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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[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I mean, with luck like that, I'd buy a lotto ticket

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago
[โ€“] s6original 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

My usual luck would appear and I would die in my sleep before I can cash out.

[โ€“] NABDad 5 points 1 year ago

One thing I would do is keep working. Not because I love the job. I'd want to stay and keep working until someone pissed me off. Then, I'd rage quit!

I've always wanted to rage quit a job, but I've got too many responsibilities. It would be nice to be able to tell my boss to piss off.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

There is a comment on "that other site" that goes in detail about what to do. It starts with "You're fucked" and shows that you really have to be careful who to trust and what to do to not be bankrupt in a few years. I'm on mobile and short on time, but it's worth reposting here.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I'd buy as many billboards as possible and use them to troll whomever I feel like.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Run off and never be seen again. Maybe live in a bunker idk

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[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I would be incredibly surprised, as I do not play the lottery. I'd probably start by getting a lawyer to handle it.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Your odds of finding the winning ticket on the sidewalk about about the same as if you bought a ticket. I'm not sure if that changes the surprise level.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I guess you're kind of right, in that they're both essentially 0. But the odds of winning the lottery are still ...millions? of times higher to win by buying one than finding a winning ticket on the street.

/pedantry

[โ€“] schmeeboggs 4 points 1 year ago

Quit my job. Buy a new mattress and sleep stress free. After I get some actual rest, go from there. All the while, keeping it a secret.

[โ€“] utiandtheblowfish 4 points 1 year ago

Go find that old post from AskReddit and follow it to a tee.

Outside of that, I'd probably buy a house closer to downtown, buy a new truck, and start to figure out how I can increase the quality of education in rural South Carolina.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Piss off the mortgage first, then sit for a bit and think about the rest.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Not tell anyone if possible. Big winnings are the way to ruin in most cases.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Let's be a bit more realistic, I won 1 000 000 โ‚ฌ. I would donate most of the stuff:

  • Transfer 500k โ‚ฌ to the National Bank of Ukraine;
  • Transfer 70k โ‚ฌ to nonprofits in my city;
  • 30k โ‚ฌ goes to spread the message of FOSS and Linux to Lithuania. That includes:
    • Establishing and maintaining a nation-wide open-source social network, primarily targeted for IT
    • Funding to FOSS projects in Lithuania (I don't know any ATM, though)
  • 100k โ‚ฌ goes to global IT non-profits, such as:
    • Wikipedia;
    • Lemmy and the Fediverse;
    • The Linux Foundation;
    • et cetera.

I am left with around 300k โ‚ฌ that I'd use for myself.

Non-capital (leisure and hobby) (40k โ‚ฌ):

  • I'd like to have some free time/make my close friends happy, so ~10k โ‚ฌ for that.
  • Also, I'd like to travel to Japan, meet ZUN, have some alcohol-free beer with him. 10k โ‚ฌ for that.
  • 10k โ‚ฌ for travelling (leisure) across Europe (incl. attending FOSDEM).
  • Knowing myself, I'd really have some mad and stupid ideas appearing in my head, 10k โ‚ฌ for that.

Capital/investing (260k โ‚ฌ):

  • I'd definitely have to buy an accomodation in Kaunas or Vilnius (I hope it's not Vilnius) if I'd like to continue my career in IT, so 100k โ‚ฌ for that.
  • Education (in a period of 3 years) (10k โ‚ฌ):
    • LFCS/LFCE courses
    • Advanced mathematics and algorithms courses
    • Professional soft skills training
  • 10k โ‚ฌ is reserved for a black day, unused.
  • 15k โ‚ฌ of non-profit network infrastructure (hosting FOSS projects) (incl. maintenance for 4 years)
  • 15k to have an individual for-profit business.
  • Distributed investing (90k โ‚ฌ, incl. investor costs)
  • 20k is another buffer money for household expenses.
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[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Skipping past the obvious of paying off debts and buying a decent house, I'd do this:

Found a company to sell tech products (Pinephone, but cooler). Only the best benefits, work environment, basically everything I hate about any job I've worked, fixed. I'd hire good people, and make damn sure they're treated well. After everything is going well and with some kind of charter so they can't decide to be evil, I'd turn the company over to my employees. I'd step down and become a janitor or something and work ~20 hours a week until I retire.

Whatever money's left over, if there is any, is given away.

I want to work. I like working. I just want to work somewhere good, ya know?

I'd just buy my employer but they made ~450m Euro after taxes so they might want more than a billion. Also fuck audits.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Make a way bigger bucket list and actually start competing it.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Make sure my mom's in home health care is paid for for the rest of her life, so that she can continue to live in her house as she wishes while she is still with us, retire from my paid career early, do volunteer work instead, and travel often.

[โ€“] superflippy 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Build a high-speed train from Columbia, SC to Charleston, SC. In the grand scheme of things, it might seem like a waste of money. But man, for the few dozen years Iโ€™ve got left on this earth, it would be awesome to see & experience.

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[โ€“] dan1101 4 points 1 year ago

Pay off my house, pay off close friends and family houses, buy a bunch of land, buy cool cars, travel.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'd finally donate to Wikipedia. And NPR. So much so that both of them won't have to ever ask me for money ever again.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I've got a couple of people in my life I would set up, take care of my family's long term debts, set aside enough to retire tomorrow, and find a charity I really liked to donate the rest... the fuck I need that much money for?

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Start my own research company.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Pay off the mortgage and quietly live out the rest of my life, probably on the interest alone.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I already live where I want to live. I would probably buy up all the open land in my county. Get my friends to move out and live on one of my properties. Fix up this 120 year old farm house. Install a pond and more water features to hold onto rain water. Probably run some electric fencing get solar power go off grid. Pretend to be a cattle rancher. Try to turn this homestead into my very own paradise. But iโ€™ll probably employ a-lot of people create some jobs do more charity work.

[โ€“] Sudo 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Give my uncles, aunts and cousins a cool mil each, give my mom and my sister 10 mil each, buy some real estate on the coasts, and most likely fund some Democrats in Florida and Texas, do some traveling

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Buy a private island, get drunk and give a large portion away to random people

[โ€“] xikufrancesc 3 points 1 year ago

no importa lo que hagas ni pienses, vas a morir igualmente

no matter what you do or think, you will die anyway

[โ€“] Kadaj21 3 points 1 year ago
[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Safe investments to make sure it lasts and then I want to start a charity to help people get access to mental health care, help feed the homeless, and do other stuff for my community.

Also pay off debt and finish college

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I'd immediately try to give away most of it to a good cause I carefully researched or pull up my own organization that tries to tackle problems that could be improved with that kind of money.
You can't be a billionaire and a good person as you decide to not share an outrageous amount of wealth you couldn't spend in multiple lifetimes without diving into more and more absurd forms of consumerism.

[โ€“] ji88aja88a 3 points 1 year ago

Keep it a secret until my kids finished school and became adults. Then travel for endless summer, or maybe autumn. have some investments as backup in case things go balls up

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