I wish
One of the things you get when you play the lottery -- come to think of it, the only thing -- is the chance to fantasize about what you'd do if you won. As I picked up my Powerball tickets on Saturday, trying to explain my conduct to my impressionable daughter ("Dopey Daddy!"), I gave myself a good taste of that.
Some solitary soul in Lincoln, Nebraska just won the $365 million jackpot. Even when you get past the fine print, that's still way more dough than I would know what to do with. Let's see: If you took it all in cash, they'd cut it in half, so now you're down to $182.5 million. And then there's the income tax hit -- let's say it's 44 percent total -- federal, state and local. That still leaves $102.2 million hitting your bank account 60 days from now. Happy Orthodox Easter, baby!
Where would my $102.2 million go? You start with your charities, I guess. Put 10 percent aside for contributions -- probably in some sort of private foundation, now that I'm a rich s.o.b. So now we're down to $92 million. Next, let's peel off $20 million for worthy family members -- but not all at once, we'd like to avoid gift taxes as much as possible.
That leaves $72 million. Seventy-two very large in the bank. You ought to be able to get 5 percent a year return on that, even if you put it into something really conservative (and that would be me). $3.6 million a year before taxes -- let's say you clear $2 million after all taxes. A monthly allowance of $166,667. Two million a year to play with, forever, and there's still $72 million to leave to the kids at the end.
I could handle it. Crank up the Jimmy Buffett, people, I'd be on the next plane to the beach. Somewhere like this.
| Posted at 1:19 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (15)
Ah, but would you leave it all to the kids? Or would you make like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett - and only leave 'em $10 million apiece?
Posted by Kari Chisholm | February 21, 2006 2:19 AM
If the estate tax is still around, my $72 million nut would get whacked down to $39.6 million. That's $19.8 million per for my two. Hey, they're twice as good as Gates's!
8c)
Posted by Jack Bog | February 21, 2006 2:55 AM
The best part of my fantasy lottery win is paying off my debt baby!
Posted by P&S | February 21, 2006 7:56 AM
From whatever warm and exotic location I landed at, I would check in on this blog just to see what you all are up to. And then I would go back to my nap in the sun.
Posted by Slacker | February 21, 2006 8:11 AM
It's Nice Week? I thought it was Nice Week! I'm so confused.
Posted by Chris Snethen | February 21, 2006 8:34 AM
Damn you, Snethen! You beat me to it... :-D
I heard that the guy in Nebraska was going to net a little North of $120M -- like 123 or 124.
I always figure a decent rule of thumb for your net proceeds with Powerball is 34% of the total prize (that's assuming that you take the lump sum which is actually slightly more than half the total, and factoring in taxes). Thirty-four percent of $365M works out to $124.1M, which was awfully close for Mr. Nebraska.
Why, Jack, with that extra dough you could practically buy your very own private (dare I say it?) ... naw, it's Nice Week after all.
But a [rim shot] is kind of a nice sound, ain't it? ;-)
Posted by David Wright | February 21, 2006 8:56 AM
Damn you, Snethen!
Is that how they talk in Nice? That's not very nice.
Posted by Chris Snethen | February 21, 2006 10:57 AM
Now, it will be said that those people over at Jack Bog's Blog couldn't be nice to save their lives. But I figure it's kind of like how the OT prophets annoyed people by telling the truth. They were nice in God's sight, if not Man's because they were motivated to make things right.
Posted by Cynthia | February 21, 2006 11:07 AM
My wife and I, should we win nine digits in the lottery, will buy a minor-league baseball team before we put the rest away in the conservative investments. That'd be the only frivolous expenditure.
Okay, not the only one. I'd want a nice car, a lot of travel, and a killer flat-screen TV in a refurbished basement.
Come to think of it, maybe it's better to win the lottery when one is very, very old. Less pressure.
Posted by teacherrefpoet | February 21, 2006 11:26 AM
My uncle used to say his not winning the lottery was God's way of saying He wants him to live. That probably goes for me as well.
Posted by Chris Snethen | February 21, 2006 11:39 AM
My uncle used to say his not winning the lottery was God's way of saying He wants him to live. That probably goes for me as well.
So True. So True.
Posted by justin | February 21, 2006 12:35 PM
Does being a blogger get me on the "Worthy List"?
:-)
Posted by Cousin Jim | February 21, 2006 1:38 PM
Yes, but you must get a band together and play a party I'm throwing in Nice.
Posted by Jack Bog | February 21, 2006 2:00 PM
It was really nice all those working folk won the lottery, I saw them on the news tonight and it did feel good that they won it and shared it no bickering. A nice surprise for coworkers.
Posted by swimmer | February 22, 2006 6:12 PM
Did I miss something? How did we get from a solitary Lincoln Nebraska winner to a gang of co-workers in Illinios?
At my office we had a pool with 120 shares of one dollar each. I was fanstasizing about my mere $1 to $2 million or so - not enough to retire quite yet. I told my wife I was planning to give a lot of it to our church. Whether I would actually do that or not ...
Posted by Gordo | February 23, 2006 9:00 AM