarctica)
---write a book & then a screenplay based on it
---give the rest away: charities, scholarships, paying for people's groceries at the store, giving away gift cards on the street, investing in start-ups, etc.

[cherrygutz]

Oh yes me too!! And continue to help on charities. And then I could buy all the books I want ehehe

Originally Posted by tanyiadeskins

Definitely buy a house with lots of land and get a bunch of animals! Chickens, goats, cows, horses. Pay off all debt. Invest a ton for retirement, set up kids etc. Nothing crazy. Purely fun...add travel!

[Sherri Tierney]

Basically, we would want to secure our financial future while still living as we do now. We would pay off the house (only debt), do the remodeling that is already on our list and fill our acreage with goats, horses and whatever animals strike my fancy (we have rabbits, chickens and ducks)

We would make sure younger kids are set for college, give something to older kids (my step-kids) to help them out and set aside trust money for our granddaughter and future grandchildren.

We would do something for each of our parents and siblings based on their individual needs. Some of our family members are very irresponsible with money, homes, etc. so we would have to think carefully about how best to help them without just enabling them.

I would stay at my current job, at least until I determined what my dream job was. I wouldn't do it for pay though. I would ask for a new employment contract designating my pay to be given to the building I work for as a donation to be used to help students/families in need.

My husband stay at his job as well. We would likely just invest all of his income as we wouldn't need much to live with the house paid off and college funds taken care of.

The only thing we would do that would really change our existence in a big way is that we would adopt a baby.

[KristinCB]

Travel. I'm sure we'd do other things.. smart stuff like put money away and invest and everything else but my main thing would be to travel. And to buy a house somewhere quiet where we can be outside in tranquility.

[lovely1m]

Pay off my house, invest, retire from the military and open my own business and travel!

[kim21673]

Oh...I thought of one more thing that hubby and I talk about all the time. Since our boys play year round soccer, we would LOVE to our own indoor facility for our club. Right now we rent space from another indoor place and it would be nice to have our own building with lots of space to practice when the weather is crappy or have games!!

[JennNtheBoys]

What I'd do would depend on how big of a Lottery it was.... lol

First Things I'd do would be set my family up for financial security
- Pay Off debts
- purchase a home to call our own (with plenty of land to build an eventual homestead)
- a new vehicle (tired of 10 year old cars being the newest we can afford)
- set up college funds for the kids (and also a fund they can have to use as a down payment when they are ready to buy their first home.
and then these are my secondaries after that
- Pay for school so I can finally get (or create if I have to) a job for myself
- Pay back my brother for allowing us to stay with him while we get back on our feet (and help him fix his place up)
- Pay off my other brothers mortgage so his family can live more comfortably on their income.
- pay off my inlaws mortgages and debts so they can enjoy retirement without penny pinching
- same for my Mom... if she doesn't move in with my bro after we leave (as is the current plan) then I'd buy the house she currently rents so she can work fewer hours or retire if she decides its time.

Now if we are talking BIG BIG BIG Lottery
I'd like to set up a fund for my town.... it is a super cute town with a lot of history... I would love to be able to help out in building restorations / upkeep, fix empty building up to allow people to set up shop, fix up or rebuild old empty apartment buildings, rebuild the water front park.... basically anything that would bring more people to live in the area and as we are a province that survives primarily on tourism help to make the town booming once again to draw more visitors in. and being a 4H family, and spending a lot of time at our run down Exhibition grounds, I would also love to buy more land and help the committee rebuild a bigger and better area for te exhibition and other events to be held.