this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2023
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Pretend the $20 million is guaranteed, and if anything will increase slightly over time.

What problems could be significantly improved for $20 million?

(I am dreaming of winning the $1.55 billion Powerball drawling. Then taking the lumpsum, posting taxes, investing, and spending 4% each and every year. I understand that the actual may be more, or less than the started amount.)

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[–] neptune@dmv.social 48 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Start a charity foundation, but pay poor people in your community to lead it, instead of local millionaires.

[–] PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com 7 points 9 months ago

Oh dang, that's a good idea!

[–] room_raccoon@kbin.social 37 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I would get a really nice house with a big fancy kitchen and then continue being a hermit, except I'd do a lot more drugs

[–] PlasmaDistortion@lemm.ee 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

So just a typical lottery winner.

[–] room_raccoon@kbin.social 13 points 9 months ago

Sure. I never claimed to be special or anything.

[–] dandroid@dandroid.app 25 points 9 months ago (1 children)

If I came into an unspendable amount of cash, I would make it my full time job to research things to donate to. Charities, or any charitable organizations, medical research, housing the homeless, feeding/infrastructure/sanitation for poor countries, open source projects, etc. But I don't want to donate to just anyone. I don't want to donate to those shitty fake charities that use their donations to line the pockets of their top people. That's why I would spend a considerabe amount of time researching these groups.

The way I see it, after I buy all the things I want, a house, a fancy car, etc. I couldn't possibly spend more than $1M a year on my family. That gives me $19M a year to donate. I don't really care to keep a cent more.

[–] MNByChoice@midwest.social 8 points 9 months ago

You are probably spot-on. While I am able to do some things, a charity that is already doing things will likely be better at it.

[–] BeefPiano@lemmy.world 18 points 9 months ago (3 children)
  • UBI for people who are currently unhoused. This is proven to increase the economic prosperity of the entire region, leads to better outcomes than shelters, and is cheaper than current homelessness support systems.
  • Buy medical debt. You can clear someone’s $150,000 debt for like $200.
[–] MNByChoice@midwest.social 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Great idea. Some cities are doing this now. I feel once it becomes widespread, it will be gamed and prices will increase.

[–] BeefPiano@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

That’s why it’s a stepping stone to actual UBI. The U means you can’t game it. Give billionaires $10,000/yr too. Then tax the shit out of carbon to pay for it.

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[–] MNByChoice@midwest.social 18 points 9 months ago

$20 million is a lot, but not an infinite amount. As the cash flow is close to guaranteed, one could get into long term projects and hire staff.

Paying total compensation of $100K, one could hope ~200 people. No money left for offices though.

I would consider increasing the local standard of living by buying a few minimum wage type businesses and over paying a little, ~5%. I would hope that this causes an employee shortage and increases wages. Continue raising wages at a rate the other businesses can keep up with. My reasoning is that I can only hire so many people, but increasing the prevalent wages will benefit far more people.

I also think I could open a at-cost medical clinic. I don't know what that would cost, but I bet someone will tell me really quickly once I have the money.

I don't think I would have the money to:

  • Set up a new bus system.
  • Setup district heating for a town

I feel like I am playing "small ball" and not grasping the opportunities.

[–] PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I'd donate a quarter for 4 years to my city to create a biking network, with some smaller portion donated after the 4 years for maintenance.

I'd almost certainly help the local schools get up to date teaching materials and try to supplement their income by literally just gifting them money. There's only around 1000 teachers in my city, so it wouldn't be too hard to do that.

Obviously myself a senator and representative.

Then idk. Get a personal chef and personal trainer?

[–] MNByChoice@midwest.social 6 points 9 months ago

Giving to the teachers is great. I had looked up my school system's budget and got discouraged, but a few 10's of thousands each as gifts to the teachers and staff is more affordable.

