If I Won the Lottery
Posted on October 4, 2009 | Categories: Life, Question of the Week | Tags: money
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Everyone always dreams of winning the lottery – I know I have. I’ve always thought about what I’d do with my millions of winnings, and as I’ve gotten older, my answers have changed. When I was younger, I always dreamed about buying ponies and dolls and trips to Disney World, but now that I’m older (and a little wiser), my dreams are a little more practical and realistic.
On rainy days where I read news reports about the global economy’s continued downward spiral and wish that things were easier for everyone financially, I think about what I’d do with lottery winnings. My list generally goes like this:
- Pay my college fees
- Pay my brother’s college fees
- Buy an apartment for my immediate family in Hong Kong
- Go on a trip around the world with Roanne
- Donate to the American Cancer Society
- Put the rest in a bank account
All in all, it’s a nice list. There are practical and frivolous expenses, and I think there’s a nice balance. Too bad I’m not ever going to win the lottery…
Question of the Week: If you won the lottery, what would you do with your winnings?
Helly
Here in Italy someone has just won something like 135 millions €, so everybody was going crazy about it and all we talked about was ‘if I won the lottery…’ :D
After going to New York I’d buy a nice apartment/house in London, fill it with loads of books and spend my life studying languages, I think :| pretty lame, but there’s nothing else I’d like to do.
Roanne
Around the world with meee? <3 :P Of course you know if I win the lottery I'll totally take you round the world too. Oh can you just imagine, it would be our most epic adventure ever :D
Manda
People wouldn’t know what hit ‘em once our epic adventure starts!
Kaylee
I’ve only thought about buying a house and getting my parents to retire early. I’ve never *really* imagined the situation because the chances are quite improbable — especially since I never buy lottery tickets!
Caity
Interesting question. I’d pay off all my parent’s debt, first of all. I believe I owe them. Second, I’d buy Josh and myself a house. Then, I’d probably donate to some sort of cancer research since my mother has had cancer a number of times in her life. Then, I’d put the rest away until something else came along. I’d continue to work and live a normal life, although more comfortably.
Emsz
I’ve thought about this a lot actually, it’s one of my favourite ‘what if’ games (right up there with what if that gorgeous hunk over there would come over and kiss me :P ).
1. Pay off my parents’ mortgage + new kitchen, bathroom
2. Buy myself a lovely apartment/cute little house in the city near the faculty. (With a room mate and a cat xD)
3. Pay my parents back the money they lent me for uni
4. Go on a world round trip visiting all kinds of places and people from Snark with Clemmie (ohclementine.com)
5. Pay for my brother and sister to go to university when they’re old enough.
And I always thought that if I’d win the lottery I’d just be a student forever, but now that I’m a med student I think I’d just finish uni and specialise etc.
I haven’t really though beyond that.. Most of it is really material, but I like material in my dreams (it’s much more fun in dreams to spend all the fake money on clothes and other things. xD)
Krissy
I’ve never really given it a lot of thought, but off the top of my head, I’d definitely by myself my own home and then furnish it to my heart’s content. :P
Trish
Like you said, I’d pay for mine and my brother’s college fees. Then I’d save some up for living in Japan, then I’d give some to my parents, and then I’d buy a car.
It’d be nice if I did win the lottery. :(
Clem
HAHA, Emma. <3
I would put most of it away… I'm sure I'd splurge on new clothes and books (and possibly a computer too), and definitely donate some to charity.
I don't think I'd stop working. I need something to do. I guess it would be less urgent to have a job, though, so I wouldn't have to settle for whatever I could find.
Jess
Hmmm. If millions of dollars suddenly appeared in my bank account (and I really got to keep it), I think I’d buy a place to live. A flat well-serviced by public transport, I think. I don’t think I’d spend much of the money right away; I’d let it accumulate interest and make periodic, large-ish donations to a variety of organisations whose work I support. I’d also probably splurge on travel once or twice a year.
Like Clem, I wouldn’t stop working if I did win the lottery; I think I’d go crazy without something to do (apart from travel). And if I did work, there’d be no reason to pay back my university debts with my lottery winnings, because the government gets it back through taxation. So, yeah. The things I nominated in the first paragraph are what I’d spend money on! Except that I don’t plan on even entering the lottery, so winning it seems pretty unlikely at this stage.