So, you've won the lottery, what do you do?

Hunt ex-servicemen hobos in various cities accross America with a crossbow.

assuming we are talking ‘so much money i’d never need to work again’ type lotto win…

Spend more time with my kids, drop them off and pick them up from school whenever I could.
Spend all of the school holidays travelling, and doing other good stuff with the wife and kids.
Quietly get involved with, and donate to a few smallish but very worthwhile charities. (secret millionaire style) the local kiddies hospice springs to mind.
Get back into 4×4’s with a ‘5-year plan’ to do the Dakar Rally.
Have some quality time to myself to make a bit of furniture, and learn a few new skills (like welding)
Spend more quality time with friends + family, and try to stay as grounded as possible.

I would buy 4-6 Hectares of broad leaf woodland, on the Welsh/English border, somewhere with reasonable road access and a stream or river running through.

Close to some decent riding/pubs would be a big bonus 😉

I would build two smart woodland lodges that could sleep 6-8 people in reasonable comfort.

Maybe build a tree house version (just to keep my little one happy)

Use the latest technology from solar and wind power to cover lighting and power, wood burner for water and room heating.

Some form of water pump and water purification system, an out door toilet with reed bed filtration system.

Proper large, wood burning wooden hot tub, must be able to cater for 8-10 people, plus a cold plunge pool, feed by the stream or river.

Stock it with local produce, meat, bread, cheese, beer, cider, etc.

Then offer weekend mates rates breaks to the public, /cycling/posh camping etc.

Become a style icon like this chap.

pay someone to give my kids all the love and attention we give them for a week, so I could get some sleep.

oi mr p out chaving the king of chavs is my ambition ❗

Depends on the amount, but

Education
Charitable work
Start a business and employ people with difficulties
Start a business and hand out easy fun jobs to my family and friends
Start a think-tank
Campaign for issues I feel strongly about about which I feel strongly (grammar being one 🙂 )

Well my 1st journey would be to work with a bag of my ‘work clothes’ & a letter of resignation. Then I’d chill & make loads of people happy. Depending on the amount I think where I work may be even more short staffed!

finish college, sort out the family for money, set up small fashion business, maybe high end knitwear, or a design house. Travel. Go on holiday to ski’s place. 😀

Carry on claiming benefits seems to be one alternative;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-18969280

A man who won nearly £5m on the lottery who went on to fraudulently claim about £13,000 in benefits has been jailed.

i would buy a hill and build m own trail center. and some dh runs. and would build my house on the top of the hill. would need a good lottery win tho

Me and my fiances dad always say we would do this. He lives right next to Longridge Fell and we both rackon with a load of money you could make an awesome trail centre, then put in a camping barn, tent area, bike shop, cafe/pub selling proper beer and cake! Guess we just need a euromillions win……

Build a house somewhere … cos I don’t have one and it got to withstand zombie wars.
Charity.
Give some to family members & friends.
Learn software programming (self taught since I got plenty of time) … bloody pooter keeps giving me BSOD lately.

amazing selection of bikes. house in whistler. maybe open a bike hire shop. then i could build diffrent bikes all the time and use my imagination and not worry about making profit on the build because it will be rented out 🙂

I’d have grand plans about investing, property portfolios, long term gains but in reality it would be hookers and drugs

I’d build jetpacks, rockets and microlights.

Build myself a nice lakeside house in BC with lots of travelling to places I wanted to see, events, festivals, gigs, races.
Family and good friends would be sorted out. My charities of choice would get a nice sum.
Loads of riding, climbing, kayaking, snowboarding, parachuting, diving, kiteboarding.

No way would I ever work/invest for financial reward again. I may volunteer in an animal sanctuary or such if I found I wasn’t doing enough.

Very little time would be spent in the UK (maybe a week/year), I wouldn’t have a house here.

Plant lots of trees and assist in the re-establishment of our natural forests.

hookers and drugs

Why not 😉

The main thing that winning pots of cash would provide is time.

Most of us exchange a fair chunk of our life, ~40 hours per week for decades, to employers in return for sustenance and things we feel we need.

Some people I know have said that if they won the lottery they’d carry on with the same job. I certainly wouldn’t….

Although it seems to have become part of our working/middle-class culture, having a ‘9-5 job’ is not the only way to live.

Personally, there are skills I’d like to learn, subjects I’d like to learn about, things I’d like to make, experiences that I’d like to have and places I’d like to go to that I currently don’t have enough spare time for. Yes, I might buy some things, but not for the sake of appearing ‘flash’.

I’d also like to think that I’d help have the chance to help other people through my own efforts and probably set up some sort of philanthropic trust to give other people opportunities that they would not otherwise have.

One thing I’ve always wanted to do, and would if working was no longer a necessity, would be to go stormchasing in the US. Maybe build up a really tough 4×4, and see if I could tag along with one of the chasing teams doing stills photography.
Something else that would be fun would buy one of those huge streamlined coaches that travel companies and bands use, and get it fitted out for living accommodation, and travel in that.
Something like this puppy: http://www.bornrich.com/entry/custom-built-scuderia-ferrari-f1-coach-auction/

Some good answers here, hope that’s what you will actually do if it ever happened.
Someone close to me won and lost all sense of purpose and self esteem.
The friends he has left still keep on at him about being so lucky (in a nice way) but it just didn’t do anything for him. Just wanted to keep his job and friends, but the win changed all that when it got out.

Carry on exactly as I am until I could work something out (whatever that is).

If I went totally crazy though, I might consider a Rocket frame.

