If I was a rich girl…

If you’ve been under a rock, you may not have known, but the Powerball lotto is at something like eleventy billion (almost not an exaggeration) dollars.  Now, it’s very likely that one of our two tickets are not going to hit the big one, but it’s fun to dream.

It’s hard to know what would happen until you have cash in hand, but here’s what I’d like to think I’d do.

I’d probably look like this for the first day after the shock of finding out I won set in…

The first steps:

Do all the typical responsible stuff.  Get a network set up to manage the money and LLC type situation you need to set up to not get fucked.

Most people say try to stay under the radar, but at this point, you’re winning like the biggest Powerball ever.  You won’t be able to keep anonymous.  My solution would be to set up a contest where the top 5 people of our choosing get something like 1 million dollar grant to pursue their dreams.  Hopefully, people will be more concerned with coming up with a cool plan than begging and if people ask for money, direct them there.

I think the jig would be up…

The celebration:

Give my parents/in laws a chunk of money.  Let them decide how they want to distribute to their families (or however Zliten wants to handle that with his side).

I would invite my closest friends to have a REALLY FUCKING FANCY meal and buy everyone a present, regardless the cost, just the coolest thing that screamed… them.

Have a KILLER party for my extended group of friends and acquaintances.

I’d probably make some time to go visit family and friends we never get a chance to see that live far away.

The splurges:

Hire a driver service.  I never want to drive again if I don’t have to.  Money, make it happen.

I would probably change my cleaning service to weekly from every two weeks. 🙂

I would pay someone to organize and remodel my house while I am somewhere else and don’t have to deal with it.  I’m looking for one of those HGTV type situations… but I’ll fund it myself.  I like my neighborhood and my house and I actually don’t need all the space I have now so I definitely don’t need a bigger mansion, but I’d like it to be shiny inside.

I’m buying a damn new tri bike, whichever one fits me best and feels awesome, no matter the cost.

The short term:

I love what I do.  I just don’t love the fact that I have to go to work everyday and have set office hours and can’t leave Austin in the winter when the air is trying to kill me and can’t drop everything and go to Aruba right now just because I feel like it.  I’d like to phase myself out slowly because I do actually care what happens to the projects I work on and I’d like to make sure they’re taken care of.  I’d like to stay on as a minimum wage consultant for a while until I made sure that that everything was in good hands.

Once I have severed ties with work enough that I don’t have to be in daily, the travel starts.  I have so many places I’d like to visit, I can’t even begin to name them.  My ultimate goal would be to pick my top 10 (or whatever) places I’d want to frequent and buy vacation property there, and maybe even a private jet if it made financial sense, but I wouldn’t be in a huge hurry.

Living here for a while might be cool though…

The long term:

After taking some time to travel and recharge, it’s time to answer the 1.5 billion dollar question -what would I do with my life if money was no object?

We’ve had some ideas like running a half marathon a week in every state during the course of a year for charity, starting a travel/vacation/diving blog with travel porn pictures and adventures, spinning up a game company (but in the long term, when I’m ready to seriously go back to work), or a billion other things I can’t even think of yet.  But it would be nice to not have the pressure of making an income right away (or, ever) and just pursuing what sounds like I could contribute to the world.

I’d also like to figure out some charities to be passionate about and donating money.  I’m kind of a rebel without a cause right now.  It’s like the episode in Sports Night when Casey can’t figure out which charity to give to because there are so many… that’s where I’m at right now.  Having enough $$ to fully fund a research initiative of my choosing?  That might help, rather than just tossing 100$ at some cause.

And of course, continuing to train and race!  Being that I wouldn’t have limitations like cost or time off work being a factor, I could race all over the world just for fun!  I honestly am not sure whether I’d train and race MORE or LESS – I’d have more time but I also could pursue other hobbies like diving more… it might ebb and flow. 🙂

Do you buy lotto tickets?  What would you do if you won?