[–] Nindelofocho@lemmy.world 12 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Id like to buy some properties and rent them out super cheap to those in need. Cheap not free so that its a bit more sustainable in the long term and the money would go back into the properties. Id also like to do a thing where once a year the tenants get to skip a month of rent or so

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[–] Extrasvhx9he@lemmy.today 12 points 9 months ago

Donate to some privacy related projects like grapheneos and signal

[–] nueonetwo@lemmy.ca 12 points 9 months ago (2 children)

After taking care of myself, friends and family, and what not I would start acquiring land that I would donate to my community for affordable housing and other community projects with the condition that I get to name everything built on it. All streets, schools, libraries, etc will be named by me.

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[–] qooqie@lemmy.world 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

How I always imagined it was I would live a nice middle class life with no worries for bills and shit. Then with the rest of the 19.7 million or so I would run a non-profit charity for people in locations that are unable to receive potentially life saving medications or treatments. Think abortions in the US as a major one, I’d want to help women get to a state they can safely get an abortion and then help them protect that info. Abortion bans are a classist issue, rich won’t be affected and they’re the ones who generally vote for this shit. But yeah that’s my dream, eventually I’d hope to get enough funding or money to expand that to a world wide endeavor with my own hospitals setup in regions where I can offer help the best and guarantee info protection.

Oh and I’d take a lesson from the fediverse and make my funding and how it’s used be free for viewing and pretty much presented first so people can trust my charity.

[–] SuperSpruce@lemmy.ml 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Quit work and take lighter loads in school.

Buy a nice house in Maine right on the water.

Buy a supercar, and all the motorcycles I could ever want.

Go on crazy adventures like an Appalachian trail thru-hike.

All this would be less than 10% of my yearly income. The other 90% would go to charity, helping the homeless and bolstering free and open source software.

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[–] Xel@mujico.org 9 points 9 months ago

I'd go to universities all over the world and ask teachers and students to show me their projects and ideas to help society. There are some incredibly smart people out there that could change the world if we helped them.

[–] PlasmaDistortion@lemm.ee 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I would identify people in need that are renting a home and taking good care of it. Then I would buy the home and sell it to them for $1.

[–] LastYearsPumpkin@feddit.ch 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I know this is pie in the sky, but look into how habitat for humanity does this. You would be causing a lot of trouble for those families.

Tax burdens for the purchase, because you're essentially giving them a lot of money. Kind of like how the people Opera gave cars to couldn't always afford the taxes and ended up having to sell the car.

Also, predatory lenders look for people in that situation and trick them into getting loans on the house to get "free" cash from the equity and then the people just immediately lose their house and end up in the same place.

There are ways to protect them from all of the above, just need a little more than just "give house to good people"

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[–] bubbalu@hexbear.net 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I was gonna say, take my boyfriend to fine dining restaurants and fun shows every week, but even assuming we took a $400 each way flight and stayed at a $500 hotel and paid $200 a plate and $75 a show, that still comes out to just $150,000 a year.

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[–] bizzle@midwest.social 8 points 9 months ago (4 children)

$19,999,950 worth of cocaine

Two $25 sex workers

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[–] June@lemm.ee 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Quit my job

Pay off and renovate my house.

Buy a new car, something nice but not over the top.

Set up services for my neighborhood to drag the people round me out of poverty and ensure every kid gets the chance to get a good education.

Ensure all housing in my neighborhood is up to code and in good shape/safe to be lived in.

Pay off the debt of every person in my neighborhood, prioritizing medical and student debt.

Buy the people I love the things they need, set up trusts for their kids, pay off their debt, help them financially without enabling them into their bad habits.

Feels like that should probably reach $20m fairly quickly.

[–] jaackf@lemm.ee 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Whilst I am very anti landlord, that last point is interesting.

Say, if someone had enough money to buy out thousands of houses and made them cheapest around, undercutting everyone, then sold them to the occupants if they wanted to buy... Would that somehow fix the renting crisis we're in today?

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[–] tooclose104@lemmy.ca 8 points 9 months ago (2 children)

All mine and my family debts paid. Immediate and extended. Friends too. Then a life of leisure followed by paying the debts of the strangers I meet along the way.

