Lottery win question

[OneHornedFlyingPurplePeopleEater]

This is my favourite subject, and I'm convinced I'll win one day, but for now It's unfortunately just a dream.

I often think/talk about the lifestyle I'd lead, where I'd live and travel to etc. It will sound ridiculous to some, but I enjoy the dream - it doesn't make me feel shit that I don't have it.

Anyway....I was thinking about the kids. And when I inevitably win the euro millions, what will their life look like.

What would you do? How would you ground them so they weren't completely out of touch with reality? Would you make sure they still persued an education that gave them a career? Not give them money? Give them only enough to make them comfortable but still have to work?

Or when I win £45m tonight should I say fuck reality and set us up so me/my children/potential future grandchildren never have to work if they don't want to?

@Withnailandsigh they all had 50 million fortunes? And all lived in the same place & lived in the same way, seems unusual.

From my experience the mega wealthy are into as much conspicuous consumption as the next person.

I wouldn't expect to stick it in the bank and live from it. With any large amount I'd seek financial advice and spread investment around to try to ensure the money grows at least in line with inflation.

It's why although the 'set for life' sounds amazing, I wouldn't actually quit work immediately. That £10k a month might not be going very far in 25 years, and I hopefully still have longer than 30 years to live.

@LeRougeEtLeNoir why would 45m not go far? I mean interest alone should be pretty decent.

You could spend 1m plus a yr to get rid of it in 45 years but that would be quite a lot of spending particularly if you were buying things that had no investment value. What would you waste it on?

@Withnailandsigh I agree.

What money gives you is

• access to support if your health goes down hill - private GP, consultant, expensive treatments. But also access to support at home (cleaner, cook etc….) when you need the help.
• the ability to chose. Chose what you’re going to do today. Where and how you are going to spend your time. That includes giving meaning to your life in a way you might not be able to when working 9-5 in a job you don’t like.

Thats about it.

@babbygabby I couldn’t tell you what they had in the bank, how would I know? You can tell someone’s not hard up by the size of their estate and the fact they’d spend £100 most nights on food and drink without thinking twice. But very remote scenic villages 15 miles from the nearest supermarket ( and we’re talking co op not big Tesco) only have wealthy folk in them. It’s impossible to live there successfully if you’re poor, no bus service, no employment options, no local school etc doctors and dentists were over 40 miles away. Which is why I left really, it was too hard to raise a family without being mega rich. Stunning beaches and you could walk for miles without seeing another person, no crime, no traffic, no light pollution but also not practical either. I’d move back there if I could afford to, but not until my youngest is at uni because he’d never forgive me! He’s very used to spending his weekends doing city stuff now.

I would endure they weren't bumming around thats for sure.

I would likely down play how rich we were and how much they would get as inheritance or make it clear the money was in a trust dependent on them working (maybe they got a monthly income based on them being emplyed) but while we were alive there lifestyle would be dependent on them being in education or work, no unlimited holidays or flashy things at all, we aren't the type even if we were billionaires.

Most of the money would be invested or put into property so the amount it would enhance our lives wouldn't be very visible anyway. I would use it to increase the size of my business and that would hide the source of our income from greedy friends and family too, they wouldn't be told.

Any cash left over after we died would go into a trust until they were 30 or something. They would have to do something in the mean time.

@Withnailandsigh but there’s a gulf between not being hard up & having 50m in cash which was my point.

@babbygabby depends a lot on how you are choosing to invest your money.

So £45millions will buy you a nice estate but you might well end up asset rich and cash poor (like a lot if farmers btw).
You might invest it in a ‘saving account’. They are around 1% nowadays, maybe a bit more. That’s £450k a year. Quite a bit of money but this would disappear very quickly
eg pay fir private school, a house fir your dc. A few nice hols.

@LeRougeEtLeNoir 450k wouldn’t disappear quite quickly even spending it on private education & nice holidays & it still means your have a large chunk of capital untouched. And you can get a better return than 1%…

I’ve benefited from my parent’s investments as has my dc & they definitely didn’t start with 45m! 🤷🏻‍♀️

I like Shaq O'Neils way of doing it, as he put it, " If you want the cheese, you need 2 degrees ". So his kids need to study & get qualifications to be left money in his will.

Firstly, I'd live a similar life as I do now. Obviously I wouldn't go to work. But I would go to the gym every other day, walk my dogs and buy & prepare good quality food.
I would go on holiday 3-4 times a year.

If I had enough money the DC would get a trust fund with stict conditions until they are 40ish after that it's theirs to blow!
(My conditions would be you work 25+ hours and you can have income from it - excluding first 12 years with their own DC, no dink/ drug / speed related driving offences,... any fraud offence their trust fund is going to siblings,...)

I had the above lifestyle for about 18 months and it was lovely! Ok no holidays and I had a 12 hours/ week job - but still I felt really happy and healthy then....
The thing is, you don't need all the materialistic stuff it's the time you spend on yourself and with your loved ones that is the most important thing in life.

