Powerball is up to $360M for Saturday’s drawing. YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS!
After federal and state taxes, we’re looking at a take home of $170,340,000. Let’s take a look at the damage we can do. Won’t even look at past plans I’ve typed up – because obviously anything can change at any time. But let’s figure out a plan for today. Obviously, before we even go claim the money we’ll sit tight and begin interviewing financial planners and attorneys so that we can set up a blind trust to go pick up the lottery winnings on our behalf. I’d DEFINITELY want to stay anonymous as long as possible.
1) 10% ($17M) to church
2) 10% ($17M) to various charities
3) 15% ($25.5M) into trust funds for the kids, payable in thirds upon their 28, 35 and 42 birthdays.
4) 10% ($17M) to be set aside as gifts for family and close friends ($14,000 per person, by each Denis and me (i.e., a single person would get $28,000 as a tax-free gift, and a family of four would get $112K as a tax-free gift from us)).
5) Pay off all debts – with a sum this large being won, paying off debt and the mortgage is a piece of cake. During this time we can stay in our current house and plan more on what we’ll be doing with our winnings once the tithes, donations and trusts have been set up.
6) Denis definitely wants to return to NYC in some capacity, so why not live in style? $2-3M for a tony apartment.
7) I want to travel the world – what better way to do that than to buy an apartment on the ship known as “The World“ – $2-3M for a 2 bedroom apartment.
That brings our resulting total down to about $85M. Conservatively invest the rest and live off the (average) 4-5% interest earned from there on out (about $3-4M a year, give or take). Of the $3-4M per year, some would have to go to taxes, some to pay annual dues for the NYC and World apartment, and more to tithing and charity. Presume $1M of it would be tied up in those things. Still leaves us with $1-2M for the year AND we wouldn’t be touching the money originally invested. $1-2M after taxes and such would be more than enough to live on every year, wouldn’t you say?
To dream the impossible dream…