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[–] cosecantphi@hexbear.net 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Pay off my debt, buy a modest home, go back to school, never work a shit job for minimum wage ever again.

But I don't need anywhere near 20,000,000 dollars a year to do that.

After some large donations to communist organizations, I'd put the remaining few million per year into buying commercial slots on every major TV network in the US. Then I'd create Jury Nullification PSAs and blast them over the airways continuously until the message sinks in universally that juries are under no obligation at all to respect the laws currently grinding marginalized people into dust.

[–] Tak@lemmy.ml 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's honestly enough money to start a worker coop too. I would also love to have like 20 different companies all spinning around and changing names giving every employee crazy titles. Ah yes, you are a manager and if anyone asks you've been here 5 years and were amazing, sad to lose you.

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[–] fleabs@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago

Bloody helfire. If I had $1,000,000 I would never have to work or worry about money again. I can't even comprehend 20 million.

So I guess I'd take 1 million, and then stuff the rest in some charity trust thing that could help my local community.

[–] orangeNgreen@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I’ve daydreamed about that Powerball jackpot as well. I’d spend as much time traveling the world. There’s so much out there to see, and I’ve only ever really spent time in a small part of my own country. And I’m not talking about a few days here and there in new places. I’m talking about spending weeks at a time experiencing other cultures.

[–] Haui@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 9 months ago

Well, since I don’t need a lot in life, I‘d keep a mil to invest and mostly live off the dividends. Maybe two if everything sucks.

The rest goes to educating youth. It’s literally the key to curing cancer, colonizing mars and eradicating inequality and fascism.

Have a good day.

[–] Joker@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 9 months ago

Probably live on a million- maybe 2- and spend most of my time giving the rest away.

[–] shiveyarbles@beehaw.org 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Tell nobody. Enjoy the security of having options.

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[–] danhakimi@kbin.social 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

First of all, you're right to take the lump sum, definitely take the lump sum.

Then... There are some things I'd definitely want to spend on up front, like housing in particular. In the long run, the money would pay my property taxes, fund my clothing hobby, support parties with my friends, etc. I'd probably get a private chef to cook good, nutritious meals for me regularly. A personal trainer and a private gym in my home. And I'd travel more.

This advice is important:

https://np.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/24vo34/whats_the_happiest_5word_sentence_you_could_hear/chb4v05/

[–] dingus@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I feel like the lottery tends to end badly for people because they are stupid about it. Why would you go around bragging to people that you won and flashing your cash? And if you have a shitty relationship with people you know, it really isn't a great idea to stick around them if you've suddenly found yourself flushed with cash. And the people who end up bankrupted from gambling and wild spending episodes afterward are probably among the stupidest. Winning the lottery isn't a curse. It's just that people are dumbasses.

Yeah, invest in yourself first. Pay off all your loans/debts and buy yourself a nice house in cash. You don't need to live in a crazy mega mansion, but just having a modest house in your name that is fully paid off is invaluable. Get yourself squared away and then start worrying about others.

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[–] emmie@lemmy.ml 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Probably give milion to someone that really needs it in person and to see how they react.

Money is just such an overrated thing to pursue. Sure you can try to drown your worries in it, try to escape but the happiness is always inside

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I would pay off my mortgage, and buy a car that isn't it electrical hazard on wheels.

Once that is done that I think I would set myself up as one of those prefab home manufacturing companies. They're pretty good houses albeit architecturally uninteresting, and they solve the housing shortage problem relatively cheaply.

Also I'm going to steal my next door neighbor's motorcycle and drive it into a lake, in order to stop him and his terrible midlife crisis habit of starting his engine at 4:00 in the morning and leaving it idling for 4 hours. Of course I could do that now, but if I wait until I'm rich then it'll hardly even be a crime.

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[–] Squirrel@thelemmy.club 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

First, I would find out who I need to pay to find people for jobs I need done. I hate dealing with people. Also, I suck at knowing who to call.

