Lotto Fever
$656,000000.26 cents (not including postage)
Several years ago my sisters and I purchased a lottery ticket in the tiny Lake Huron beach town of Southampton. I don't play the lottery very often but in Canada they don't take any taxes from your winnings so I get a ticket there every time I visit just on principal. Gotta love a country that respects the gambler. We didn't win, but this is what we did do - pick 3 of the 5 numbers (they didn't have a Mega number back then). When my sister called to tell me I though we'd be at least a little bit rich. Apparently not. 3 out of 5 numbers gets you $5.00. This is why Canada can afford not to take taxes. They just keep the money.
Anyway, like most of the country this past week we bought tickets for the multi-state powerball thingy. Collectively, we anted up 1.2 billion dollars, a figure that is even more staggering than the winnings pot, which climbed to new heights at a chunk over 650 million dollars. We seem to have no problem funding what amounts to a small nation's yearly budget, but a parcel tax to pay for teachers and school supplies here in California? No friggin' way!!! We are a nation of dreamers, after all, and a dollar toward that dream seems easier to part with the harsh realities of the household, or the state budget.
Bob and I rarely talk about what we would do if we were super rich, but the most fun 99.9999999% of us are going to ever get out of gambling like this is imagining what we would do if we were super rich. And I mean super-duper rich. In that moment of possibility and before the numbers are pulled, what we imagine is technically possible.
We talked about the fact that his office pool included everyone in the front office and the four senior executives who run the place. If they'd won, the entire company would have shut down because most of them would have picked up their purses, nail-polish, lunch bags and walked out. This would have left 100 other employees in the manufacturing side wondering what the hell to do. Bob said he would stay for a year to help transition in a new super-amazing-runs-everything guy to replace him, but would the others do the same? Doubtful. At best the rest of the management team, (who are also company owners), would have been scrambling to find replacements, and this would have been very stressful.
But what about afterwards? My standard answer to the 'what-would-you-do-if-you-were-suddenly-rich?' question hasn't changed much over the years. I would start a foundation and give scholarships to kids who have good but not perfect grades - providing full tuition for college as well as trade schools, depending on their interest and goals. I've since amended this to add girls who are interested in science and math careers, because there aren't enough of them and my niece, Jenifer, is totally outnumbered in her freshman class at Cal Tech. My other two projects would be a theatre, which I would sustain with an endowment, and a publishing imprint for aspiring writers. Then I would move from our lovely little home and build a little bit bigger one ( just add a guest house and office) that was completely eco-friendly, made of recycled materials, off-the grid power-wise, and had a great ocean view.
These flights of fancy can be a learning experience because when I asked Bob what he would do with his millions he told me that after he had transitioned in a new person at work he would set up his own foundation and give as much money as he could to improve elementary schools in Los Angeles. And make this his full time job. Who knew? I do think this career path came about after becoming a father; and just like women become conscious of every baby on the planet once they decide to become mothers, Bob's priorities in life have been heavily influenced by his new role in life, his favorite of all time: Dad.
After we added a few sheckles to ensure all nieces and nephews got free college educations, we speculated that having the ability, as Titanic star Kate Winslett did recently, to fly 50 relatives over from England to at the re-release of the movie in 3D. Extra cash would be nice as we could really fund family-style vacations in pretty much anyplace we wanted.
One surprising thing: Bob said he would give me a chunk of the winnings first, and the rest would be for 'us' to decide. This autonomy is a testament as to why we have made our old-fashioned (one income-earner) marriage work so well. I may not be bringing in a paycheck every week, but the confidence shown by my husband that I would make the best of the time and flexible freedom he provides has paid off. I am doing things for our community, for our daughter, for her school, for my creative life that enrich us all and he seems quite proud of the extended reach his patronage has provided.
One cannot help wonder how many people who have won their millions have done anything other than spend it on a lot of bling and ended up flat broke, like Dennis Rodman. We've all heard the stories about how winning the lottery ruined marriages, lives, like a horrible curse. But there are others who have done good things with their share, perhaps out of the spotlight. Lottery winners don't have to go public so even though there may be statistics out there, they may not be totally accurate. I hope so.
Meanwhile I have laundry to do.
