Mega Millions is now Mega 1.6 Billion

Or approximately $300 million in lump sum after all taxes.

I guess I’ll get a ticket.

I figure I've won about $8,000 over the past 30 years.

By NOT playing! (any of the lottery games)

700 million tax.

The Government takes back 2/3 in taxes.

Anyway, if you won 300 million how would you spent it?

Fight global warming. By switching to a fossil-fuel free lifestyle and then helping with the cause on a wider scale.

Buy new windshield wipers for my Chevy s***box

And maybe an island in the South Pacific

So if I put the $200,000,000 in a money market account making 1.19% interest, that gives me $2,380,000 to live on annually.

I think I can live on $2,380,000 annually. I can probably do with a lot less, so any annual residual funds would go back into the money market account, thus continuing to build value for the foreseeable future. No, I will not invest it and no one can convince me otherwise.

This would all be part of a family trust set up to protect and be passed down through the generations

This plan now leaves me $100,000,000 to play with. This remaining $100,000,000 goes into my non-profit (or foundation) to be used in a variety of charitable way ranging from the study of insects to scholarships to protecting our environment, etc.

Or some variation of all that...

You all will probably know when this happens as the non-profit will be named C.H.A.S.K.I. every time you listen to NPR you will hear about a C.H.A.S.K.I. endowment...




PS
I might buy some land in Patagonia (most likely the Chilean side) and/or on the coast line of Lake Titicaca (most likely the Peruvian side) to build a home.

Also, I might get my Toyota Sequoia repainted and interior reupholstered... I know it is a gas guzzler, but I like it.

Buy a new winter coat. After that all of my wants and needs are satisfied. OH, and put the grandkids through college. Maybe get myself a good psychiatrist.

If you win, will you buy me a high end expensive choice bottle of booze? I promise the cost won't clear $1000

This is a fantastic strategy. I like your idea of putting it in a safe money market fund rather than in the stock market. I would probably be conservative in that manner as well. With that much cash, there really isn’t any need to see it grow too much.

I probably wouldn’t need 2.3 million a year though, so I might just invest 100 million in the market fund, and, like you say, then leave it in a family trust and just live off the earnings. I might stipulate in a will that the principal remain untouched for 100-200 years.

As for the other 200 million, a third will go to family members, a third to a foundation that combats global warming, and a third towards any urge my wife and I have to spend right away (with the rest going into the trust account).

We would probably wait a few months, during which we will hire advisors and plan it all before turning in the ticket and letting people know we won. So if you all hear the winner is from San Diego and the media is left hanging for an extended time, then its likely us that won.

Then once we’ve set up the fund, we’d sell everything and travel for a couple of years. Then come back home and build our dream fossil-fuel free home. At that point, out son will be 5 and ready to enter school and I’ll be ready to work for my foundation full time.

Fun to dream.

Well, of course, that goes without saying.

So you are in the market for a new car... lol

that is not how it works...

If you take the cash option then you get about half of the money then state and federal taxes..the amount depends on your state taxes can be as much as 50 % in total....

but if you take the annuity the full amount will be paid out in 30 years minus taxes...which comes out to in my state to about 16 million a year..

https://heavy.com/entertainment/2018/10/mega-millions-payout-calculator-chart-after-tax/

Yeah, but if you don't go for the lump sum think of how much more you get! They give you like a dollar a year for 1.6 billion years!!!

Most lottery winners have had their lives ruined by winning BIG. The vast majority of Americans have no idea how to use money. They only know how to make it be used up. Besides, no one needs a couple of thousand new relatives and old grade school "friends".

The smart play is not to play.

Poor planning on their part.