Then, I would get someone to rebuild my house, better, stronger, faster. My house is nice, but it has some major issues. Mold problems I can't fix. Lousy insulation. Floors that let us hear everything going on between levels. A ridiculously small master bathroom.

More importantly, I would pay for a better education for my kids. I homeschool for various reasons (via videos and on a curriculum), and while their education is solid enough, my daughter could use someone better than myself for subjects where she struggles.

Once everything is set up with a lawyer, I would set aside money for close family members.

Oh, and I would hire a maid and a chef for my house. I like cooking, but I also like not needing to cook. And who enjoys cleaning?

My wife would surely either pay for landscaping for our yard, or she would buy a boatload of plants and do it herself. Probably somewhere in between; we've got a rocky yard that no amount of personal labor will make manageable, but I think she enjoys the planting.

[–] justhach@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

Oh, man, so much.

Free/pay what you can kitchen, for starters. Subsidized rental properties, all sorts of community projects.

[–] Bizarroland@kbin.social 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I think the first thing I would do would be to rent an RV and just go driving around the country and up into Canada and see all the different states and all the different sites and things to see and get used to what it's going to be like to travel constantly and not be nailed down anywhere.

I feel like if I spent 6 months doing that before I made any dramatic decisions about what else to do that would help get my head into the right spot.

Of course I would first pay off all of my debts and I would probably reach out to all of my friends and family and give them a nice little surprise cash, something like $500,000.

I think I would make them sign a notarized contract that says that they agree that if there is any past grievance they have against me they consider that debt paid and forgiven with the $500,000 and agree that any future grievances will be handled by binding arbitration. The number one cause of unhappiness for lottery winners is family members suing them for money.

I don't think I've done anything to anyone that they would want to sue me for but at the same time it probably wouldn't hurt just to cover my bases.

It's not like they can't get a successful lawsuit against me with binding arbitration, all that would do is prevent an emotional jury from handing out crazy multi hundred million dollar verdicts against me because I didn't show up to the family christmas or something thinking that I can afford it since I won over a billion dollars in the lottery.

But aside from that yeah, 6 months in an RV with nothing to do but to go and see the Grand canyon and to travel to all the different cities that I want to travel to and seeing the sites and partaking in the local foods and events and just buying anything I want to buy as long as I can carry it around with me in the RV.

Oh yeah I'd probably call up my insurance agency and get a $10 million umbrella policy just in case.

[–] Rocky60@lemm.ee 4 points 9 months ago

After buying my fortress of solitude, and making sure my family is set for generations, I think it would be fun to donate money to random people who are struggling.

[–] Lemmylaugh@lemmy.ml 4 points 9 months ago

I’d first spend it on lawyers. Someone wanna copy paste that reddit post here so we can link lemmy going forward on this question in the future

[–] Z4rK@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

Well first year I’d finally get a RTX 4090, new car, temporary new home and quite a lot to family and friends. Year 2-4 would be saving up / buying connecting property towards my dream home, and then year 5-10 would be saving up towards a sailing yacht. After that probably some of the fancy coffee equipment that James Hoffman uses.

[–] Tutunkommon@beehaw.org 4 points 9 months ago

Buy some congress people and get them to vote for things like public transport, universal Healthcare, etc.

US-centric, obviously

[–] XbSuper@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

Keep 5 for myself (probably don't even need that much), and pick one person a year to change their lives with the remaining 15.

[–] sxan@midwest.social 4 points 9 months ago

One thing I'd love to do is eat out more, and tip just absurd amounts. $40 burgers and fries, and great service? Here's a $40k cash tip.

Yeah, one thing I'd love to do is throw cash around at the service industry.

[–] muntedcrocodile@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

Sounds like u won i would sugest send 10mill and see what i can manage

[–] EmrysOfTheValley@beehaw.org 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

BlakeClass guide to lottery winnings His second comment is what to do that first is the warning.

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