The Lottery Changed My Life!

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IHOP
IHOP Member Posts: 79

No, I didn't win the lottery but it sure would be nice.  I've been watching the show The Lottery Changed My life and got to wondering what would I do if I won the lottery?  Would I spend the money?  Would I donate it to charity.  What one thing would I do for myself?

So, I thought for something fun, positive and entertaining, I would pose this question on the board.  What would you do if you won the lottery?  Now, I know we would all donate to charity and do alot of nice things for family, friends, and well deserving organizations.

But...WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU WOULD DO FOR YOURSELF???  Let's have some fun!

Comments

  • Letlet
    Letlet Member Posts: 1,053
    edited January 2011

    Great thread DarleneD! I would take my family and travel.....see the world! I'd start with Europe then Japan etc. and make sure my parents in the Philippines are set for life (that's still under "myself")

  • IHOP
    IHOP Member Posts: 79
    edited January 2011

    Travel would be so much fun! 

  • IHOP
    IHOP Member Posts: 79
    edited January 2011

    Hadley, that's great but what is the one thing you would do for YOURSELF?  It's okay to do something nice for just you!  :)

  • IHOP
    IHOP Member Posts: 79
    edited January 2011

    I've always wanted to see Russia.  I love the beauty of their spires and minarets.  It must be gorgeous in real life.

  • debbie6122
    debbie6122 Member Posts: 5,161
    edited January 2011

    I would buy my daughter a nice house so she can get away from her A-hole of a husband she has, get her all set up then give her a big hug and kiss and say see ya in a few months, go to hawaii get a suite at the sheraton waikiki where my husband and i met 21 years ago (yesterday we celebrated 17 years of marriage) soak up the sun and drink mytyes on the beach, then pay back my dad for all the money he has given me my entire life (wait that might take up my whole winnings) lol! help family, friends and my favorite charities-  Im heading off to the store to buy me a lottery ticket!!,

  • lago
    lago Member Posts: 17,186
    edited January 2011

    Odd I have been thinking about this for a while. I feel my luck has been pretty shitty lately that statistically it needs to change… and therefore I should play the lottery.

    I've been thinking about the different charities and schools I would donate to. Thinking about not having to work… what charity I would like donate my time to. Moving my parents closer to me. Finally going on a vacation and I don't mean driving to WI/MI and staying somewhere for a long weekend. (Last one was in the late 90's) Maybe starting my own online store selling things I can make/craft.

    Oddly enough some of those things I will do anyway.

  • IHOP
    IHOP Member Posts: 79
    edited January 2011

    Starting your own business would be great!

  • Letlet
    Letlet Member Posts: 1,053
    edited February 2011

    lago what crafts do you make? How many weeks is it now that you are done with chemo, how are you feeling?

  • Laurie_R
    Laurie_R Member Posts: 262
    edited February 2011

    If I won the lottery the one thing that I would do for myself is to take a cruise to Hawaii with my older sister and her husband.  They have been there as my support system throughout this journey.

  • lago
    lago Member Posts: 17,186
    edited February 2011

    Letlet I finished chemo 16 days ago.Still dealing with SE. I had a very bad reaction on most of my nail beds. Most of my fingernails have raised, hurt and some a draining now (and smell). I lost 2 toenails and one is so raise that I limp in one pair of boots, snow boots OK and can't wear the rest of my shoes/boots. I can't even pick up a penny right now. Frown I'm still pretty stiff and have some LE that isn't resolved yet. I hope to start feeling better in a few more weeks though. This all takes some time to get out of your system. I had 6tx of THC. Still doing H and Anastrozole will start in 1+ weeks.

    I haven't done any craft stuff in a while but I am a designer so I do creative things all the time. I can sew, bead, work woodworking machines, paper crafts you name it. My first degree is in sculpture so I can make all kinds of stuff.

  • nowords
    nowords Member Posts: 423
    edited February 2011

    I would help family and start a charity or donate to a few deserving ones....pay off the kids college loans etc.

