BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...

Subject: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 03:18 PM

http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/4295173.html

I'd vote all of the above.

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: Kim C
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 03:42 PM

I'd quit my job right off.

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: Ed.
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 03:46 PM

None of the above, myself...

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 03:47 PM

I'd keep playing gigs till the money was gone...

Actually, I'd likely never be seen twice in the same place again...

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 03:48 PM

Well, it's a pretty broad list Ed, so you've got my curiousity engaged. What would you do then? BTW, the Powerball drawing tonight is an estimated $210 million.

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: Ed.
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 03:50 PM

Give me a name, and I'll give you an an answer

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: GUEST,Ralph
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 03:51 PM

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: GUEST,Ralph
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 04:09 PM

Still waiting, Ed. You wanna play?

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 04:11 PM

Here's 'nther just wonderin' question...

Would you stay living where you now live?

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: Kim C
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 04:12 PM

I'd stay in Nashville, or thereabouts, but I'd buy me a house. Not a great big one, just a nice one on about five acres, with room for Sampson the Giant Puppy.

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 04:16 PM

Interesting. I'd move in a heartbeat from where I now live (big city north of the Mason Dixon line) to a rural oceanfront, and never look back. With the lotto jackpot, I can always pay the airfare for those who can't afford to visit!

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: Bobert
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 04:17 PM

None of the above... But I would rent an island in the Carribean and charter several airplanes to shuttle all you misfits in fir the *Misfit-Happening-of-All-Time* and we'd party until the money was gone!

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: artbrooks
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 04:19 PM

I would set up a tax-exempt foundation called "The Mudcat, establish an impartial board of directors selected at random from Mudcat members, and hire Max, Joe and Pene Azul at reasonable salaries (say, $75K per year each) to run it.

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 04:21 PM

Well Bobert, your words sound like they were spoken by a man who most likely owns a pretty damn nice home, and a car/truck newer than 15 years old!

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 04:25 PM

Oh yeah--you sound like you are retired from the 9 to 5 too!

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 04:31 PM

" Would you stay living where you now live?"

I wouldn't live anywhere but under my hat... That what I mean, but not being seen twice in the same place...

:-)

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 04:39 PM

You would make a perfect ramblin' rover Clinton--the quintessential, in fact.

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: Bobert
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 04:42 PM

Yep, GUEST, you got me nailed. My Toyota is a 1991 and has 205K on it. It fits in real nice in hillbilly haven where I live back in the holler in my spacious 2 bedroom rancher... Man, can't hide money!

BTW, you're not on the invite list since yer a GUEST... Now, if you'd like to come out of the Guest Closet, I'll stick yer name on the list. Deal?

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 04:45 PM

Thanks for the kind offer there Bobert, but I'd really rather not attend that party--for the same reason I stubbornly remain a guest. I'm afraid the number of Mudcatters I'd be inclined to actually sit in a room with I could count on one hand. And don't ask me to name names, cuz that just wouldn't be polite. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 04:48 PM

BTW Bobert, are you saying you wouldn't buy your better half a new car? What does SHE have to say about that, hmmmm? Maybe you'd have to be saving that car money for a divorce lawyer then!

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 04:51 PM

Well... 210 Mil... I'm 33... and haven't been exactly living well, so figure I got maybe another 30 or 40 years.... 210 mil'd help me see just about everything I'd want to across this big wide world of ours...

It'd sure be worth the try!

:-)

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: Kim C
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 04:52 PM

I also have about a dozen kids I'd send to college. Not mine - I don't have any - but nephews, nieces, friends' children.

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 04:56 PM

I'd buy those kewl super efficient cars for me and lots of other folks, pay for some kids college and other kids doing what Clinton says he would do...

There is a lot to be said for NOT being college educated too, IMO. Although, I myself loved most of my life as an official scholar, I wouldn't insist all my loved ones follow that path. Post-sec training, for sure. But not college, necessarily.

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: Peg
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 05:04 PM

Pay off my family's and friends' debts, buy modest homes in England, NYC and western NY state, travel quite a bit, give to   many charities (especially those involving the environment, animals and the arts), set up some scholarship funds...not likely I'd spend it on anything fancy, tho, except good food and booze.

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 05:14 PM

I'd pay off the debts too, but they'd seem pretty damn paltry if I had $72 mil after taxes!

So...where would everyone's first travel destination be?

I have to think about this one a bit, but I might start out with an around the world trip for a year before I decided where to buy homes.

I definitely wouldn't make any big, major decisions for a year or so, including buying a house. Especially because I'd want to build a deluxe (according to my definition) energy efficient, low environmental impact home somewhere, which would take planning.

Also, I'd set up a small, private foundation and hire somebody to run it that all the "friends" and relatives could go to for money. I wouldn't be involved in handing out money to loved ones myself.

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: Rapparee
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 05:15 PM

1. Set up a trust to see that the family kids could afford whatever education they wanted to get beyond high school -- as an interest-free or very low interest loan. That would ensure that the trust would continue.

2. Set up a foundation for Certain (legal) Purposes which I haven't finalized yet. History and music are two of them.

3. Arrange to have enough money available to my wife and myself so that we could pay our debts and live debt-free.

4. Establish a retirement home for politicians, pipers, pimps, and other occupations which begin with "P". I'd let panjo pickers in, too.

