So you've just won the lottery...
Most people, except for the very wealthy have thought about it; "What would I do if I won the lottery? What would be the first thing I would buy?"
To be honest, I'm one of those people. In fact I have a list. I rarely play the lottery so my odds of winning are not very good, but the difference between my odds of winning and the odds of someone that plays regularly are roughly the same, so I keep my money in my pocket and consider myself lucky to walk away without a powerball ticket. I'm a little more pragmatic than most people, but I still think about winning and what I would do with a large pile of money.
So here's the list, sort of...
The picture above is of the command center of a Ferarri 458 Italia. I would not buy one. It's not because I don't like the car, although I'm not a fan of the "everything on the steering wheel" concept. I wouldn't buy one because it's not a car, it's a high-strung go-cart that costs $3000 every time it needs routine service, and it needs service every two months. Basically, I would have to drive the car to Atlanta a seven hour trip one-way, have the car serviced and drive it home, where after only a few days it would need servicing again. I can't devote that much of my time to a car that is so incredibly self-centered and needy.
The other day, when my mother (who has a Corvette addiction) asked me what car I would drive if I could afford any car on the road, I think I confused her a little by telling her that I would simply invest a great deal of money in my current car to make it the perfect example of an E34 BMW. I would fix all the broken things, have it restored to better than new condition and modify it to improve performance and handling. She followed her first question with a second and asked, if I would buy a big house.
I told her that I would consider remodelling my current house, and build a nice garage, but I'm not interested in some 7000 square foot McMansion in a trendy neighborhood. I told my mother that if I did win the lottery, I would probably buy several of my favorite older BMWs and restore them to drive, remodel the house, build a well-equipped garage, and buy some new gadgets, like computers, phones, tablets, and probably a bunch of new clothes.
Being the anti-government, anti-IRS person that I am, I would most likely send the majority of a big lottery win to an off-shore bank, where they pay a miniscule amount of interest on my deposit, and where I could avoid paying taxes on the gains. I wouldn't move, I wouldn't change my phone numbers, and I wouldn't change my lifestyle that much because I'm happy with my life as it is.
Sure, it would be nice to be independently wealthy and not have to work, but I can tell you right now, I would get bored out of my skull without something to do. Yes, if I won the lottery, I would take a few trips, but I'm not interested in a world tour. I would probably splurge on some super-high-end new Macs, with obscenely large monitors, and build an epic home theater system, but all of these things can be purchased without winning the lottery.
At my age, winning a $15 million jackpot lottery would probably be just enough to live a comfortable moderate lifestyle until I die. Committing to a car that requires routine upkeep equal to the amount of money I paid for the car I'm driving now, just seems silly. It's one of the reasons I sold the last Audi V8 Quattro I owned, because I refuse to spend $1500 on a car every 60,000 miles to keep the car running. I gave $2800 for my current BMW, and other than $50 oil changes and some common wear items, it doesn't cost that much to keep it on the road, I enjoy driving it, and I don't feel like I need anything else.
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