If you won the lottery....

[snackmonster]

Okay, just a bit of fun!

If you won the lottery (let's say £146 million - basically unlimited money!) what would you do/buy?

Would you give friends/family any money? Or would you hide it from friends?

Would you get a chef or a personal trainer?

Home gym/pool/sauna/cars?

Would you quit your job?

I would definitely buy a nice big house, in the countryside, with plenty of land so I could have a smallholding. Would probably quit my job so I could have more time for my crafting and hobbies. I'd give my immediate family money...not sure about my friends though.

I would buy houses for siblings and a couple of mates - around 10 houses 4-5 beds. Mil can go fuck herself.

Pay for the referb at the local hospice but only if the a certain staff member and her shit taste and lack of infection control and practical thinking are banned from being involved.
That would include cuddle beds for every room at around 18K each, new uniforms and equipment.
Could easily blow quite a bit on this tbh and quite quickly as it's something I've fantasy planned already.

Take a few people to Florida for holiday
Concierge level hotels etc.

Hire a yacht to take me round the Galapagos

Buy a house with a pool, have staff to clean and cook.

Set up trust funds for the kids, ones that pay them to study and pay more for jobs in teaching, healthcare etc. So that they still needed to worked but would earn a lot more for being a dr or nurse say. I'd do this for family kids and possibly friends kids.

Buy the 4 campsites off the scouts and guides that they are shutting down.
Do the work that is needed and set up a charitable trust to manage them away from those associations but for the use of the grassroots groups.

Personal trainer and chef to get me into shape. Possibly look at sorting out my tummy pouch.

Throw money at rare disease research.

Probably have a rabbit Warren built into the giant garden I will have so I can have my own rescue bunny colony.

Buy a very expensive SUP and tour the wild lakes of the world.

I’d stay local but buy a house with a pool and a gorgeous kitchen. One that you can throw great parties in but it’s not so fancy that people don’t relax.

Give up job. Cottage by the sea in Cornwall where I’d write a book, might not be publishable but I’d enjoy it. I’d probably keep the same car as I just don’t care about them.

Charity wise, I’d be supporting domestic violence support shelters and young carers.

Pay off a bunch of friends & family mortgages. Go on fantastic holidays - 3 a year sounds right. Then I’d learn stuff, lots of different things - photography, coding, languages, watercolours, horse riding, skiing. I’d be able to do that because I’d have time to do daily Pilates and my back would be ok.

Oh and get elderly parents some house help - cleaners and handyperson/driver on call.

@GoWalkabout

I'd do nothing for six months and make a really solid plan for how to make the most of it without regrets or becoming selfish.

Oh absolutely, bar maybe a holiday lol. I'm a planner and would have to spend AGES planning it all. With a financial advisor. Wouldn't tell anyone for a while, except maybe DH. Not the DCs.

Big house but in the same area. Ski lodge. Give up work absolutely but still do some voluntary work in a similar field. Buy a horse on full livery. £3m to my brother £1m to all Aunts and uncles and cousins and in laws. Money in trust for son and nephews. Buy mum a bungalow rather than her flat. Lots and lots of amazing holidays . Lots to various charities (human and animal)

Also I just wasted nearly an hour looking at local multimillion pound houses! I don't actually play the lottery, so it really is a waste of time... Fun though.

I’d dish out 1m among a dozen or so close family and friends who have been kind to me. Screw everyone else. Then I’d buy a nice house and set myself up with a cleaner, personal trainer, beauty treatments, meals delivered, new wardrobe, and a bit of plastic surgery to sort out my birth injuries that the NHS won’t cover. I’d probably spend the rest on starting a business, not sure exactly what but it would offer opportunities to improve the lives of poor and average people.

I don't think I'd waste resources on multiple houses and staff - too much hassle. Just plenty of income to holiday wherever and whenever. Maybe a horse.

