Now that I've got your attention...

What would you do immediately if you won a big lottery win like the three people/groups who won at least $100 million each last Friday?

Now, I don't mean how would you spend it. I mean, what would be your immediate steps? Would you call your mom? Would you tell your friends? Would you hire an attorney, and if so, how would you find one you could trust with something like that? Would you go public or try to hide out? Would you call in sick on Monday? Would you drop out of school if you are a student?

You'd have about 6 months to actually claim the money. Where would you think you'd put it? In a bank it would only be FDIC insured to $250,000 so you'd need to find 400 different banks to accept the money. Just opening those accounts would be a full time job for the next 6 months. Brokerages (with SIPC insurance) would not be much better.

I will never have this problem because I don't play the lottery. But thinking about how to actually proceed is interesting, at least to me.

(And if you actually are one of the three winners...give me a call, would ya...JUST KIDDING!)

I thought about it a bit, which is the sole benefit of playing the lottery, as a thought experiment.

I would sign the back of the ticket. Then I would get a safety deposit box and put it inside for safety.

Once the ticket was secure, I would contact someone for help. There is a local, fee-only, financial planner based in the city where I live, who shares the same first name as me, and has a blog I follow. I figure that since I would be the one contacting him, it's probably safer than responding to anyone why contacted me, and it's better than looking someone up in the phone book.

I would ask the financial planner to refer me to a trustworthy lawyer. Now I would have a little team on my side.

I'm not sure what I'd do about security. Do lottery winners get targeted for kidnapping, robbery? I haven't really heard about that kind of stuff, not in the good old USA. It seems winners are more likely to bankrupt themselves than to be targeted by crime.

You raise an interesting point about FDIC insurance. If you're married, you can have three accounts at each bank: you, your spouse, and a joint account; so $750k per bank. Meanwhile, SIPC is 500k per person, right? Still, if you split it between even just a few banks, your risk of multiple banks going belly-up would be pretty low. Long term you could hire someone to open accounts for you, or maybe there's a service that does that for the uberrich?

I don't think I would tell anyone until it was signed, sealed, and delivered. Though I would take some time off work for unspecified family reasons.

You can get around the FDIC limit with CDARS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certificat ... ry_Service Additionally, the FDIC has always fully reimbursed people even those over the limit in bank failures (I believe). I wouldn't bet my millions on it, just mentioning it.

Now what would be the first thing I'd do if I won? I'd drive by my office slowly and throw my keys at the door.

Actually, I'd set up a generic named trust to claim the prize (provide at least of modicum of anonymity) and immediately move into a hotel while looking for a new place to live. I've watched several of the "The Lottery Changed my Life" shows on TV and am always amazed at the pictures of the winner's cars plastered with notes asking them to buy this for someone and pay that bill for someone else, and the hatred directed towards them if they refuse. (Not to mention the incredibly stupid things they often do with it).

I would leave my job, but if possible, I would stay long enough to finish current matters and/or provide a smooth transition to the client's new attorney.

When IndyMac failed in CA I think depositors over the limit lost money. At least the ones whining on tv said they did. I held an IndyMac CD at E-Trade when they failed and I had cash plus accrued interest in my account within a week...then again, it was only a few thousand dollars.

When you have that much money it becomes very important what bank you use. You don't get to chase around yields at online banks. Well, actually you can as long as you stay below FDIC limits.

But the bulk of your money isn't going to be in a checking account. It will be at a brokerage where you will again exceed SIPC limits.

And I agree that these kind of thought experiments and dreaming of what you would do with the money is well worth the dollar I spend every few years when the jackpot gets that big.

With IndyMac, the uninsured deposits were originally paid back at 50% (i.e. if you had 400K deposited you got $250k back: the $100k insured portion and half of the $300k uninsured).

Congress then retroactively raised the FDIC limit to $250K.

Then, (I'm fairly certain but not positive) the acquiring back assumed the rest of the uninsured deposits. It is pretty common for that to happen.

The people on TV originally did (or at least thought) they lost the money, but they got it back.

Interesting.

IndyMac was pretty big when it went down. Wamu would have been epic, but JPM got bullied into it. Those were the good old days.

Anyway, I don't know what I'd do with a winning ticket. I just remember traveling with my wife's engagement ring, that was pretty nerve-racking.

The last thing I would do would be tell anybody.