The more developed version of my earlier thoughts (not that I’ve spent the afternoon pondering this, of course) If it was enough to give up work and not need to worry about working again…

Buy a nice big house somewhere nice with a couple of units that could be rented out as holiday cottages and/or used for visiting friends and family. I’d manage the bookings side myself but employ a cleaner and gardener to keep it all nice and tidy (as much to look after my bit as the rented out bit!). I wouldn’t be looking to make a huge profit, but if I already had the property I may as well get some income from it when I wasn’t using it for something else.

Spend my days doing outdoor stuff (in nice weather) and reading/learning new stuff in bad weather. I’d create a well stocked library with a comfy chair, a cracking view from the window and a good sound system, and I’d probably do OU courses (I’ve considered going back to university properly but I’m not sure I could cope with the 18 year old students). Languages and humanities mainly I suspect. I might keep up with the more academic side of what I currently do and see if I could get into freelance journal writing/seminar presenting as it’s actually quite interesting when you don’t have clients nagging you for stuff and billing targets. But generally I suspect I’d become a bit of a reclusive academic type and spend days and weeks at a time particularly in winter losing myself in books or going out to get some peace and quiet in the hills.

I’d get a smallish flat in Leeds or (possibly) London as a base to use when I wanted to be a bit closer to civilisation or had jobs to do.

I’d also go on long holidays – in winter I’d spend time in the Canaries (where I have family), in summer I’d go on bike tours (probably credit card touring staying in hotels rather then camping), and spend three weeks travelling round France in a motorhome to follow the tour. Depending on just how big the win was I might buy somewhere in the Canaries too – this would also be rented out when I’m not there (my parents would manage this as they already do this for a couple of other people).

I’d get a bigger car, but nothing too flash. Just something that can actually fit bikes in it would be a start. I might also be tempted by a camper van.

I’d take time to cook properly with seasonal produce and I’d try to shop much more locally than I do at the moment.

I’d set up funds for my two nephews to cover their university fees (they are currently 3 and 9 weeks so this would be a longish term investment) and money dependent pay off some/all of my sister’s and parents’ mortgages.

make sure my children were setup for life and teach them about the value of money, although eldest son is very good about money, make sure I got the best support for my Autistic son (already in school that is centre of excellence) more worried about adulthood. I would become mortgage free live off the interest by a property that was eco friendly and had its own water supply and generated its own electricity to I would be dependent on the energy companies. Invest in property that would give additional income and depending on amount won set up a trust to support a good cause. Enjoy riding my bikes a lot more!

Can’t believe anyone would carry on working…, but then my ex-Boss (or really ex-Boss’s, Boss) was well rich, as in Forbes List rich.

And he worked like a dog, and still does. Lovely bloke though, as long as you weren’t either buying something off him, or selling something to him.

http://www.forbes.com/profile/stefano-pessina/

For me, retire and enjoy life/family – not so much travelling as I spent years with work around the world.

I would definitely employ dwarves to run around with trays of cocaine on their heads.

i’d build a national bike trail, and get to name it
look after those less fortunate – surprise people and make a small difference to their lives
Travel around the world by bike
Be an intern at santa cruz, parlee, colnago, open cycles, then develop my own line of carbon fibre bikes.

something down the investing route for me but more in the world of startups/angel investing etc.

I love the idea of finding people with a great idea but no money to get it off the ground and giving them a shot. It’s how I got my business started and it would be nice to do the same for some other people.

I’d definitely still work as I love my business but I can think of a few clients to whom the phone would never be answered again!!!!

Move to a little island in the South Pacific, buy a boat and take up scuba diving

Take my mates on a mountain biking road trip around Europe
Buy a chalet in the Alps
Do some charity work
Renovate old properties and rent them out (for my families future)
Go skiing every winter
Go mountain biking every summer
Buy a meridian stereo with massive active speakers
Move into a lovely house in the Lakes
Buy a horse for my daughter
Get an Aston Martin
Buy a hot tub and a boat.
Pay off certain family members mortgages
Go ex directory

Buy the houses next door to Tony Blair and fill it with the ex con immigrants he allowed in, then do the same to the the rest of the losers who run this country, sorry but I live in London…. soon to be the s#ithole of the universe 🙄

Oh ya … I want those aliens sentry guns …

If I won:
Give a bunch away – lots of folks need it more than I/can be really productive investment stuff for some charidees and good causes.
Buy some pile in the Lakes, with a few holiday cottages and small hydro scheme as an income.
Head off for some traveling round the world with family.

If it was tonights big one

I reckon I could “get by” with £10 million.

£250k for each child in the family (to include nieces and nephews) just enough to remove worry not enough to make them indolent.

Older relatives sorted as necessary.

The rest split evenly between the two Hospices in the town.

By a jetpack and fly it to new zealand in 50 yard bursts with dolphins full of caviar to cushion me on the watery bits,probably waste the rest.

wobbem – Member
I live in London…. soon to be the s#ithole of the universe

Too late

Buy all the houses in my village and the pub and all the woodland and become a feudal landlord

Buy a Mercedes G-Wagen, load it up and just go.
Probably take a bike with me.

Buy myself an awesome truck and run a DH race team. Tour round Europe/world in said truck riding everything. Work out how long I could keep that up and spend accordingly.

pretty much the same as we do now.. only with (a bit) less work and a bit more play and travel..

we had this discussion recently too.. my other half lives for her business, and it’s her talent that earns the money, so at best she could only employ staff and take a more managerial role..

I’m a househusband with two boys under the age of 3.. we’d probably employ a home help/cleaner of some description but my life wouldn’t change dramatically..
Allowing Granny to finally retire from her hateful job would probably give us a little more free time for hobbies.. my painting career might get back on track..

more time on STW..?