According to this, somebody in Tuscany (Italy) won yesterday a lotto prize of 147,807,299 euros (about 212 million dollars). The question is easy: what would you do with that? The answer may not be so easy.

I've had this discussion with my friends many times. We all agree in some points (buying a big house, traveling around the world, donating to some NGOs, etc) but after that, what else would you do? How would you spend the rest of your life?
Some options I or my friends have thought about:

• Getting my own comic-book published (someone added: by one of the big two).
• Producing a blockbuster movie (Abram's STAR TREK had an estimated budget of $150million. You could make it and you'd still have $62 millions left in case it was a fiasco).
• Producing my own TV series.
• Recording a CD and having my fav singers/musicians/producers/whatever work on it.
• Buying a TV/film/comics franchise (An affordable one. Of course you wouldn't be able to buy STAR WARS, but there are a lot of potentially profitable franchises out there).
• Buying my own island.
• Getting myself to appear/star in LOST, DOLLHOUSE, MAD MEN or whatever TV-series I like.
• Giving all my money away and living a normal life as if I had never won such a fortune (only one of us said so, and we didn't actually belive him).

So, do you think you would do any of those? If not, what would you do?

I think I might finally buy an X-Box 360.



And the thing is, chances are... you will make your money back, unless it's a Delgo-level flop. The rate of return just won't be all that great, and it may take a while. You'd probably have the best luck standing back, maybe contributing your own idea, but hiring great writers and directors to bring it to life. But of course that's not as much fun as trying to bring something that's completely your own vision.



Actually, one of the pie-in-the-sky ideas for "if I ever became a ridiculously wealthy multi-millionaire" wasn't just producing my own TV series (though maybe that too), but funding a new season of Firefly. $1 or $2 million budget an ep, and you're only spending a drop in the bucket, and, like with movies, chances are you will make your money back, just slowly. Failing that, being the money man for some new Whedon idea (and hoping we get along well enough that we can hang and hopefully work together on a creative level too).

Of the 'create my own work' ideas, creating a comic is probably the most reasonable and likely idea, since what I'd really be doing is hiring an artist/letterer, and I wouldn't feel like I'm "buying" my way into the industry rather than "earning" it like you do in other fields (like most people who make a novel are chosen by other people because somebody feels they have the quality to do it... likewise for a blockbuster movie. Doing it completely myself I'd always wonder if I _could_ have done it on my own. But for comics, I know I couldn't, because I don't have the art skills).

Mostly, I'd be rather chill with it actually. I'd take care of my family, buy just a secure-enough place that I'm not freaked out somebody's going to target me for my money (if I could live in a small apartment but with nobody knowing I'm a millionaire, I'd take it), but not go overboard on gadgets and still live pretty frugally.

At least in the US, the first thing that would happen would be that about half of it would disappear to taxes, so I imagine I'd start with $120 million

The first thing I'd do would be to invest it to the point where I'd make $300,000 or so a year on interest, just as a safety net. That income would be there for the rest of my life. So let's say that would cost me $10 million or so (without actual rate charts at the ready I have no idea what I'd actually have to invest)

So, now I have 110 million dollars left. After I started up my Netflix subscription so that I could rent 8 movies at once (I know, crazy!), I'd buy an apartment in Manhattan (this one looks nice) for about $4 million. That still leaves me with $104 million left.

That extra $4 million would go to some charities, most of it probably to the Hero Initiative, and maybe some others.

Down to $100 million now...my pocketbook is getting tighter. I would take $10 million and invest it into starting a publishing company, one to publish my own work as well as new stuff and reprint old stuff as I see fit. (Yes, this is what Charles Ardai did with Hard Case Crime, but I'd do something similar)

After setting up these productive things, I'd probably go off and irresponsibly spend $5 million on electronics in an afternoon.

Then I would spend another $5 million on books...actually, I'd probably buy out another apartment just to be my library, so I'll tack on an extra $5 million for that.

Holy crap, I still have $65 million. OK, I'd drop another $15 million on buying some houses in various places around the world, just for variety.

$50 million left. This is getting tough at this point.

I'd give $1 million to the 10 people I'm closest with, more if they needed it.

With the other $40 million, I'd fund creative projects. Some of them mine, but I'd really like to be able to invest in upcoming writers and filmmakers to get their projects produced.

Like Sean, I'd a) have to plan for the IRS taking half my money and b) invest enough of it to provide a safety net no matter how stupid I get with my money.

I probably would not get too extravagent. I'd buy a house, not a mansion, but a nice, large-ish home (and a gardner to come out once or twice a week, cause I don't mind cleaning around the house but taking care of a yard sucks).

