Last week there was considerable talk at work about winning the lottery. The winning ticket for a $200 million+ drawing was sold locally. While the person has not yet come forward, my coworker's husband works with a relative of the winner. Even if the person takes the cash option and has taxes witheld, it is still an almost unfathomable amount of money. Thus there were several "If I won" stories told.
I don't play the lottery, so it's rather unlikely that I'd win. But if someone gave me a ticket as a gift and it turned out to be a winner, or if I came into a large sum of money in another way (at least $10 million after tax so I could live off the interest), here's what's on my immediate list:
1. Make phone calls
No, not to tell everyone I'd won. The first call would be one to tell my boss I immediately needed to take a week off from work due to personal issues. The person who won the big drawing here supposedly walked into work the next day thinking she could actually do her job, but she couldn't concentrate and quit. Dumb move in my opinion. No quitting until the money is in my account.
The next call would be changing my phone number and having the directory listing changed to something unhelpful like J. Smith. Even with all my good planning to stay off the radar, no sense taking chances.
I'd spend the rest of the week making calls to find a good lawyer, accountant, and financial planner. I'd need to meet with them to find out to claim the money anonymously (yes, it can be done), whether to take the cash option or payout, etc.
2. Immediate post-obtaining plans
Once the cash is in my hands, I'd request two weeks of vacation. The second it was approved, I'd give my two weeks notice. Yes, I'm still giving notice. I do work in HR remember? It's never advisable to burn bridges if you can avoid it. They would still pay me any time left owed me, etc. And yes, even though I now have buckets of money, I'd still care about this amount of unused time owed me.
At this point, it's time to tell a few select people. My mom would probably already know, because I'd want her opinion on finding the legal and financial pros I needed. Now I would tell my immediate family- sisters, brother, and brother-in-laws. They would course be sworn to secrecy. Would I give them lots of money? No. They'd all still have to work (sorry family if you didn't see that coming!), but I see a pretty nice vacation or two on me in their future.
I'd request a meeting with the pastor at my church to discuss the large chunk of money they are about to receive in the form of my tithe. I would want it used wisely, and I would want to keep the donation as quiet as possible.
CDARS would be getting a large deposit.
3. Go off the radar
It is time to get out of dodge. I'd take a vacation to the beach somewhere for at least a couple weeks. This would serve a couple of purposes. First, it would get me away from anyone who somehow found out about my new wealth status and was a long lost "friend" or "family" member. It was also let me think through a lot of other things- where do I want to live, how am I going to spend my time now that I'm retired, etc. I'd also just chill.
Those are my ideas. How about you?
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