What would you do?

[iis612]

Since I have never won any major prize from a lottery, or anything else for that matter, I find it fun to pontificate on what I would do with the money.
The current Mega Millions jackpot is $325000000. What would you do with that kind of money?
Personally, I need more layout space. My family would be getting a new house, sitting on a large piece of land. I would have the layout building custom built.
My kids would not have to worry about college money, and they would get trust funds that payout after they have spent time in the real world. They would have to work for 5 consecutive years before they get the money.
I would not stop working. I would lose my mind if I did not have a job.

Matt

[TCWORLD]

Buy a giant warehouse, and build an N-Scale model railway about 1mile long . Man that would be fun ^_^

[nachoman]

I am one of those people who usually tries to illustrate the ills of lotteries, but, hypothetically speaking:

I would pay off all my debts so that I am completely debt free. I would probably then keep around 50-100 thousand for various fun things that I may want to do and as general monetary cushion.

Then I would donate the rest, probably to multiple charities. Some of that donation would probably go to a historical museum to rebuild a steam locomotive.

[viperman]

$325,000,000 sure is a lot.

1) pay off all my debts (credit cards, parents, in-laws, etc)
2) buy a nice house so my wife, sons, dogs and I can all be comfortable
3) give money to my in-laws, parents and sister

Aside from that, I'd buy at least a couple nice cars, definitely a Dodge Viper.
One thing I've been dreaming of is building myself an exact replica of Meadowdale International Raceway. Hey, ya gotta have somewhere to drive those fast cars

Oh, and of course, I'd put A LOT of money in the bank, don't want to blow it all and end up bankrupt. Probably even a donation to IRM

[poliss]

I would spend it on re-opening the Aln Valley Branch Line, which ran from Alnmouth to Alnwick. For those who have no idea where Alnwick is it's in the North East of England. Still no idea? Hogwarts school in the Harry Potter movies is actually Alnwick Castle. Although there is a society that hopes to re-open the line they don't have the money to build a bridge over the main North-South highway which means the line won't reach the original station.
If there was any money left over I'd spend it on designing and manufacturing a DCC control panel that had lots of slider controls for running several locos at once.

[Trucklover]

of coarse you dont really get $325,000,000, government will take half of that, and then the state will take about half of whats left, so that leaves about $81,250,000 left Still more then enough to do whatever you could possibly image!

I would buy a Massive house with 3 train rooms, one for my Steel Mill layout, one for my Modesto & Empire Traction Company layout, and one for a BNSF & UP Freelanced layout with MASSIVE industries. im talking 12' Cement Plants, 12' Auto Plants, 12' Oil Refinery's, GIGANTIC 100 Dock Warhouses, the works. Ohhhh man that would be heaven!

Of coarse i would retire (wouldnt that be nice to retire at the age of 20???). I would have my girlfriend/wife retire, and we would live happily ever after in out huge house with acres and acres of open land for our horses (the girlfriend likes horses LOL). Dont even get me started on the cars

Yeah i know, im dreaming, but hey, thats the purpose of this thread

[Brakie]

Being a modest man I would buy a finished basement with attached house and have a custom N Scale ISL built with walk around throttle.

How big?

About 2' x 24'..

[eightyeightfan1]

Mega Millions?....Lump sum, or cash?
We have Power ball here...But!

First I'd give the family members a few bucks, depending on how they treated me(I guess those that shunned youu for some reason or another, would become REEEAL nice after they heard you hit the jackpot)
Pay off this house, cars, debts.
Then i'd buy a big chunk of land, put a big house in the middle for Better-Half, with a big building seperate for the trains.

[2-8-2]

Yeah, assuming that less than 1/2 of that would be left after Uncle Sam gets his piece...

1) Pay off debts (thank goodness I don't have that much).
2) Give family money.
3) Buy some land and build a nice, comfortable house on it.
4) Retire at age 34.
5) ...and of course build a huge barn so that I could do nothing but work on a layout all day long.

There might be a Ferrari in there somewhere too.

[iis612]

Normally I would steer clear of the lottery, but I love playing poker. I figure with a jackpot of 325 mil, then I am getting good "pot odds" by investing up to $100 in tickets. I have not bought that much, but if I had the discretionary money, I would.
Pot Odds are much different than odds of winning. It is an equation of money put in, versus the payout that could be realized.

I have some family members that could use a financial hand up. I also know of a few charities that I would love to give a large donation to. Otherwise, the rest of the money would take care of my family. Including toys...

Matt

[viperman]

Matt, I know you live close. Are you familiar with Meadowdale Internation Raceway, or as its now knows, Raceway Woods, in Carpentersville?

[iis612]

I am, I have never been there, but I have been by it a few times.

Matt

[Sumpter250]

Mega Millions........

A house somewhere on the coast of Maine
My 40', Gaff headed, Cutter rigged, sail boat finally built.
My kids financially better off
Charity, political, and selected other donations
And.........One N&W class A restored to full operation, One C&O H8 restored to full operation, One length of track where the two locos could be coupled back to back, and One final answer to the question..Which is the more "powerful" the Class A, or the Allegheny............determined by which one dragged the other, wheels spinning, backwards down the rails!
Oh, and a welcome to whomever should restore a Big Boy, and bring it to challenge the "winner"

[sgtcarl1]

I'd probably just give my beautiful wife anything and everything she wanted. And I'd give a bunch to several Ministries that I know would put the money where it would be of greatest use, to further the Kingdom of God.

[tetters]

$325 million? I'd probably crap my pants.

Seriously though. I find it hard to imagine how I would react to such a winfall. Besides the obvious purchases and decisions to help out family and a few charities, I'd often thought I would easily donante a good chunk of cash to worth while causes that would benefit all of humanity, like organizations to further scientific research in medicine and perhaps space exploration.

I'd get my name on the wall of renowned institution somewhere and get some public notoriety to go along with. Plus it'd be a tax right off anyways.