Several years ago my sisters and I purchased a lottery ticket in the tiny Lake Huron beach town of Southampton. I don't play the lottery very often but in Canada they don't take any taxes from your winnings so I get a ticket there every time I visit just on principal. Gotta love a country that respects the gambler. We didn't win, but this is what we did do - pick 3 of the 5 numbers (they didn't have a Mega number back then). When my sister called to tell me I though we'd be at least a little bit rich. Apparently not. 3 out of 5 numbers gets you $5.00. This is why Canada can afford not to take taxes. They just keep the money.
Anyway, like most of the country this past week we bought tickets for the multi-state powerball thingy. Collectively, we anted up 1.2 billion dollars, a figure that is even more staggering than the winnings pot, which climbed to new heights at a chunk over 650 million dollars. We seem to have no problem funding what amounts to a small nation's yearly budget, but a parcel tax to pay for teachers and school supplies here in California? No friggin' way!!! We are a nation of dreamers, after all, and a dollar toward that dream seems easier to part with the harsh realities of the household, or the state budget.
Bob and I rarely talk about what we would do if we were super rich, but the most fun 99.9999999% of us are going to ever get out of gambling like this is imagining what we would do if we were super rich. And I mean super-duper rich. In that moment of possibility and before the numbers are pulled, what we imagine is technically possible.
We talked about the fact that his office pool included everyone in the front office and the four senior executives who run the place. If they'd won, the entire company would have shut down because most of them would have picked up their purses, nail-polish, lunch bags and walked out. This would have left 100 other employees in the manufacturing side wondering what the hell to do. Bob said he would stay for a year to help transition in a new super-amazing-runs-everything guy to replace him, but would the others do the same? Doubtful. At best the rest of the management team, (who are also company owners), would have been scrambling to find replacements, and this would have been very stressful.
But what about afterwards? My standard answer to the 'what-would-you-do-if-you-were-suddenly-rich?' question hasn't changed much over the years. I would start a foundation and give scholarships to kids who have good but not perfect grades - providing full tuition for college as well as trade schools, depending on their interest and goals. I've since amended this to add girls who are interested in science and math careers, because there aren't enough of them and my niece, Jenifer, is totally outnumbered in her freshman class at Cal Tech. My other two projects would be a theatre, which I would sustain with an endowment, and a publishing imprint for aspiring writers. Then I would move from our lovely little home and build a little bit bigger one ( just add a guest house and office) that was completely eco-friendly, made of recycled materials, off-the grid power-wise, and had a great ocean view.
These flights of fancy can be a learning experience because when I asked Bob what he would do with his millions he told me that after he had transitioned in a new person at work he would set up his own foundation and give as much money as he could to improve elementary schools in Los Angeles. And make this his full time job. Who knew? I do think this career path came about after becoming a father; and just like women become conscious of every baby on the planet once they decide to become mothers, Bob's priorities in life have been heavily influenced by his new role in life, his favorite of all time: Dad.
After we added a few sheckles to ensure all nieces and nephews got free college educations, we speculated that having the ability, as Titanic star Kate Winslett did recently, to fly 50 relatives over from England to at the re-release of the movie in 3D. Extra cash would be nice as we could really fund family-style vacations in pretty much anyplace we wanted.
One surprising thing: Bob said he would give me a chunk of the winnings first, and the rest would be for 'us' to decide. This autonomy is a testament as to why we have made our old-fashioned (one income-earner) marriage work so well. I may not be bringing in a paycheck every week, but the confidence shown by my husband that I would make the best of the time and flexible freedom he provides has paid off. I am doing things for our community, for our daughter, for her school, for my creative life that enrich us all and he seems quite proud of the extended reach his patronage has provided.
One cannot help wonder how many people who have won their millions have done anything other than spend it on a lot of bling and ended up flat broke, like Dennis Rodman. We've all heard the stories about how winning the lottery ruined marriages, lives, like a horrible curse. But there are others who have done good things with their share, perhaps out of the spotlight. Lottery winners don't have to go public so even though there may be statistics out there, they may not be totally accurate. I hope so.
Meanwhile I have laundry to do.
posted by vallie at 1:19 PM
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