I'd pay off the money I own my parents for my car and what they payed for my failed college attempt plus interest.

I'd get a small place for my best friend who, due to his own personal financial issues has been living with his wife at his dad and step-mom's place for over a year.

My brother would probably get a new car and a check each Christmas that would give him some level of comfort (like, say, $5000 each year or so).

I'd probably do my best to contact Mutant Enemy and see if not entirely fund then at least invest a signifigant amount of money into a Joss Whedon project, whether that's another Serenity film, a new Firefly series or Dr. Horrible the feature length film, whatever.

I'd probably donate at least something to some charities, not sure which ones, but definately a bit would go to The Teri Mathis Zenner Foundation for the Advancement of Social Welfare.

After that? Some little quality of life things for me and my close friends (new tv and some video games for me, all the available Doctor Who DVDs for both myself and my friends Tim & Mandy, a big cat habitat for my kitty, etc), stuff that's not expensive on their own, per se, but something that's always put off because of other stuff.

And that's about it, I have no clue what all that would run me, but I figure that would not burn through the entire winnings, and still leave a little nest egg (plus the afore-mentioned investments) to get me through the occasional vacation, and have something remaining in case of emergency.

I'd agree with most of that except I'd get a nice condo apartment on the top floor instead of a big house (I'm too much of an urbanite to want a home too big to fit downtown!), but travelling around the world and donating to some NGOs, yeah!

Stage one:

• keeping my job
• being quiet about the money so I'd still know who my friends are
• paying off my student loans and credit card!
• and my brother's student loans and credit card
• and my parents' mortgage and credit cards
• and taking a crash course in financial planning [all four of these, <1 million US$]
• then carefully investing the rest to earn interest while I decide how to spend it...

Stage two:

• adjusting my investments so I and my immediate family could live off the interest for the rest of our lives, just in case [let's say ~10 million to be on the safe side for a new house or condo for my brother, retirements, health care, future home and car repairs, my wedding if I fall for a guy who has a lot of people he'd like to invite, etc. - I once read a Money magazine article that had a case study of someone saving up to retire on 1 million US$ at age 40something and figuring she'd actually need more to stay middle-class]
• asking my close friends what they need (I haven't already asked how much they need to pay back student loans or whatever 'cause that's too personal)
• helping my extended family - this would include investing so my grandparents can live off the interest for the rest of their lives, education funds for all the kids and the adults in school (anything from preschool to grad school and vocational stuff too instead of only academics), health care, mapping out a diagram of exactly who is or is not on speaking terms with whom among the rest of the adults, deciding whether to adjust for the relative purchasing power of the currencies where they live, probably hiring a lawyer, etc.
• getting a newer computer (OK so I just got a new laptop IRL, but with more money I could afford more and better features) with gloabl high-speed satellite internet (so I can keep in touch with friends and family during my travels!) [definitely <1 million]
• researching NGOs more to decide where the money could be the most helpful (so far I heard the ones initiated by people in the communities that need the help are the most effective), especially focusing on:
  • fighting human trafficking a.k.a. slavery
  • fighting poverty (both locally and globally)
  • improving education (not just academics either but libraries, museums, vocational ed, etc. too)
  • improving public health (medical research, improving the availability of existing methods, etc.)
  • protecting ecosystems including urban ones (and maybe including Zoo New England since it's kinda cool but needs improvement and in financial trouble now and does environmental education)
  and I know my family and friends would most likely add these to the list when I ask them what they need:
  • fighting famine (any ways to do this not already covered above?)
  • helping animal shelters (in more ways than covered by protecting ecosystems)
  • helping people avoid and/or recover from fistulae (in more ways than covered by fighting poverty and improving public health)
  • improving access to courts and justice (in more ways than by improving education)
  I'd want to be very careful here (€147,807,299.08 sounds like a lot at first but some stuff I'd like to do would take billions instead). After all, it would be a bummer to, say, simply announce plans to eradicate polio then run out of money and have to break promises and lay off staff before I'm done. I also would want to save some for future issues instead of spending all my charity funds at once.
• getting a whole new wardrobe from non-sweatshop sources and then getting custom tailoring (my hips are wider than my waist, and these days it's hard for me to find trousers that fit hourglass figures) [definitely <1 million]
• contacting some of my favorite authors and asking them what it would take to continue my favorite series of theirs (for example, would C.J. Cherryh like to write a 5th Morgaine novel if a publisher would accept her book proposal?), making sure to not pressure them about content!
• contacting some of my other favorite authors' publishers and asking them what it would take to resume translating my favorite series of theirs (for example, would NBM like to translate Wake vol. 8-12 into English?) [then, for starters, if the answers are <1 million for these two actually funding them]
• traveling around the world for at least a year, doing more than just touristy stuff (like maybe a Semester at Sea and a semester in the International Honors Program since both do accept continuing-ed students, volunteering in biology or archaeology research, etc.) so I'll have something to show for it afterwards... [<1 million]
• ...that I can put on my résumé for going back to work after traveling around the world
• applying to jobs in cities I'd like to live in, checking out my job offers (including a return to my old job if taking sabbatical leave instead of resigning had been an option before the travel), and deciding which offer to accept and city to move to
• investing in a sustainable, not-just-gentrifying urban redevelopment project in that city and buying a condo in it [let's say ~10 million]
• setting up a xeriscaped roofgarden for my condo's building (to reduce the urban heat island effect) with space for trees, a dance floor for evening parties, a BBQ pit, a playground, community gardening, etc. and open to everyone who lives and/or works in the building to chill out, invite friends and family, etc. [<1 million]

