I forgot to buy my ticket–that’s why nobody won! I’m in for the next one. (My house needs so many repairs. I could get none of them done and just buy a nice new house. I could give D a lavish wedding. I could stop worrying about paying for college for my 3 youngest kids. H could retire…)
I’m not posting this from a yacht in the Med … so I didn’t win … but with the next drawing at $1.6B, you get really liquid. The cash option is around $900M. After taxes you’d end up with around $500M in your pocket. Put that in risk-free 10 year US treasurys (3.2%) and you’d end up with $16M/year, or $1.3M/month. I think we could squeeze by on that!
I actually matched 3 of 5 balls and the mega ball which I think gets me $200 last night! First time I’ve won anything like that, and that more than covers what I’ve spent to date on lottery tickets (I’m guessing $100 total in 5 years or so). I still have one ticket for tonight’s powerball and I’m going to drop another $20 for Tuesday :-).
Oh and for your entertainment - if I won really big I know we’d have to keep it quiet as long as possible until we worked out a plan and security and all that. For $200 I figured I could make a humorous FB post about it. Didn’t take more than 10 minutes for my nuttiest extended relative to remind me not to forget her if I ever win the really big one… she says she’d be happy with $1 million. Not that I would ever win… but if I did, I think a firm policy on where the limits of family members we’d give money to would be the first thing to navigate, and she’d be the one who we’d need the policy for (because everyone else is too polite to ask unless they actually had an emergency need).
I do see where it could be a problem with family and close friends. If we won, we would NOT want to make it public, at all. However, we would want to share with those we love. So how do you give a million dollars to someone and either not tell them how you got it, or trust that they could keep a secret? I know for sure that my family could not keep it secret! But I couldn’t imagine not sharing it. Maybe lie and tell them you won some money in Vegas?
There is an Agatha Christie story about a young couple who won the lottery. Their relatives were the sort to drop by for breakfast and dinner. So the couple runs off, thru the backyard. I won’t give away any more.
^^Hmm, that sounds like a murder in there, somewhere!
@RandyErika - The thought of paying as I go for medical care just upsets me and I find the concept of concierge medicine elitist. it’s a theoretical discussion since I didn’t win. I did match 2 numbers, which is better than I usually do.
I live in a state where you are required, i believe, to identify yourself. I would have to check whether you could accept the money as a trust because I would, for sure, not want to be known to the public. My long lost sister would probably emerge from her lair and the like…
I have already decided on the groups I would donate to and I have a few people in mind that I would help. It’s fun to think about helping other people.
That seems an odd thing to be upset about, the thought of paying for your own personal health care. Better if others pay for it? And concierge medicine, paying for better care is elitist? Well, if you win over a billion dollars, you will probably be doing things with it that otherwise you would consider elitist. 
I realize the odds are slim to none, but like some others I consider it entertainment to dream for the cost of a movie ticket. And more entertaining that many that I’ve paid to see!
@busdriver11 apparently in some states (including CA where I live) the law does not permit you to remain anonymous if you win, although you have up to I think a year to claim it. So eventually everyone would know that you won, if you live in one of those states.
In my head (and who knows how this would actually shake out once we talked to financial planners, etc and tried to work out the best way to do it for tax reasons but let’s just say this is the basic plan) if we won a huge jackpot we’d give something like $1M-$2M each to my parents, my sister, and my nieces on my side, and similar for hubby’s side (parent, siblings, nephew), but I’d stop at that level of relationship. Not sending $1M to my crazy aunt with the internet shopping addiction, thank you very much, LOL.
If I were to win, not only would I be totally paying for my own medical care (no insurance needed - no need to be paying CEOs and stockholders IMO), I’d be tacking on the bills of others who couldn’t afford it - not just free clinics, though I’d support those too - but for those with insurance or health share who still couldn’t afford their part of it. I’ve seen folks go bankrupt over their part of medical payments. Some of those folks I’d be helping - anonymously if possible.
At breakfast I decided that if I (buy a ticket and) win the lottery, I’m going to see if Paul Allen’s estate is selling his yacht. And someone else suggested buying an island in Fiji, which I think would make a great enhancement to my retirement lifestyle. Especially if I have a yacht to get there!
If I won, I’d donate to the church, fund S18’s years of college, pay off MY student loans, the car, the mortgage.
Okay, I’ve never bought a Mega Millions before, but I’m in for the next drawing.
I live in one of the states which will not allow you to claim the prize anonymously. I would far rather not have that money then let it be publicized. There isn’t enough security in the world to let me sleep well at night worrying about my family if something like that got out.
The only way I would ever buy a ticket is to drive to a nearby state that allows you to claim by forming a trust. Its a bit of a trek though so I will probably never participate.
We hail from a state where gambling is illegal, so we have never acquired the habit, plus losing money is painful to us. We rather give money to a good home than buy a lottery ticket.
I have never inquired about the rules as to whether gambling winnings of a resident in our state has to be publicized or not. It may be the rules of wherever the ticket was purchased since it couldn’t be purchased in HI. I surely wouldn’t want my name publicized at all.
I’ve never purchased or acquired a ticket. I have tried gambling at casinos but find losing more painful than the minimal joy of any small wins.
The index funds in the stock market is the only gambling we are comfortable with.
Sorry, don’t mean to be a buzzkill. Back to happy dreams and wishes.
IIRC, only Florida and North Carolina allow lotto winners to remain anonymous. In the case I win on Tuesday, I’ll have my heart attack in a hotel room in Indianapolis, just so y’all know when the maid pries the ticket from my cold dead hand. 
In case I survive, I am giving my daughter and SIL the ticket.
@CottonTales said:
From Forbes Magazine:
^interesting to know. As of of few years ago, there were only the 2. The lady in the article sued to keep her name private, yet she claimed the prize at the state lotto office within 12 hrs ago or so of the drawing. Number #1, who does that. # 2, by doing so, her name was all over the internet. No chance of that horse going back into to the barn.