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37. IF YOU JUST WON A MILLION DOLLARS, WOULD YOU QUIT YOUR DAY JOB?

The cashier swore these tickets would win!

Winning a million dollars isn’t truly a million dollars. First, calculate cash up front brings it down to $500,000, then paying 50% taxes reduces it to $250,000 – no, I wouldn’t quit my job.

What I would do – all or some of these until I’ve spent $250,000:

1)    Invest half

2)    Put a down payment on a house

3)    Rescue a dog or two

4)    Buy Disneyland annual passes

5)    Ride the Pacific Surfliner from San Diego to the northern-most part

6)    Disney cruise to Bahamas

With investing half, and not touching it, the money could grow quickly into college funds for my kids.  It would afford me more flexibility in where I’d work since I currently follow a 7-year plan to work at one of two private universities in my area to earn my children free tuition.  It’d afford me to take regular summer vacations, big or small, to build family memories.  What does your “Win a million list” have on it?

Money doesn’t make the world go around… experiences do.

For a character comparison, let’s ponder winning the lottery that I actually bought a ticket for.  I limit myself from becoming a problem gambler by only playing the large lottery drawings for $100 million and above – as if winning 7 million ISN’T worth its weight in gold.  I know my odds fall from “Not even” to “Never in a million years!” with this strategy.  If I won the $241 million Mega Lottery – cash up front brings it down to $120.5, then 50% for taxes reduces it again to $60.25 million. Yes, I would give sufficient notice to quit my job.

Then I would:

1)    Invest half

2)    Donate to charities

3)    Pay cash for a house

4)    Rescue a dog or two but not until we returned from…

5)    2 Semesters at Sea – before my kids go to college. Anyone may book the 100-day around-the-world cruises. Two hemispheres means two semesters. Add in the cost of flying their dad to come spend weekends with them at ports around the world.

6)    I’d love to randomly reward kindness and goodness that I witness in strangers

7)    Set up more scholarships locally for kids to play sports

What about you?
What would you do with $241 million dollars?
If you just won a million dollars, would you quit your day job?
If you answer, drop your links in the comments!
This question came from Marc & Angel’s 50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind

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9 Comments

  1. Converted into South African Rand 241 million dollars would be a lot of money! 🙂 I would also buy a house cash, right here where we live now, help our local SPCA, elderly, buy a business so my 2 sons can work for themselves, invest some and also buy my hubby the Tuareg he wants. 🙂

  2. Well, here in England we’re lucky – if we win a million on the lottery, then we get given the whole million, there isn’t even the option of having it spread over x number of years, however much you win, they give you the whole lot and you don’t have to pay tax on it either. So if I won a million British pounds, that’s around 1.5 million US dollars, then yes, I would quit my day job. I would still want to do my writing and acting work because I love doing those, but I would quit my day job at a university. I know I would have to be careful how I spent/invested it if I wasn’t working because you could soon get through that amount if you were too lavish couldn’t you, and it may be that in the future I might have to go back to a day job (depending on how successful my writing and acting becomes with all that time to concentrate on it!), but I’d like a few years of being home when my kids get home from school!

  3. I’d give some to my favorite charities, pay off my mortgage (or sell the house), put some aside for a decent health insurance plan for a few years, and then travel around the world until the rest of the money ran out. If I had to work when I got back, well, that’d be okay, though I don’t think I’d ever want to go back to work.

  4. Winning a million dollars would be just enough for me & hubby to quit our day jobs.

    He is retired from the military so our day jobs pay for the luxuries of life and to pay off debt for “real” retirement.

    The lottery would just about pay off our house and bills so that we could then use the retirement for the fun stuff.

    I, however would focus on my business full-time because I love doing it so much.

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