It occured to me that since slavery is down to ~27 million people in the world today this jackpot could be enough to simply buy and free all of them and help them get established, but then would the money paid to the people currently enslaving them be used to buy more people born and/or impoverished and/or kidnapped later? So I'd better stick to chipping in for the experts in the effort.

Downtown Crossing has a big hole in it right now and filling it in with cool stuff could be fun, but

Building a skyscraper farm, above a supermarket and restaurants and stuff because street-level retail livens up a neighborhood, could be much cooler but I double-checked and found this:


Restocking the wetlands around New Orleans, to restore the natural windbreaks that were gone before they could protect the city from Katrina, could be cool but I'm not sure if the jackpot would cover all that.

I don't like to drive and if I got a limo and hired a chauffeur I'd still get stuck in traffic so actually upgrading my local mass transit (in addition to continuing to take the subway) sounds good but that can be pricey too.

Then there's the way streets annoy me:

• street signs that get so bent you can't tell which sign once lined up with which street at an intersection
• not having anywhere to put the snow when you shovel; how about electric wires under the pavement that heat up and melt the snow away?
• not having sidewalks; I grew up in a suburban neighborhood with this problem and I bet this kind of thing still pisses off non-drivers living on those streets today
• impermeable pavements that let rainwater (and the melted snow above) runoff and erode things and evaporate into the air after the rain stops (bleah, extra humidity) instead of refreshing the water table
• being lined with trees that spew tons and tons of pollen into the air and up my nose, just because the city arborists feared people complaining about seeds landing on their parallel-parked cars

but how wide a range around where I live should I focus on and how much would stuff like wires and permeable pavements cost for the range?

Likewise, my only having 1 native language sucks. I'd like to fund foreign-language ed in elementary schools for kids young enough to get the most out of it and not end up like me, but again how wide a range could I cover before running out of money?

So, to add up the non-charity and non-extended-family stuff above, that's <1 million US$ (paying off debts) + ~10 (immediate-family savings) + <1 (computer) + <1 (wardrobe) + <1 (publishing) + <1 (travel) + ~10 million (apartment and its neighborhood) + <1 (roofgarden) = ~<25 million US$, leaving at least ~187 US$ of the initial ~212 US$ for taxes, the charity stuff above, helping my close friends and extended family, unexpected future emergencies, maybe some more patronage of the arts not already covered by educational charity, surprising my parents on their next anniversary with funds for a 2nd honeymoon to all the places they've said they'd like to travel, etc.

Then what would you do with the money after you made it back from making the movie?

D00d that thing has a bathroom the size of a bedroom but its tub looks tiny compared to all the empty floor in there. You could install a bigger tub and swim in it.

Thanks for the link!

Holy crap, I still can't afford the skyscraper on my wish list.

BTW, anyone else here automatically think of dinosaurs for a moment upon seeing the number "65 million"?

Thanks for the link!

Damn, Hsifeng, making me feel guilty about how selfishly I would spend my winnings even AFTER donating $4 million to charity!

Invest in publishing. Namely, ME!!!!

OLDY T

ammo

Gladly. It's not the most fancy nor well-known charties, but it means something to me as I worked with Terri before her death.



Yeah, I felt the same way. Way to show us up Hsifeng!

...which was far, far too soon. That gets me thinking, how could some of the jackpot be spent to reduce the risk of it happening to other social workers again...?

Aw, I wasn't trying to make you feel bad! I just noticed that you two stuck to the budget first then stayed down-to-Earth, while I got all







and only then looked up the numbers later.

Seriously, I've had "what would you do if you won the lottery?" conversations before, but this time it's even more food for thought because ILEscudero's handed us an actual case hence a specific limit on the jackpot. Thanks, ILEscudero!