    For me...I think I would buy a cottage on the water in New England or the Outerbanks of N.C. ....furnish it in soothing whites and pale blues and warm dark woods, and load it with books, movies, music and great wine and food and beds and baths, unlimited fresh cut flowers of my choice... rockers on the porch facing the ocean... keep it always ready for long visits from old and new great friends and family....and I would love to pay John Prine and James Taylor, maybe Emmylou Harris and Gordon Lightfoot.... for private concerts for me and a few hundred of my closest buds!!!

  • barbe1958
    barbe1958 Member Posts: 19,757
    edited February 2011

    I've been IN Gordon Lightfoot's house here in Toronto! woo hoo

    I would:

    Pay off my kids mortgages.

    I've always said "Buy a small island off the coast of Mexico", but considering the drug wars going on, I'll change it to another locale. I'd want houses for all my kids and then a main house where DH and I live....sigh.

    That's it.

  • lindaa
    lindaa Member Posts: 119
    edited February 2011

    I believe in a tithe, so the first 10% goes to God.  My church has a 15K oil bill from last year hanging over them, and I would love to help.  i would help my daughter buy a house, and take all family, inlaws et al, on a nice cruise or to Disney (or both?).  lol

  • pj12
    pj12 Member Posts: 25,402
    edited February 2011

    Gosh, this really makes  me realize I have everything I want. Well, almost.

    I would rent a "gite" in SW France for the summer and while we were there I would  replace the windows in our living room-dining-room-foyer with french doors. :) DH thinks it is too expensive, too much trouble , too messy, too pretentious, too everything. 

    When we got home from our idyllic summer in the Garonne. the work would be done, it would look fabulous, and  the only other thing I could ask for in life would be good health - but we all know, Money Can Not Buy Good Health.

    Pam 

  • barbe1958
    barbe1958 Member Posts: 19,757
    edited February 2011

    Pam, I too, was surprised with how "little" I wanted from money. I've done a ton of travelling and scuba and cruises and fast cars and luxury condos and all the "stuff". Now I'm happier with the simpler things. Mortgage free would be nice. That's all....

    Just the other night, I asked my DH where we would be living if we "had a choice". He decided right where we are! We are in a "lifestyle" resort around a golf course and hotel and sports building. We just can't afford to use any of it! hehehehehehehehe

    No one knows that though. They have to shovel their driveways just like us. Wink (We were kinda hoping that was part of the maintenance fees! Nope, but lawn mowing is. But I LOVE mowing the lawn...sigh).

  • LuvRVing
    LuvRVing Member Posts: 4,516
    edited February 2011

    I would take my entire extended family to Hawaii and we would stay until we get tired of it.  I would set them up financially.  Then we would buy a super-duper diesel RV and see the USA from Alaska to the Florida keys and everything in between.  It would take us at least a decade!

     Michelle

  • Survivorwoman
    Survivorwoman Member Posts: 620
    edited February 2011

    I would adopt at least one kid, and more if I had the money to do it and we would live near a beautiful beach.

  • iodine
    iodine Member Posts: 4,289
    edited February 2011

    I, too, would pay off my kids' home loans.  I would donate a scholarship for art history at my husband's college.  My nursing is not a profession I'd send anyone into now.  And my daughter's master's in art history was a gift to us all, especially when we all travel together---she's our guide.

    I would re-establish the music and art programs at our county high school and jr. high.  Sad, sad that they are so poorly funded.

    I would have my own chef and trainer, loose the weight and see if I can walk better or at least longer.  Let alone stand for a while longer than to cook supper.  I'd have a massage daily.  And a hot tub on the newly redone patio and gardens with a waterfall.

    If I could walk better, longer, I'd begin traveling again.  Rent an apt, (furnished with full time housekeeper, of course!) and since I'd have lost weight, I'd go shopping for new clothes in Italy and France.  Ok, Ok, New York.  or Atlanta.

    I'd give my daughter a 2 year, all expense paid, art scholarship in Italy.  Private tutor if she wanted.  My son would have a trainer, too, to help him continue to work out while he went to classes in computer programming again.  Or, even better, to become a dive instructor where ever he wanted!