@babbygabby absolutely and I only have limited experience of one village and my city based life now. My argument is, that where culture exists which doesn’t support flashy lifestyles and consumerism then being rich doesn’t have to produce obnoxious and entitled kids. Also, once you have a big house, the school fees and a few other lifestyle perks sorted, any money above that is just numbers on a screen on your banking app. I’m not sure it matters, I feel like the first few million are the life changing ones and the rest is just excess.
But if I see people taking private jets, looning around in ridiculous cars and mincing about in diamonds or whatever I just think they’re a wanker anyway. It’s very ugly to me.

i would hire a nanny so that I can work alongside. I have so many ideas of my own business but whilst LOs are so small it’s impossible. Definitely access to private healthcare for the whole family.
My parents were quite well off. Growing up it did get in my head a bit but life sorted it out. I think one big plus was that my family always spoke about difficult issues, they always held us up to high moral standards and made us read a lot and have proper education. Although looking back I was a bit of a spoilt brat 🤔

I'd buy a nice house, and tell anyone who asked that I'd inherited it from a distant aunt.
I'd buy the houses either side for the kids when they are adults, and 'rent' (for free) them to single mothers til the kids are 25. Then help the single mothers to get somewhere local if they wish. Hopefully they will have saved enough to help themselves anyway. I'd build a little community of single mothers, if I could find a way to make it work without outing myself as loaded.

My kids are still young (tween). I'd pull them out of school for a year, travel, get them private tutors here and there, put them in private school for GCSEs so we still had more holiday time outwith term time.

They are free to choose their path after school - I'd encourage university for the experience, but cushioned with not having to get a part time job to support themselves.

Alongside this, I'd have invested £30m in setting up chains of healthy soup kitchens up and down the country, but really nice ones, to feed anyone who needs it.

Or you could have your own private jet ,if you had won ,Big!

Keep the house you’ve got, and recruit full time foster parents to live a normal life with your kids in it. Visit a couple of times a week, and just don’t tell them that you’ve moved into the millionaire’s pad round the corner.

I'd buy a house for each dc and one for a friend who deserves it. I'd have to find a way she didn't know it was me though because she'd never accept it.

I'd like a bigger house too-one with a study which dh can work in now he's wfh so I don't have to listen to his zoom calls. He'd probably like that too as he won't have top put up with my silly comments. He didn't even appreciate the Chinese Spy balloon I set up to drift past his head during one meeting. He said it was a good thing the background was blurred. 🤣 Tbf the Chinese can probably hear him without a spy balloon the volume they speak at.

And I'd have a room for me with library one end and crafts the other.

After that not sure. That would be enough for me.

I would pay off my children's mortgages and set up some modest trust funds for my grandkids, to pay for education, first home etc. I would expect them to be in employment. Working gives people a sense of purpose. Having loads of money and not working can be a recipe for disaster.
I would also finance our local volunteer animal rescues, provide land and shelters for the (mainly) abandoned cats, pay the vet bills for neutering etc. Stop some of the misery caused by unwanted unneutered animals.
I would also set up funding to help people who are struggling with poor housing etc.
All this obviously depends on a very large win.
If I win a tenner it won't happening 😉

I think about this a lot but most of my plans revolve around things the family business idea, buying a small holding/animal rescue/plant nursery/nature reserve that wouldn't need to be successful so I could just play about with it, so hopefully they'd be inspired by seeing me doing that. My DH would become an artist. I don't think you need to work to still be engaged with the world. I've done a lot of volunteering and there's still a lot of interest to be had even when earning money isn't the focus. Training, studying and qualifying for things that interest you is always enjoyable, I imagine it would be improved by not having to live off beans and fit revising in around part-time work. My kids talk about their career aspirations and it's not based around money so I think they'd want to do those jobs anyway, but at least they'd have the freedom to not feel trapped in the wrong job/career like I do, they could follow their interests.

@Withnailandsigh

because not having anything meaningful to do all day causes issues with mental health.

Not having anything meaningful to do all day, in the context of the thread you mean a job, has been what absolutely saved me from multiple mental health problems.

I'm autistic, have ADHD and PTSD - my meaningful, and that of my children, isn't the same as yours.

@LeRougeEtLeNoir You might invest it in a ‘saving account’. They are around 1% nowadays, maybe a bit more. That’s £450k a year.

If you were getting 1% on £45 million you should fire your financial adviser!

As someone that advises wealthy families, I can assure you, it takes you quite a long way.

You may not have mega yacht money, but even a 1% yield would give you £450k a year and no capital reduction (that’s not what you would do).

I would set up a charitable foundation and spend the income (from the investments I would manage). I would focus on education and children, and take direct applications from families, but also give grants to particular good causes that could apply.
I would be well paid as CEO and have a great team meaning I could continue to travel.

I am confident that in the structure it is a legacy that could last many generations. My kids can work in the charity if they wish.

@x2boys oh that would be lovely wouldn't it. I'd imagine you'd have to have one very big though for that! Like 100 million, but I have no idea how much a private jet would cost. Oh how the other half live

This has reminded me of a TikTok with this woman taking the piss out the of the Tory Government and them saying £5 is more than enough for a family of 6. How much does a loaf of bread cost? Like 2p?