5. Throw a decent party.

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 05:24 PM

The best part about this is that dreaming about it doesn't cost a thing! It is hard getting beyond our daily existence stuff though, to actually try and wrap our heads around that kind of money.

Once self and loved ones are provided for, which to me goes without saying (or costing all that much on this scale of money!), it gets a bit more challenging to think what I would do. I would want it to be something completely different from what I've done in the past, though. Something that would open up completely new vistas I can't even imagine right now, which is why travelling for the first year sounds so enticing to me. Travelling really can open you up faster than almost any other experience, I think.

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 05:34 PM

As generous as it seems, paying off other people's debts isn't always doing them a favor.

I'd buy property in a couple of beautiful spots in Washington State, build a house or two, out at the beach, and up in the forest. I'd buy a apartment in both Seattle and New York City for regular visits. Finishing up the work in the house where I live is a personal goal that might well be assisted by such a windfall, but I would still want to do the work myself. I like where I am employed, so it would be a nice thing to keep working there and become a donor at the same time. There is one person in particular on campus who has set an excellent example of charitible donations to the university, and I'd follow his pattern.

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 05:52 PM

This question- on a somewhat smaller scale- came up at the Annexe a few months ago. It is very interesting to learn people's take on prospective wealth.

As for this current Powerball- did you hear about the fellow who spent his whole life waiting for his 'ship to come in' and finally realized he had never sent one out? (I didn't buy a ticket!)

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: Bobert
Date: 01 Jan 04 - 12:44 AM

Nah, GUEST, "She" don't care nuthin' 'bout no new car either. Okay, maybe a nicer spayer fir the gardens. You know, one of them chrome ones that last more thana couple years. 'Bout $60. Ohter than that, let the party roll on and on.

Yeah, sure I know you wouldn't feel to comfy with many of the folks here. That's why you is GUEST... Yeah, lots of 'em a knotheads but I'd still like to party with 'em and get to know 'em anyways...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 01 Jan 04 - 12:50 AM

I'd buy a fire engine, i like fire engines.john

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: Hrothgar
Date: 01 Jan 04 - 07:16 AM

You all realise, of course, that those who have a ticket and those who do not have a ticket have almost the same chance, statistically, of winning it.

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: Peg
Date: 01 Jan 04 - 08:08 AM

well, someone's going to win!

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: Bobert
Date: 01 Jan 04 - 09:10 AM

Well, it ain't gonna be me... I don't buy the danged things... I look at state run gambling as a regressive tax. You don't see too many if the filthy rich standin' in line to buy them tickets. No, it's more like underpaid and overworked folks...

Sorry fir the drift but...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: artbrooks
Date: 01 Jan 04 - 10:25 AM

...and somebody did win...wasn't me....

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: LilyFestre
Date: 01 Jan 04 - 10:49 AM

If I won the Powerball.....first thing I'd do is give my husband free reign to retire and set him up in the fly shop of his dreams!!! Second thing...since we aren't ever going to move from our beloved homestead on the hill...I'd invest some cash in getting things around here fixed up a bit...new tractor, bigger barn, new fencing, etc. I'd take care of my family and add a college fund for the little one too...beyond that, I have no idea...it's simply too much to fathom.

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: GUEST,laughoutloud
Date: 01 Jan 04 - 09:20 PM

I'd buy jOhn a fire engine.

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: SueB
Date: 02 Jan 04 - 11:50 AM

It would be great to be able to pay off all the immediate family members' debts - mortgages, car loans, credit card debt, outstanding medical bills - and let everyone start fresh, with no worries.

I'd love to make some wishes come true, for close friends.

Open up a little coffeehouse/internet cafe as a venue for local musicians, with open mike nights, acoustic jam sessions, poetry nights, even a karaoke night, or at least some karaoke in the afternoons for the local teens - we're very rural, so it would have to be a business that could afford to never make a profit.

Open a bookstore and a yoga center. Organize Summer Music Camps, for campers of all ages, start an annual music festival.

Outfit some kind of a travel bus to run on vegetable oil and solar panels and go to every music festival and wool festival and sheepdog trial in the country.

Lessons for the kids! Ski lessons, riding lessons, music lessons, art lessons, language lessons, whatever lessons their hearts desire! Not all at once, of course.

Buy myself a decent quality one of every musical instrument I have ever played or wanted to play. Create the music library I've always dreamed of.

Subject: RE: BS: If I won the Powerball on New Years...
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 03 Jan 04 - 03:15 AM

A stone house on a mountain by a waterfall looking down on the sea, apple trees, a flower garden, a pond with ducks, happy hens clucking in the garden; houses nearby for family and friends...

Since I haven't bought a ticket (and in fact don't know what the Powerball is), I obviously have a good statistical chance.

In Ireland we have a thing called Prize Bonds
- government bonds with a prize draw every week; you invest in them, but if you don't win, you can cash them in and get your money back. Smaller prizes than the lottery, but a higher statistical chance of winning, no publicity and you have the pleasure of supporting your government!