Give up my job...and spend the first few months looking for my dream place to live...probably a flat rather than a house as would hope not to be there that much as would be off travelling and catching up with friends in random countries...it would be near the sea though. Then the next few months doing it up to how I want it.
Buy parents land/bungalow plus planning permission/architect to make it perfect for them.
Give brother a couple of quid... dont want to overdo the sisterly love
Pay for best friend to go on her dream holiday with partner/friend and possibly deposit on her dream house....
A holiday somewhere hot for another friend and her husband. She's not a massive fan of flying so would be business/first class (at least for her...dont like him lol)
And then bits and pieces ....charities...a bit of shopping maybe...

It's a nice thought-exercise.

I would give a million each to parents/sister/BiL. I would give out variable amounts to relatives that would make their lives easier/more comfortable but not take away their pride or make me look like a cash machine.

We already have a decent house, so that's out. I would give up work, but mostly to pursue my million-pound projects, more than because I hate work.

I would love to help reforest the UK and push the coverage up to 30%, so I would partnership with the Woodland Trust to make it happen. I would also create a genuinely affordable eco-villages with decent transport links and capped rents, so young families had security of tenure and a chance to save up money.

Finally, I would fund the local refuge network.

Become a junkie , lol

Weekly massages

New house

Top hairdresser

Move out when building work done

Get dogs but pay someone to pick up their poo and wash them.

Daily Cleaner (and tidyer upper)

Buy all my furniture from Loaf

Windmill on my land and edge toward being self sufficient

Food shop in Waitrose

So £146m I'd maybe do this.

(Of course I have no clue what word actually be smart financially but this is the dreamworld plan)

1 - stay anonymous!

2 - Put £100m away. Never to touch. Hopefully would accrue good interest and be sort of a family legacy. Also stop work but volunteer on set working hours so I have some purpose. And from the interest pay a decent wage into my account each month. Maybe £3k/month? From that I'd still do my normal save for Christmas/holidays etc.

3 - £10m away for DC

4 - £10m each for DH and I each to give to family/friends as we saw fit.

5 - New house where we are. But wouldn't be much over £1m. Don't need more than 5 bedrooms.

6 - £30k-ish on one hell of a "we won the lottery" holiday.

So that still leaves over £14m. Which would be for helping charities etc. And I'd set up standing orders too.

Wouldn't be much fun in having all that and not using lots to help people.

Travel

I wouldn’t tell anyone how much I’d won (apart from DH, obviously!)

My parents and FIL are all mortgage-free and comfortable so I’d give them a lump sum, enough to let them retire now (they’re aged 56 - 61 and still working). I’d give my brother £1m.

I’d finish my PhD and would still like to work as a researcher but being rich would allow me to take part-time/short-term contracts with no pressure. I could work on things that really interested me.

I’d buy flats in central London, Paris and New York and split my time between them. I’d love a really nice, top of the line car but I probably wouldn’t need one!

I love to travel so with that kind of money, I’d finally get to travel around Japan, see more of the US, go to Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong...

I’d quit my job. No need for it anymore. Retire at 45.
Employ a Housekeeper.
Buy a bigger house with a wine cellar.
Money into dds trust accounts.
Holiday at every opportunity.
Buy a property in Norfolk.
Get a dog.
Give money, buy property and cars for family and friends.

Travel well but discreetly.

Pay for the best you can get weekend trips with loyal friends and set them up with a safety net in a private bank account.

Donate an obscene chunk to all the charities that would turn the stomachs of my in-laws (basically anything worthwhile) and send them a little certificate. 😁

Do the secret millionaire thing but anonymously.

Buy my siblings a flashy home because I know they’d love to show off.

Post cash through the doors of people who I thought needed it.

Buy a lot of crap at Space NK and all the fancy pantry stuff in Waitrose.

Yes I’d quit my job - I like it, but with unlimited money I would like the opportunity to try lots of new hobbies, travel and volunteering which I can’t do while working full time.

I would buy a bigger house, and would definitely have a cleaner and gardener.