I would probably contact lottery administration to claim the $$. But I figure I'd start there, THEN contact CPA and an attorney. I don't trust anyone until the check clears. I would show up to work the next like nothing happened. I would continue working for a while after the $$ is in the bank. But a lot of it would be in a safe place. I'd have fun telling the boss to shove it and seeing how long before they fire me.

I have worked in a casino and I have seen people brag about winning a big jackpot then I'd see them a couple days later on the news because someone robbed their house. Nobody would know. Not even my spouse. I'd tell them on a vacation when it's just us.

I'd start the process of claiming winnings. I'd put aside enough for taxes, pay off my house, max out the kid's college funds, then wait until Christmas before giving money to family members. I would only tell them I came into some money because I got lucky one night at the casino. I would not tell them I hit a jackpot of $100 million. Word would get around and 'bad people' would come to my door looking for handouts. I come from a family where there is a lot of addiction and that comes with some unsavory people and it'd make me a target.

I'd give a lot to causes I believe in. I'd pay off our parents' debts. I'd probably put it into a low risk investment and just live off the interest and leave the money for my heirs. I'd sell my car and just ride my bike around town to run errands. I wouldn't care once I quit work and don't need to commute. Or maybe I'd sell the house and just travel for a while.

The problem is that most states require you to go public. Well, you don't have to, but then you don't get the money.

Problem solved.

I once traveled with a $900,000+ check for my company. It was a milestone payment I had earned as a program manager. It was a good feeling, slightly nerve-racking, enough to keep me from having a beer at the airport or sleeping on the plane but that's about it.

Apparently the lottery already allows anonymous claims. The surprising part is how often we hear the real names of the winners in publicity when they can opt out.



I find that odd given your comment about addiction in your family. If you are going to tell a white lie why not tell them you worked hard and got a bonus at work?

I honestly do not know what I would do. With that kind of money I think I would not need a financial planner but I would want a good tax accountant and a good attorney. I know a good attorney that I worked with at my former job. He is a bulldog business law specialist, and expensive. I would ask him to find me a tax person. Beyond that, I'd rely on them.

My original question was posed because of an NPR story I heard this morning. The lottery officials say that no one has contacted them claiming the winnings or claiming to represent the winners. That is not unusual apparently even after a week.

In the past few years I've dramatically increased my charitable giving (it's Peter Singer's fault; his book "The Life You Can Save" is pretty much impossible to read without opening your wallet at the end), so my answer is that if I won the lottery the first thing I'd do is spend some time researching which charity or charities could accomplish the most good with the money and then I'd give it all away. I suppose I might put the ticket in a safe deposit box, as several others have said.

But "give it all away" is easy to say because I haven't actually won the lottery. Would I make a different decision if I had a winning ticket in my hands? That's the $64,000 question.

With that amount of money it would be hard to imagine what to do. I can more easily wrap my mind about winning, 50 or 100K. Then I would know what to do. I would get an attorney, etc. But as far as not telling anybody while that is wise, don't you think it psychologically might be hard to do not tell anyone let alone your spouse one of the most impactful things that have happened to you? I don't know, maybe guys can compartmentalize things better than females.

But then it would be strange. I would have to move away from our house and neighborhood, I'd be scared my kids would be kidnapped if I let them do the things they did normally, I'd have to file a restraining order against my older brother (only partly kidding). And yes you would know people would come out of the woodwork asking for money.

It's funny I have an old friend due to his talent and hard work, we all knew would do something with himself. He would joke when he hit it big he would buy me a car (it was kind of a running joke, wasn't the only person he said that too). Well he moved to Hollywood, worked hard. Though you wouldn't recognize his name on cable he's made or written for multiple tv shows, does voice over work, and will be a director on a multiply-directed film with general release. But when I tease him when am I going to get that car, he says he hasn't hit it big enough yet! So I can't imagine what it would be like to be household-name famous. Him? He doesn't own a car. He just hires people to drive him around (he never did like driving).

I think that is just something you get used to. I've often had checks for tens of millions of dollars in my possession (sadly none were payable to me). It doesn't really bother me.

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Because they know well enough I would not work my ass of for a bonus then give it to them that way. Plus I am not in a field were we get significant bonuses like that. I'd be giving them $5000-$10000 at most for the responsible ones and then lesser for the others. I would give them a chance to better themselves, but not enable them to destroy themselves. This also would vary depending on who got it.