Ha!

Mr J and I will start a foundation with the bulk of the money to pursue various endeavors.

The part of the money left, just for us, say $10 million or so, we will retire to a nice house with property and personally help out friends and family.

And I think I promised Brynne a million.

But the children still have to pursue some kind of work, whether it is taking charge of one of the foundations projects or whatever.

And I want a complete set of fiestaware and a new couch.

I would def. start with S's first bit:

First things first: PROTECT YOUR NAME & keep it away from the media at ALL COSTS. Keep it quiet. Don't tell a soul. Not a soul.
Open a bank acct. and deposit the proceeds in there.

I would NOT hire somebody. Financial planners are ridiculously greedy.

I would ...

1. Buy a house in one of my 3 favorite neighborhoods in Austin.

2. Go to Timbuktu

(in that order)

3. Keep teaching until I am eligible for retirement

4. Hook up my li'l sis for life

5. Travel to (in no particular order) England, Switzerland, Machu Picchu, Brazil, Alaska, the South Pole, Ghana, Tanzania, Morocco, India, Nepal, China, Spain, Mexico (south of Mexico City), and on and on.

6. Get a personal trainer and/or SERIOUS help with weight loss.

7. Laser the crap outta my leg hair (etc.), remove any and all annoying moles, do something vvv magical with my hair.

8. Hook up my other sis with some sort of financially comfy situation.

9. My parents are vv comfortable. So I'm not sure what I'd do there.

I happen to like my completely mismatched set of Fiestaware. I love it b/c if one piece breaks, it's pretty difficult to notice. A person would need to actually count my 20+ dinner plates and my 30+ salad plates to notice ...

OoOoOoO ... turning green? ;o) Fiestaware. The only way to go.

20 million in the bank, and live off the interest

I'd buy a house in Chicago, and an apartment in New York.

I'd buy another building in Chicago for a theatre space--and it would just be my personal playground.

Throw some money at my immediate family to make sure they're all comfortable.

And then I'd just do theatre.

I know what I would NOT do: start a restaurant. I don't remember the number, but some HUGE percentage of people who win the lottery go broke shortly after because they invest the money into businesses, mostly restaurants, and have no idea how to run them, and fail completely.

I would (in no particular order)...
1. Buy my parents a lake house somewhere nice- wherever they want
2. Buy myself a sweet apartment in Manhattan
3. Travel travel travel
4. Pay for grad school
5. Donate money to my university (to the department I graduated from)
6. Donate to my synagogue/the youth group I work for
7. Donate to other charities
8. Buy a whole new wardrobe
9. Save the rest (haha)

Get a financial advisor. Put in my two weeks notice. Travel to all the third world countries I want to visit. Visit a plastic surgeon for a consult and then have some work done. The whole Venezuelan Beauty Queen Boot Camp. My mom could do this with me too, but she'd probably just want some nips and tucks. Then travel to all the developed countries I want to visit.

Start a trust for my sister. She's still in her early 20s making a way for herself and I think that's important, so she wouldn't be able to access her trust until she's 30. I would take her on a shopping spree though.

See what my parents need. They could probably retire. My dad would probably want a ranch with horses, antique trucks, old cars, motorcycles, guns. My mom would want a new house with regular maid service and a new car. All this would be within reason, in preparation for property taxes and other future expenses.

Write. Explore some business ventures. Buy a little condo by a beautiful beach. Save and make sure the money is in smart investments. It would take a long time to figure out which causes or charities I'd want to support... most likely I'd have to start something of my own to help kids born to crappy parents.

I would NOT hire somebody. Financial planners are ridiculously greedy.

Maggie:
I would have to disagree with this statement. Not true in all cases, there are exceptions.

I like all the cool places you want to check out!

Yes, I agree that I should not have made that a blanket statement. I misspoke.

I have just had some bad experiences that clue me in on the fact that ... I do not have a good enough "sixth sense" to know who is taking advantage in this sort of situation. My sixth sense is good at almost everything but ... dealing with my investment dudes. (hrm. they've always been dudes)

You know, I figured you had spoken from experience. Most people do, and have esp. when dealing with financial planners.
It all depends on one's compensation plan, and wanting to do the right thing for people. Being human.
Yes, some are ridiculously greedy and pathetic vultures. But there are some good ones out there - dudes and dudettes!
And can be extremely helpful - I guess we all have to trust somebody at some point, esp. if the situation warrants.
I hope you have a better experience if needed when the time comes .

