Stetson20

Me too, I'd rather stay broke and in my 10% tax bracket.

/sarcasm

FPG120

I'd buy meself a rugged airplane and head to Alaska to fish all those places that you can only get to by air. In between, I'd fly charters of like minded people to the very same places....

ce650

It would be a nightmare. I have a highschool buddy who won the bigone. Realitives and friends came out of the woodwork, (I never asked for a dime by the way) . he got death threats , people who would call him in the middle of the nite saying they had some illness and needed the cash for treatment. even had one guy call and say he was getting ready to commit suicide if he didnt give him 250k. Turned out to be his cousin. Also had calls saying "we will kidnap your daughter if you don't give us money"

Anyways it sounds like the first thing you need to do is move far away and not tell ANYONE about it.

FlyerJosh

I call that darwinism and cleansing of the gene pool. But that's just me.

The problem with trying to keep is secret is that many states have clauses in the fine print that says "redeeming this ticket allows us to use your name and picture for marketing purposes."

The first thing I would do is change my phone to a private number accessible only through answering service, hire a financial planner/accountant, give some money to the people I trust (pay off debt/mortgages), and move to an undisclosed location.

From there who knows! The mega millions is up to 250 million today. That's a cash option of $146 million, so after taxes you'll have ~70-80 million in your pocket. I could live well off of almost 54,000 a week in interest earning (70 mil x .04%)

stinsonjr

I would buy every WACO, Stinson Reliant, and Staggerwing that would come up for sale. Additionally, I would have a team construct a replica of a Curtiss F9C Sparrow Hawk. This was a neat pursuit airplane in the 30's that they used to launch and recover from the dirigable's USS Akron and USS Macon - they had a neat trapeze built onto the center section of the top wing and they would catch a hook on the flying dirigable. with the rest of the money, I would try to buy Aviat.

FPG120

1. Put the winning ticket in a very secure place for about a week and lay low.

2. Change your phone number to an un-listed one.

3. Find a reputable lawyer (though in this business you probably already have one on retainer..). Before you tell him whay you're there, ask him how much three hours of his time costs. Pay him what he wants. Then tell him why you're there (paying him first will negate the chances of a fee increase based on your new wealth).

4. Have him set-up a blind trust. The money will be protected from anyone trying to get their hands on it through frivilous lawsuits etc.. And you can have access to it at anytime.

5. Have the lawyer represent you at Lottery HQ. He is picking up the check as a rep of your blind trust. He can go before the cameras and get his pic in the paper as the lawyer for the trust. No system is perfect but this might deflect some of the free loaders.



I'll let you all know how it works after my numbers come up.

Pilotpip

I'd spend some of it in the Champaign Room at Puppyz' gentlemen's club.

These are the things I would really do:

Pay off my student loans, my sisters' student loans, my mom's house, my dad's house, buy myself a house and buy new vehicles for the family members mentioned above. Then I'd buy myself a nice house in the mountains and a plane to get from here to there. I'm thinking king air 200.

Geronimo4497

Spend all the money running a campaign to set term limits for Congress members. Then go hide in the woods in northern Maine with my PC-12 and 180 on floats/skis.

shaggieshapiro

with the powerball at 300 million bucks. The first thing I'm gonna buy is a 1969 dodge charger daytona and a matching G5. Then, I'll buy the bankrupt Hooters franchise. It's just not fair to have all those Hooters girls out of work

mike734

Simple. I'd spend half on wine, women and song and I'd just blow the rest.