We buy a CA lottery ticket once in a while. It would be nice to have a windfall. I would select the long term payout/vs the short term 50% payout.Usually, I would not trust the government to honor any long term commitment, but I'm not willing to give up 50% of anything without a fight.
Governor Schwarzenegger , tried to use the lottery money to pay off the the huge defecit in CA, but with the lowest approwal rating of any governor (21%) he was voted down. So if I win, I'll live a richer life.

I think I've purchased one lottery ticket in the last ten years. LOL. I have only won once in any amount more than a dollar or two, and it payed my way to go to the GW get-together in Naperville. Is that good timing, or what?

What would I do with a windfall? We live a pretty simple life and there is nothing I can think of for myself I'd want to splurge major amounts of money on. I would see to it that my g'kids had a generous educational fund. I would leave a fund at our local shelter and vet clinics to be used for procedures somebody's dear pets need but they cannot afford. I'd also like to buy a little chunk of land in a county south of us on the river with a shack on it where I can go escape when the mood hits, which I prolly can already do. I don't think I'd want to change too much about the life I already have.

We have a lottery here in Texas. I never buy a ticket but should I ever come into an amazing amount of money, I would love giving to worthy causes.First I would set up accounts for my grandchildren so their education would be insured.I'd better hurry and get that money because oldest grandchild is graduating from high school in May.

After the bills (son's education is one, setup in a trust fund manner so it could go on for generations) and charity? The miata would get a makeover first. A really nice and well stocked house (like with great kitchen appliances, jacuzzis, gardens, and stables) and three or four cars. Go back to rehab-ing houses just to make it nicer in Nashville. Hopefully, the housing part would have an endowment group to pick those who are truly in need so they could buy them affordably. And play the stock market,it's fun. I think I would travel, but not all year.

I've never bought a ticket. If I had a windfall like that I would of course do the obvious helping out the family and a few friends who would really benefit from a monetary gift.But pie in the sky,just for ME kind of dreaming? We are an hour and a half from the Atlantic,so the ultimate pleasure would be a beautiful small home right on the ocean where we could all easily drive whenever the mood struck. It would be there for the family and any getaways with friends that struck my fancy.

It is fun to think about.
I had a neighbor who won 40 million and a truck driver that
lives here won 114 million.
Some people can handle it well, others blow it and are miserable.

Me, I would do the obvious, family, friends and loved ones
would benefit first. I don't really need anything around here other than a cook, a maid, a nurse and someone to drive me every where I need to go. ;0)

The first thing I would do would be to call my son so he could tell his boss to take that job and shove it.
Katrina would get whatever she needed to have her independence back and I do need a new oven.

Fix house and vehicles, pay off loans, help family, friends and charity as appropriate, put at least half away for future expenses and start a bucket list. One thing on the list is to visit and or bring GP people here as I have been here for 13 years and not met any in person. A second would be to visit as many national parks and monuments as possible. Some international travel, Sister in New Zealand, British Isles, Europe, Canada and interesting natural and historical places around the world. The list would expand as time allows.

A small house in the Italian or French Alps would do it for me.

do beyond the usual pay bills, give to charity?

I don't have much in the way of outstanding bills, but I sure would like to give a sizeable amount to a couple of local charities. Beyond that? I have plans for a retirement house (drawn up years and years ago), that need a minimal bit of updating. But if I could afford it, I would place it near the ocean instead of the mountain acreage it was designed to accommodate. So, money for charity, and money for land, and money for building, and beyond that? I really don't know.

Years ago a neighbor and I would take an evening walk three or four times a week. When the weather was right (and often when it was wrong) and our bones didn't hurt too much, we'd do a 5-mile stroll and then stop by a local dairy store to buy a $1 lottery ticket. One of those that have lots of tiny pay-outs as well as the drooly big money. We won $5 about once a month and would spend it at the store buying big ice cream cones. Lol, guess that cancelled the benefits of the long walk, but it was fun.

I rarely play the lottery, only when it's a huge amount, but if I ever won a really large amount--above ten million--I'd take the lump sum, b/c at my age I doubt I'd be around long enough to collect it, otherwise. Family and loved ones would be taken care of first, then friends, church, and favorite charities.

If "Rex Morgan" is in your comic pages, there's a story line going on about one of his office workers who has won the lottery, big time. It's interesting to see how sudden wealth affects people, often not for the best. There's even a TV show about former lottery winners and what has happened in their lives since winning. I'd like to think I'd be sensible in handling it, but who knows?

It's nice to dream about, but those who weren't born to money rarely do well with it when they do come into money, especially when the amount of money is huge.

Those who do well usually have to give up the life that they have known and are used to. If you could keep it quite that you have come into money then there is a chance that you could continue to live quietly with it. But lotteries are very public affairs.

I like my life as it is. Yes I would like more money, but not at the cost of what is when one wins the lottery.

In many respects, I feel as though I have won the lottery. I never expected to have the cushion I have today. Nor the pleasant company with whom to share it. No, we're not stinkin' rich, but I really can do most of what I want to without worrying about how to pay for it, and really, isn't that everything everyone dreams the lottery will be? Of course it helps that my dreams are pretty modest. Usually.

So I guess I would give more money to the organizations I'm already giving money or time to today. And we'd be shopping for thousands of acres (instead of 40-100 acres) in the same part of Wisconsin we're already shopping in. And I suppose we'd take trips that weren't connected to Steve's business travel or to my family. And the kitchen re-do I'm considering would be a bit more extravagant... but not too much would change.

But my sisters kids would suddenly have college funds and my parents wouldn't have any payments on the house they're planning to build. And our cleaning lady would come weekly instead of bi-weekly and I'd pay her to do more.

Years ago I heard a stand-up comedian describe the lottery as a "special tax for people who are bad at math" and the description kind of stuck with me. I think I've bought maybe two lottery tickets in the past 15 years, so my odds of winning... aren't too much worse than anyone else's!

I bought a few lottery tickets maybe twenty years back for my friends' Dad whenever he'd let me use his wonderful old beat-up Ford PU truck. It was red and had wooden racks and sounded gloriously ancient as it rattled down the road.
It had a problem with the linkage hanging up now and again and on the coldest night of the year it hung up when I stopped at an intersection a block from their house. Francine and I bundled up against the wind and trudged back to her house to tell her Dad.
Oh, my! He was not happy and I was shakin' in my boots as we followed him back up the hill to the truck.
He bellowed, "Git down here, girl and learn sumthin' about a linkage!
I 'ain't savin' yo' butts next time!"
I crawled under the truck next to him and watched as his scarred black hands handled the flashlight and fiddled with some skinny lengths of connected aluminum rods.
"Girl; you see where that piece is knotted up at the link? GRAB those two pieces and yank them out straight again! Lawd; it's cold!"
I pulled; nothing happened.
"Act like you got some sense, girl! I said, 'PULL' and I don't want to hear nuthin' about you cain't!!!!!"

Well, it WAS freezing---this was not a fun adventure, so I yanked the heck out of those rods and they straightened out and innocently looked like they'd always been that way.

All he said was, "Girl, don't forget what you just learned and don't y'all come whinin' again if sumthin' breaks!"

Francine helped me haul some stuff and then we grabbed some goodies and hot coffee before taking the truck back.

The next day I bought him five lottery tickets.
He looked like he'd just won when he saw them!
I made sure to always get him a few each time I borrowed his truck after that,
He passed away suddenly a few years later.
A nephew from DC took the truck and had it totally restored.
I'm glad it was so loved and was still in the family.

I never felt the need to buy a lottery ticket for me.
It was much more fun getting them for someone else
who truly believed his lucky day was coming!