Move back to mexico buy a house somewhere nice in a pueblo. Help the community in that pueblo but not before setting up my sis and bro and mom. Help some people who have shown me love. Put it in the bank maybe consult with a lawyer.

And travel the world of course!!

Feed every hungry stomach in the world.

When you give me my million I am buying you a full set of Fiestaware and a new couch. <3

I don't think that money would even begin to cover that task :o(

But .... your response makes me reconsider mine. I think I'd stop working and adopt a few Ghanian babies.

I would:

Start a cult.

Instead of going all over begging for money, my followers would hand money out.

Fine. But I warn you that I simply cannot make up my mind about what color for the fiestaware.

(But at least none of them are radioactive any longer.)

I am jealous.

And check out my response to Brynne. I can't decide on the color so I am considering getting eight different colors.

I never knew I had such a flamboyant soul!

What would you do D?

1. Pay off all my student loans and any other outstanding debts I may have

2. Pay off my best friend's student loans and any other outstanding loans she may have

3. Deposit my money in the bank, casually, as if nothing was happening. I'd tell my parents and my friends. They know I know how to say no. There might be some of it that I put in a retirement fund or a CD so it can accrue interest but part of me thinks that's just greedy, lol.

4. Donate to some charities that I believe in. I may hire someone to research them to see if I care or believe in them enough.

5. SAVE SAVE SAVE

Oh, honey. I assumed by "full set" you meant service for twelve in every color.

And yes, thank goodness it isn't! I have blue depression ware that's been in my family for generations that I can't use because the color is lead-based.

ha, ha, ha!

Then the fiestaware would need its own room!

In no particular order:

Pay off my various debts first and foremost.

Give my parents $2 or $3 million (basically what I figure it has cost them to raise me over the years). Maybe more. Enough to make sure they were taken care of.

Give certain amounts to various family friends and friends who have been there through thick and thin (and would be even if I had a penny to my name) and really could use that money, including setting up college trusts for their kids. I figure that would total about $3 million dollars. I would do this anonymously if I could.

Travel

Get an internship or a job in whatever it is I decide I want to do and have them only pay me $1 a year (much like Bloomberg). Any moving up in that career would be because I worked my ass off and earned it. Having the financial freedom to not need the job would help free me to do it though.

I would not move. I would not buy anything except for a few small things I need around my apartment. I would not make any major decisions for a year.

I have a financial planner I trust, so before I even collected the winnings I would set up trusts for the money.

I would hire a publicist, not to get me press, but to keep my name OUT of the press.

I would definitely set up a foundation and various scholarships. That wouldn't be decided for a good year though, as I'd want to look into all the rules and institutions behind them.

I would lock down as much of my personal information as possible. I would speak to people I know who've been media targets at various times to ask for advice on how to deal with the sycophants and bullshit artists.

I would pay all my bills for a year in advance so I wouldn't have to think about them for a year.

Take all my friends and family out for a huge dinner as a thank you for being awesome.

I'd put at least $5million in a trust that I can't touch until I'm 65. This way I'll have money to retire on, no matter what happens.

Sounds good.

If nothing else all of these previous winners have taught us something about making sure the money doesn't just disappear.

When I was a kid, my parents got tickets for a lottery for $33 million dollars (can you imagine - now it's like $250 million every time) and I told all who would listen that I'd get all the cabbage patch stuff, and if there was any money left over, my parents could have that! God bless the self-centeredness of little kids! And sheesh, I seriously had no concept of what $33 million dollars was, that's for sure!

I'd still get the cabbage patch stuff though. Wut?!

Buy a house!

Set aside enough money for Aubrey and any other potential babies to get a decent car, go to a great school, and start a serious savings account.

Get a nice Volvo for my Topher... his was just totaled on Saturday thanks to an idiot running a red light at 45 miles an hour on an icy road.

Get myself a hybrid.

Send myself to every trade school possible. I want to learn it all.

Help put my little brothers (heck, older brother too) in college.

Pay for the breast cancer treatment my mom deserves. And some new boobies for her too.

Get my dad out of debt and get him a car so he can see his grandbabies more.

Take a trip to Italy & Jamaica.

Save Save Save Save Save the rest of it for whatever pops up.

Edit: Get preggo again.

I like D's answer, to which I add, would buy property for all my starving artist friends to live in with me-my makeshift family to grow old with!