Rolling in the Dough

Every time the lottery jackpot gets really big, like it did this past weekend, I get a super strong urging to go spend a whole $2 and pick myself up a ticket in the impossible hope that I may get that 1 in 175.2 million chance of winning. I never have, and I don't know if I ever will, but I gotta say it's incredibly tempting. In fact even though there was a winner, and the jackpot has dropped to a measly $40 million, I'm still tempted to go get a ticket...

However, regardless of whether or not I ever buy a ticket, much less win, it's a lot of fun to try and imagine what I would do if I did. It's also pretty difficult. Have you ever really thought about what you would do if you suddenly had hundreds of millions of dollars? I was truly thinking about what I would do, what I would buy, etc... and after everything that I could think of that I would actually do, it still didn't even really scratch that amount of money. It's mind-boggling to think about how much money that is.

The other thing I think about is, if I were to win, would the cost of winning be worth it. Would suddenly being a multi-millionaire change me or my family at all? I sincerely believe that it wouldn't, at least not significantly. Sure there would be differences, but at my core I believe that I would be the same guy I am today, regardless of how much money is in the bank, but then again, a lot of people think that, and a lot of people change... I also wonder if it would change the people around me, my friends and acquaintances. You so often hear about lottery winners having to move and hide because they are flooded with people wanting help, or you hear about them being stalked/killed by people, even friends and family, who want money. There is a huge amount of stress that goes into winning, and a lot of money actually has to go toward security and attorneys/financial advisors. Is the cost of winning worth the winnings?

Anyways, the lottery is an interesting institution, that has both positive and negative ripples in society. Talking about it can result in some deep philosophical discussion, but it can also simply be fun to think about what you would do with all that money.

So that's my question. Comment and say what you would do, where you would go, what you would buy, if you were suddenly several hundred million dollars richer.