What would you do with a lottery windfall?

You bought the $2 ticket out of your fun money. You opened the newspaper one morning later and found that all 6 or 7 numbers matched. The grand prize is $1 million dollars. What would you do? Ok, what would you do after the screaming, crying and doing the happy dance? What would you do with the money?

B and I talk alot about this. It's our way of dreaming together, and I glean a ton of information about how he thinks about money from these conversations. We talk about what we would buy, who we would give to, and things we wouls like that money to do for us. It's a subtler way of defining goals sometimes.

After picking up the enormous over-sized novelty cheque, and having our picture taken about a gajillion times, we'd head to the bank to park it. We would not spend any of it for exactly 30 days, so it could earn interest while we developed our exact plan. The plan, would be written down, and we would both be assigned tasks from the list in order to deal with the money.

What to do with all that money? Mostly, we'd invest. Not just in our own RRSPs and the kids RESPs that would get maxed out, but we would invest in other ways too. We would purchase a home. Nothing extravagant, but one that suits our needs, with 3 bedrooms, a home office space, a lovely kitchen, and a heated 2 car garage. We would help to pay down (or off, depending on the amount) the home of a couple with whom we are extremely close to. We would also set up something of a trust for our older daughter, to help her pay her expenses while she completes her education, which would be our stipulation in order to receive a lump sum. We'd give a set amount to B's mom, who has been there for us through thick & thin, helping us in many, many ways. However, there would be many other relatives who would receive no financial help from us at all. I'm sure that will set off a bunch of stormy arguments, but we have already decided that certain folks will get no more help from us, even if we never win a lottery.

We would like to travel, so I'm certain some will be set aside just for this purpose. We would give some to charity, although we haven't quite decided on which ones. Also, my small home-based business will get a boost from our windfall. There is equipment that needs to be replaced, and of course all our debts will get paid in FULL!

All these things would improve our quality of life, as well as those of others we know and love. We would invest in our future, the future for our family, and in the good relationships we already have.

How about you? What would you do with a $1 million dollar windfall?