If I Won $540M Dollars

So, I’ve already told my boss that I will NOT be coming into work on Monday as I plan on winning this Friday’s MegaMillions jackpot which totals $540M right now. Here in SC, that equals a cool $265.2M after all taxes and such are taken out. It boggles the mind, doesn’t it?

As I’ve done in the past, here is my obligatory “what I’d do if I won” post.

1. 10% to our church (that’s $26.52M) – I can only imagine the amazing programs our church would be able to ignite with that kind of cash flow. Our church is a debt-free church, only moving forward on projects when the cash flow is there. This would certainly help them achieve a LOT of goals!

2. 10% to various charities (another $26.52M). Again – the things that charities would be able to do is fantastic. Charities I know I’d donate to include Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, some local food banks and non-profit programs, and who knows what else!

3. Trust funds for our kids and my sister’s kids. And Denis’s sister’s kids would get college paid for since her kids are older as well as the benefit of trust funds. I’ve said before that the trust funds would be large, and paid out every five years beginning with a certain birthday – probably 1/3 on their 30th, 1/3 on their 35th and 1/3 on their 40th. Same goes for my sister’s family and Denis’s sister’s family. So we’ll set aside $10M for each of them, which equals $60M in trust funds for those six kids.

4. Gifts to friends and family. Annual tax-free gifts are limited to $12K per person. So, if it was a family of four, we could theoretically give $96K to each family we care to give gifts to, and those families would not be required to pay taxes on a dime of that. I can easily see setting aside $10-15M just to go towards gifts for people in our lives with whom we wish to be generous.

5. Denis and I would both quit our jobs so fast it would make our employers’ heads spin. *lol* And we’d move back to NYC and put the kids in private school. You figure $5-10M for an apartment in Manhattan like this gorgeous condo in Chelsea and we’d be set for life! Who knows how much the private school would cost, but we’d be able to afford it, and I’d rest easy that they are still getting a good education.

We could do other things, too. We could start scholarships at our alma maters. Travel the world during the summers when the kids are out of school. Try things we’ve wanted to try but not had the ability to do (opening a restaurant has always been something Denis and I talk about doing “if…”).

If we do the scholarships, traveling and business ventures, it would still leave us with $150,000,000 or so leftover. Investments galore would follow, and presuming a 4% return on those investments, we’d be able to live off the annual interest, which would be $6M per year.

It boggles the mind. And while the chances are winning are slim, it’s fun to dream about. But as someone commented on an article I read this week, no doubt we will read the headline on Saturday morning, “Wal-Mart worker sole winner of $540M jackpot – plans to keep working,” or “98-year-old man with no family wins $540M jackpot,” because it seems like those are the headlines one normally reads after a jackpot is won.

What would you do if you were the sole winner of that kind of jackpot?

03 comments on “If I Won $540M Dollars

  • Bev , Direct link to comment

    I love how you do the detailed plan for winning! So much fun to hear about what you’d do. I don’t do that detailed a plan, but for sure I’d be outta my job!! And our families would be set. Good idea to do annual installments below the tax limit!! 🙂

  • jaynee , Direct link to comment

    Take home in SC is now $314M. So that obviously bumps up how much we’d tithe and give to charities to $31m each!

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