this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2023
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The Powerball lottery is up to $1 billion tonight. If you won it, what would you do?

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[–] [email protected] 129 points 1 year ago (8 children)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Exactly. Do as little as required by the laws of where you live and immediately get the fuck away from wherever you are and start the process to emigrate to a different country. Christmas and Thanksgiving will now be done over video chat.

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[–] migo 79 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Keep a million for fun, everything else, buy a very conservative and diversified portfolio, borrow against it and purchase real estate worldwide in places with water access and least affected by climate change. With profits start funding antifa, anarcho-syndicalist, ecosocialist, and similar movements.

[–] TheYear2525 31 points 1 year ago

How to get assassinated by the CIA in 3 easy steps!

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I like the cut of your jib

[–] Crackhappy 7 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

More power to you comrade.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Sir, here is your pass for "things whose end justify the mean", have a good day.

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[–] rambos 60 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I would come back here and give 1 mil to everyone who upvote me and 2 mil for op

[–] MyDearWatson616 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I upvoted you seven thousand times. Someone else must have given that many downvotes which is the only explanation for why your score is not 7000.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Keep playing to get more rich.

Most professional gamblers quit just before a big victory. I won't make that mistake.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

THIS is the right answer. So many idiots in this thread.

[–] An_Ugly_Bastard 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think you’re right. I’ll put my whole welfare check on powerball tonight.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Have you considered a payday loan so you could buy for next months welfare check as well? Don’t want to miss out for sure.

[–] miseducator 48 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I'll tell ya what I'd do, man. Two chicks at the same time, man.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's it? If you won the lottery, you'd do two chicks at the same time?

[–] SharkyAttack 27 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Damn straight. I always wanted to do that, man. And I think if I were a millionaire I could hook that up, too; 'cause chicks dig dudes with money.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago

Not tell anyone and just quietly retire. Spend as much time as possible with my kids as they grow.

[–] Lemmylefty 28 points 1 year ago (1 children)

-slides loaded briefcase across table-

I would like one (1) healthcare, please.

[–] BloodSlut 10 points 1 year ago

Sorry bud, if you want brand name paracetamol thats gonna cost you 2 billion.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago

Talk to a major law firm about accepting the prize as anonymously as possible. Take the lump sum -payment to the lawyer team and divide it into thirds. One third goes into a trust that I can direct friends and family to with instructions to offer assistance for major life events, weddings, funerals, education and the like. That way I never have to be the bad guy who says yeah, no.

The second third will get invested into low risk bonds so I have a stable income forever

The final third will become what people normally do with lottery winnings, new home, that kind of stuff

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Among other things, I’d keep going to work. I enjoy my job. What I’ll really enjoy is every time someone tries to pawn off something on me that’s not actually my job I’ll tell them, β€œnot my job”

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Being able to go in to work without the same fears that usually accompany those living paycheck to paycheck even if they enjoy the work must be the most freeing thing ever. Knowing you are now untouchable financially so can take a stand if something annoys you enough.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I would buy Reddit and convert it into a Lemmy instance.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

You know everyone would be screaming about preemptively defederating, right?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Cut my hours back at work, maybe take a sabbatical spend much more time with my kids, and go to art school. I’m pretty good at it, but it wasn’t in the trailer park cards.

[–] DrTautology 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Well now that I have "fuck you" money there's a few things on my mind.

First, I'm going to eat at a lot of restaurants. I'm going to enjoy my meals too. Through the whole meal I'm going to be buying iced milks for another random patron. I'm going to make sure the waiter is aware that this good gesture needs to be anonymous and I will make sure that as long as the waiter keeps delivering the iced milks I will keep adding $1000 onto their tip. These iced milks will not stop coming until there is nowhere left for the patron to reasonably sit. This waiter will not have to work for a long time afterwards.

Second, I'm going to buy a shit ton of gold bricks. Like the big one's you envision are in Fort Knox, also known as "Good Delivery" bars. I'm also going to hire an elite team of private security forces whose sole job will be to transport that gold in plain sight everywhere that I happen to go. If by chance my gold is not allowed with me into an establishment, then I will just attempt to buy the place right there on the spot. If that doesn't work, then my team will take the gold and wait with it on public property.

Pretty sure that $1b is long gone by now, but finally I'm going to be throwing paradesβ€”a lot of parades. I will have permits for parades on the streets in front of the houses of all my enemies. These will take place at the most inconvenient possible times that my team of schedulers, planners, and event organizers will be able to find. I will have the dumbest fucking floats in these parades and the shittiest marching bands. I will not stop until I'm sufficient conviced I have broken the spirit of my enemies.

This is why they won't give me money.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Iced milk. That's amazing. I'm stealing this.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'd keep it a secret except from the closest people to me. I'd be incredibly boring about what I'd do with it.

First I would pay off my mortgage and invest a chunk in "safe" investments - so shares in utility companies, funeral business - boring reliable investments - and property and land, across borders. All to try and guarentee I would stay financially secure long term for the rest of my life, and weather financial storms.