And I would gift lump sums to those I love.

Gorgeous house with a big garden, somewhere rural enough for thatched-cottage-chickens-floral-wallpaper-and-posh-welly fantasies but urban enough for Mexican food deliveries. Pay off everyone’s mortgages. Children coming out of my ears until I’m too old; paid childcare also coming out of my ears.

Then yeah, I’d quit my job and study everything I want: landscape gardening, illustration, Cordon Bleu patisserie, poetry.

House for each kid. With a million. (Money also put in trust for them)
Million for both sisters and bils. Smaller amounts for nieces and nephews.
Move. Buy a decent house. With library, music and craft rooms. Buy a decent piece of land to create a nature reserve.
Travel, Australia, big birding trips for dh.
Have me teeth done.
Never fucking work ever again.

I think about this far too much.

I would buy a lovely old house in London plus a house abroad by the sea - south of France probably.

I would give a big chunk to my sibling and they would be the only person I'd tell how much I won. I'd give smaller (but still millions) to other family and my closest friend but would keep vague on the amount I won. As a PP said, I'd time it for a different, lower jackpot. Just think it avoid getting into the "oh they only gave me x million when they won y amount" territory.

No chef or personal trainer as I love to cook and am quite fit, but I would get my own gym, would eat out a lot at the best restaurants, and would definitely get a full MOT of all the expensive beauty treatments!

My job would not see me for dust. I'd spend a lot of time travelling the world.

When you give away big chunks of lottery winnings, do you pay tax on that or does the recipient? I regularly play “modest lottery win daydream” – trickier than a mega £146m jackpot thought exercise because you have to really think about how to be generous, fabulous, fulfil your dreams AND manage to quit your job – and this always makes me pause.

(I’m pro-taxation for the mega rich but I just need to know how to factor it in to my fantasy “I’m giving you £1m” – do I need to double that so they can pay tax on half? Such a worry!)

I personally would would only keep £30m for me and mine.

I'd give away the rest to particular family members and charities.

That's a lot of money that could make an awful lot of difference to an awful lot of people.

And I wouldn't feel any pinch.

I'd fly first class to Alberta, Canada and make a plan.
Ideally I'd end up with a Canadian visa and a houses there. Would by parents a house and pay MIL mortgage so she can retire and move as she says she'd like to.
Would buy a house for dsis and pay 2x SILs mortgages.
Everyone would get a new car (except FIL as he has a brand new Merc) because we all drive old 'ok' cars.
I think I'd buy a house near Loch Ness as it's my favourite place, and let family and selected friends use it for holidays.

I would gift money so parents can retire and set up trusts for nieces and nephews.

When I was more settled I'd get a personal trainer and a beautician who automatically books appointments to stay on top on my eyebrows, massages and facials 😂

I always think it's a bit odd when people say they'd 'pay off x's mortgage'. Why? Why not just gift them an appropriate amount, as you see fit, then let them take care of their own financial affairs as they see fit?

I'm probably overthinking it 😂 but it does seem a bit controlling to me. It makes me think of MIL who is adamant that she would buy all of her children houses with a lottery win.

She doesn't mean gift X amount for a house or let her dc choose a house they like which she'd then pay for - she means buy a house completely, her choice, her viewings, her purchase, then hand it over. It would be the ultimate in control for her (a common issue we've had over the years).

I kind of dread the thought of MIL having a big win - I just know that she'd choose a completely inappropriate house for us, not to our taste, not anything we'd choose. Imagine how uncomfortable it would be to have to say 'sorry we don't like it' when being given a £1m house!

I would build a fabulous play park in every town and village in our largish local authority area, with facilities for the under 3’s and children with disabilities in particular. I would also make sure there was plenty of sheltered seating for parents. I have spent a lot of lockdown pondering this (while freezing to death, unable to sit down, and attempting to stop my toddler from hurling herself to death from old fashioned, poorly maintained equipment). If there’s any money left I will splash out on luxuries for myself.