What would you do if you won the lottery/came into a lot of money?

Me? If I had enough, I'd buy an island and start a city state, a modern day Tortuga/Gomorrah. A city that could oust Vegas' title of sin city. It'd be a city of debauchery, of Dionysian hijinks. Bars would be open as long as the owners wanted, public intoxication would NOT even be a chargeable offense, etc.

There would be laws, but few. Like rapists that were convicted on solid evidence would be shot, people who caused too much trouble exiled, etc. There would be some degree of civilization, but I want to run a freewheeling island.

I think it'd be cool. It'd be a popular vacation destination.

I would buy you a house. Then buy you furniture for your house.

I'm a little confused by your tactics, lol.

It's a reference to "If I Had $1000000" by Barenaked Ladies.

1:Pay off the mortgage. 2:Get some needed repairs done. 3:Buy you a monkey. Haven't you always wanted a monkey?

edited 25th Mar '15 11:40:52 PM by Teemo

1. pay for the rest of university.

2. use the money to go to an atelier school like CDA or the Watts Atelier and work my ass off to become the best draftsman possible during my stay.

3. save a good amount for emergencies.

4. invest some of it somewhere wise.

5. use the remainder to buy luxury items (within reason)

1. Pay off my student loan
2. Give the rest to charity. The love of money is the root of all evil, after all.

Keep it, and invest it.

Tell noone and quietly abscond to the Caribbean.

Pay my debts and give me and my family healthy lives, then buy every single type of sword known to man, then invest it and finally build several museums and charities, all for free.

How much money are we talking here?

Pay off my debts and my family's debts. Buy a house, possibly with one of my good friends (we already talk about being crazy cat people together when we retire). Invest some. Donate a lot to cancer research in honor and/or memory of my mom.

Pay off my debt (which isn't THAT much in the grand scheme of things, but it's enough as far as my current situation goes), pay off my mom's debt (which is fairly substantial) and help her get her house ready to either sell or rent out (paying for renovations and whatnot, basically), buy a new car (just a Subaru of some sort, never been one for anything flashy or ostentatious), buy myself a mid-range condo or something (as I hate unnecessary space) and my mom a new place of residence of her choosing (which would likely be along those lines as well), and set up a retirement account. After that, I'd finish paying my way through school, go on vacation somewhere, and buy various other things that I've been putting off. Anything left over would probably be donated. I'm not blowing it on giant houses, flashy cars, overpriced resort vacations, and partying because I have more sense than that. Honestly, I'd rather just work while knowing that I have a rock-solid investment portfolio that will allow me to retire very comfortably, as well as give me some extra money to work with prior to that.

edited 26th Mar '15 7:28:51 PM by HasturHasturHastur

Make sure my funeral was paid for, make sure that hitmen were hired to whack, or at least maim, the more stupid of my family members if they decided to go against my wishes for said funeral, (which I'm not going into on an open forum) and make sure that what was left of the cleverer ones of them were provided for life.

Then I'd get driving lessons, my license, and a Porsche 959 Turbo. And all the safety kit needed like helmet, gloves, fireproof scanties and coveralls etc. Then I would rag the arse out of it until the wheels fell off hundreds of thousands of miles later.

And then I would do it all again.

Then I would probably come up with some way of dying that would fool a coroner into not declaring my death a suicide so that my family would still benefit from my life insurance.

Split it among my parents and brothers and sister. Then, off to Iceland or Norway (but mostly Iceland!) to live and work quietly (but coming back in the Summer for the holidays, because my country is among the best when it comes to the beaches and the sun).

edited 27th Mar '15 7:44:31 AM by Quag15

In descending order of priority, cover my own and my friends' needs to settle outside of the US, pay for the various medical procedures my one friend could benefit from but doesn't strictly need, and save whatever might be left over for when things inevitably go to hell again.

Bank it because I am a terrible investor and keep it there for rainy days.

Priority List:

1. Fund the rest of my education.

2. Buy myself a decent home and vehicle (doesn't need to be luxurious, I'm assuming this is a lump-sum payment and not a recurring gain.)

3. Purchase every game I ever wanted.

4. Stockpile on food, water and possibly tools and medical supplies. Maybe get a fallout shelter just for the hell of it.

5. Donate a good portion to worthy causes, maybe Cancer Research.

6. Save it, you never know when you might need it again.

Fix the kitchen and bathroom. If it's at least a million dollars, put it on my savings account and live off the interest (3% yearly rate with monthly capitalization, that makes around $3000 a month). Then I'd just focus on my hobbies, maybe turn them into something profitable or at least justifying the effort.

@Quag: Very good choice there. :) While you're in Norway, make sure to meet the following interesting people:

• Lord George Brown, ex-Foreign Secretary,
• Mr. Sven Olafson, ex-Norwegian Minister of Finance,
• Sir Charles Ollendorff, ex-Chairman of the Norwegian Trades Council,
• Mr. Hamish McLavell, the Mayor of Wick, the nearest large town to Norway,
• Mrs. Betty Norday, whose name sounds remarkably like Norway,
• Mr. Brian Waynor, whose name is an anagram of Norway,
• Mr. & Mrs. Ford, whose name sounds like “fjord,” of which there are a lot in Norway,
• Ron & Christine Boslo, whose name sounds like Oslo, the capital of Norway,
• Mr. & Mrs. Rita Trondheim,
• Reginald Bo-sankway, who would be next to Norway in a rhyming dictionary, if it included proper names, and if you pronounced his name like that

;P

edited 27th Mar '15 5:50:51 PM by Demetrios