I'd help my immediate family financially (siblings and parents, and closest friends) but would not go over board - I'd make their lives better but not ruin them, and would aim to keep most of the money ready to keep helping for years to come rather than splurge out. And I wouldn't tell them how much I had so as not to ruin relationships.

For what I do for me I would think very hard. I'd probably not quit work immediately and I'd try not to ruin my life.

I'd probably look to travel but in bursts - either nice holidays and keep working (I like my job) or quit work and live 3 months at a time in places I've always wanted to be for a bit before settling down again.

Anything I do or buy I would do as someone "middle class". So I'd travel economy plus, I'd stay in decent hotal but not the most flashy, I'd buy a decent home but not a mansion (I don't need a 10 bed home, I'd just get a nicer version of what I have now - 3 beds but maybe detached and in a nicer area).

Basically I'd upgrade my life a little but I wouldn't go wild. I don't see the value in the conspicuously wealthy lifestyle - I'd see money as buying freedom but I wouldn't want to be wasteful, and I wouldn't want to be a target for criminals or leeches.

And the rest i'd start puting to good causes. That would probably be conservation charities, green charities, social projects I believe in. Id want to use it to create some kind of legacy even if anonymous - for me that would be something that meaningfully improved the world in some small but realistic way.

Basically I'd be very boring, stay anonymous and try and make relatively small but meaningful changes to my life and those I love.

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[–] DrQuint 13 points 1 year ago

I would honestly just disappear.

If I had enough money that I can just go "fuck you", that's what I'd do. I'd obviously help my family financially, but probably not as a lump sum except to help them buy property to make houses on. But beyond that, I would basically be away and uncontactable. No one would know where I am and what I'm up to except maybe a couple times a year.

The bigger question is actually what type of charity I'd end up doing. I have some distrust for charities, so I'd want to take a more direct approach, so in all likelihood, I'd be helping a number of small creators I believed in to see if they could get a chance at establishing themselves better.

[–] Zoldyck 11 points 1 year ago

Train a private army to invade Russia.

[–] spacedancer 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)
  1. Hire a fiduciary consultant/accountant to ensure the money is invested into accounts where I can live off the interest more than comfortably.
  2. Travel to all the places my wife and I want to go.
  3. Buy citizenship (via investor visa) in the best developed country that fits our lifestyle and life priorities.
  4. Buy a nice but not extravagant house.
  5. Buy all the non-essential stuff I've always wanted to buy.
  6. Hire a personal chef who will cook healthy AND delicious meals for us everyday, so I only need to cook when I actually want to.
  7. Give a lump sum to each of my immediate family members and my wife's mom and brother. We trust them enough to not abuse the privilege of having a billionaire family member.
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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (8 children)

If I won the lottery, I would start by ending the homeless problem in my state. All it would take would be one stroke of the pen and many people's lives would be improved.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

and then you start getting sued cause someone hurt themselves in one of the homes you put them in, or it burned down, or any of a thousand other reasons, because greedy shitheads exist and are plentiful and will gladly turn your sweet treat into acid in your mouth in a heart beat if they think they can squeeze more blood out of you.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I would definitely have to lawyer up and get as much of my ass covered as possible. Huzzah!

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[–] dreadedsemi 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'd keep it a secret as much as possible especially in the beginning. Hire a financial advisor to invest part of it. Use some for risky high yield investments and some other for easy low yield. Some would stay in bank, some will be to open a business. Some fund for kids. Some for charity. Rest is for fun

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[–] electrogamerman 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Honestly, nothing in my life would change. I would still go to my 9-5 job, then gym, then food, then sleep. But knowing I have a billion dollars in my bank account.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Why do (presumeably) Americans always speak of 9 to 5? Is that the norm there? I work at construction and we work from 7 to 3:30

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I mean, I have won the lottery, multiple times...

But if I won the Powerball Jackpot? Honestly, I probably would hire a financial planner but not change my day-to-day. I like my life and already have plenty of money.

Obviously I'd have to tuck a bunch into my kids' 529s because they would now be completely ineligible for financial aid.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Pay off my mortgage, invest it and live off the interest, and spend the rest of my life traveling with my wife

[–] Macaroni_ninja 8 points 1 year ago

As one stand up comedian once said: the biggest issue is not what to do with the money, but how to keep it secret from the people around you

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I'd ditch it for a million dollars

But really, that'd easily put me in the top 0.1% of my country. I'd probably never manage to spend it all. I'd definitely set aside some millions for ReactOS and other open source projects that I like.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Disappear and never be heard from again.

[–] Floufym 7 points 1 year ago

I would spent a lot on lobbyists to promote tax on rich people. Then, pay lobbyists to promote taxes on financial transactions. Once it is done, gov will have enough money to provide social security, house for homeless, gods education, heath system,… Better that charity, a social state.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago
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