    I'd hire some BIG guy to force antidepressants down my dh's throat!  Would love to see what he's like when really tries to be happy.  LOL, he'd probably leave.  LOL

  • gillyone
    gillyone Member Posts: 1,727
    edited February 2011

    Just for ME - I would spend megabucks and publish one of the little stories I have tucked away on my laptop and donate a copy to every library :)  That way I can pretend it's good :)

  • karen1956
    karen1956 Member Posts: 6,503
    edited February 2011

    For me, go to Israel whenever I wanted....at least once maybe twice/year, buy a small apt in Jerusalem....have enough of a retirement fund so that DH could retire whenever he wanted and we could maintain our current lifestyle (well except for the travel to Israel), ....pay off the balance of our mortgage and remodel my kitchen then for my family....   I'd buy my DD and SIL a house, pay DS college tuition and even grad school without any worry...pay for DD #1 to go to grad school if she wanted....be able to afford to send younger DD to the parochial school I want to send her to for high school without worry about cost....make sure my parents and MIL were taken care of....and donate to my favorite charities....

  • barbe1958
    barbe1958 Member Posts: 19,757
    edited February 2011

    You know what's so sad? A lot of the things we wish for, we would have been able to do years ago.... My first house cost $50,000. Surely by now it would have been paid off, 32 years later. My MIL house was $8,000. Can you imagine being able to pay off those mortgages? As for kids in school, we would have been able to save for that if the cost of living wasn't so high. Houses for over $500,000 and cars in the $30-40,000 range! I remember when Volkswagen Beetles were UNDER $1,000!!!!!

    So, it's not OUR fault we can't do these things...it's "their" fault!!!! You know, the ones who raised all these prices!!

  • Marple
    Marple Member Posts: 19,143
    edited February 2011

    gillyone~your post made me smile.

  • Fearless_One
    Fearless_One Member Posts: 3,300
    edited February 2011

    I would finally be able to go to bed at night without worrying about bills.   And I need some new clothes.

  • voraciousreader
    voraciousreader Member Posts: 7,496
    edited February 2011

    There's one thing that I would love to have that money can't buy.  I wish I had a wand that could make all the sick people that I love well again, beginning with my husband. 

  • barbe1958
    barbe1958 Member Posts: 19,757
    edited February 2011
    What about the people you don't love? Undecided
  • voraciousreader
    voraciousreader Member Posts: 7,496
    edited February 2011
    Barbe - With my frozen shoulder... I can only wave a wand SO far.  Innocent
  • barbe1958
    barbe1958 Member Posts: 19,757
    edited February 2011
  • grdnslve
    grdnslve Member Posts: 310
    edited February 2011

    love this!  really made me realize how much i love my life & what we already have.  just for me there would be a trip to ireland, maybe buy some property in arizona for the winters, oh, and a face lift to go with the new boobs. 

  • EnglishMajor
    EnglishMajor Member Posts: 2,495
    edited February 2011

    I would never work another Monday again. Every weekend would be a 3-day weekend. I think I would get bored without some kind of job. After I won the Lotto however, I would look forward to being able to quit any job when it ceased to be fun. 

    I do like where I live, but I would like to have a private balcony. So I would buy the building and remodel. I would also kindly but firmly insist that my downstairs neighbor move to a unit far from mine and find some deaf families to reside below and across the hall from her.

    I would join the Fruit of the Month Club, despite the reckless expense and my personal inability to eat all that fruit.

    I would join the Wine of the Month Club while I was at it. 

    I have traveled quite a bit. I would like to go back to my favorite places with someone who has never seen them. I would visit some people I know who could use the company/distraction. 

    I would hire a professional archivist who would do the drudge work (sorting and scanning life time of photos) and I would have the fun of compiling a book, once all ducks were in a row. 

    I would have an Oprah-like "Favorite Things" day where I would  I would share my loot with those who could really use a break. Plus there would be plenty of fruit to go around....

  • msippiqueen
    msippiqueen Member Posts: 191
    edited February 2011

    Well, we may have won the lottery, kinda of. We're getting a gas well drilled soon, the permit was issued last Friday! We're minor players and won't get rich but still, it's found money IF the well is productive.



    I would work with a camp I'm already affiliated with to provide weekend retreats for women with BC and their families to R&R. I would dearly love to do that.



    If we were getting a ton of money, the cottage idea sounds divine and the Beaver Vicksburg RV on ppl's website (as of last week) would satify an itch also!













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