Mega Millions Is $135m

I tend to do calculations of fractions of the prize, maybe to show myself that even sharing in a large prize would be a treasure beyond my wildest dreams. So:

One tenth of that would be $433,333 a year, which is $36,000 a month.

If you were one of one hundred people that won that jackpot, you would get $1.3 million, or $43,000 a year. That would be a healthy salary for me, and I could guy gifts and travel and work occasionally and maybe take classes here and there. 

So your grand prize - as a sole winner - would be $4m a year, equaling $360k a month. What would you do with that kind of money?

A co-worker recently complained about the money that the federal government was spending on fixing the Capitol dome, when he's got a spinal condition that needs an operation. (Whether I can believe this co-worker is questionable, but I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt here.) I would give him that operation.

Maybe you could make a chain of kindness; giving one person something and then asking them to nominate the next person to receive a gift.

One of my friends has a friend who is having a hard time. I could help her by providing funding for childcare, so that she wouldn't have to miss work. And maybe she could also use some counseling (although my understanding is she already sees a therapist). 

When I do these things, I see how it can be hard to target money or support to people; how do you know it will actually help rather than make things worse? The only thing I could think of in this place is that if there were someone trying to start up a daycare center, I could fund that start-up and pay for this woman to have her kids watched. Or (because I'm thinking the kids may not be that young) pay some recent immigrant who needs work to stay with her children, helping her earn money and freeing up the mother to work.

But then I recall: is it actually her teenage son, who acts out and is a problem? What to do about that? Well, I suppose I could subject him to one of those extreme behavior programs, where they get kidnapped and taken to the middle of the wilderness and taught to work together. Those things were all the rage for a moment (I recall TV shows about them) but I don't know if they still exist. (Now I'm also recalling a scandal about one of them in Jamaica that was alleged to be much worse than it was billed as - although part of me wonders if maybe that wouldn't be better in some ways.)

I wonder about sending him outside his comfort zone, or sending him to Africa (he's African-American). Maybe Guyana, or China, somewhere he's not like anyone and doesn't know the language or anyone. 

Back in this country, thinking of myself, I think - as usual - of sporting events. Of going to tennis events across the world; soccer games in Spain and England; rugby in Ireland and Australia; cricket in Pakistan or wherever the Ashes is played. Japanese baseball. 

There's also American professional sports; crisscrossing the country to see football, baseball, and soccer (I'm not interested in seeing hockey or basketball). Or paying for other people to see the games. There is an organization here in DC that works with homeless children; how I'd love to send a bunch of them to see a professional sports game - whatever that might be. They would appreciate it much more than me.

I watched a documentary last night about a former marine who teaches wounded vets to fly fish as a way of healing from war and dealing with PTSD. I'd love to fund more programs like that, or just more programs for veterans to get out of civilization as a comedown from war, as a place to transition and reconnect to themselves and the natural world; to remember that society and culture is in some ways an illusion, and that what is eternal will always be there and that's the most important thing to keep in mind. (O'course, maybe I'm just spouting bullshit.)

Talking about vets and money, I saw a bit tonight on ABC World News about how Bob Woodruff's charity event "Stand Up for Heroes," raised five million dollars. 

Five million dollars?? No offense to the event, but that seems paltry considering that we have 300 million American citizens and even if one-third gave only a dollar, it'd be 100 million dollars. Why didn't the event raise seventy-five million dollars? My own cruel nature says its because the U.S. talks a lot about helping veterans, but it's all lip service. If half of Congress were to promote the event (and giving) to their constituents instead of just talking bullshit about the armed forces, they could have helped raise tons more money. 

Seventy-Five Million

The sign for the Mega Millions the other day was $75 million dollars. 

Over 30 years, that's:

75/10=7.5

7.5/3=2.5

$2.5 million a year.

Say I was one of five winners; I would win $15 million.

Say I was one of ten winners; I would win $7.5 million. 

$500,000 or $250,000 a year for thirty years. Think you could live on that? 

I was thinking of being a big winner, and what kinds of things I could do with it. There are organizations that work with sex workers; trying to help them where they are; trying to help them leave that life and prosper after. There is an organization that I have volunteered with, and there is an organization that was featured on Oprah and/or CNN or CNBC, that I know are doing good work. If I could, I would give them $500,000 the first year; $1 million the second year; and $2 million the third year. I'd love to see what they could do with such a boost; what they could grow or make happen.

There are lots of people who are doing great work, who could use some kind of help to do more great work. What I really should be doing; what we all should be doing, is giving our time to these things; the investment of time is light years more valuable to the health of a society. If you think about your own life and the struggles you face, the investment of someone's time into your life would probably make a more vast difference than a bundle of money. 

Turn that around and think about someone whose life you could invest some time in. You may think your are poor in resources, but I would bet there is someone who is poorer than you; who could use an investment of you. Tutoring and mentoring can be just an hour a week. Same thing for CASA volunteers. Babysit somewhere. Teach English. Lend a hand. It is our selves that are the most valuable commodity that we possess. 

When It Was 400 Million

You know what I thought those days? Even if I won ten percent, it would still be HUGE. Even if I won one percent, that would still be shitload of money. (I'm still amused that the iPad's spellcheck doesn't recognize profanity.) 

But here were some thoughts I had on what I could do with the money.

1. Buy luxury health insurance for all my co-workers at the store.

2. Pay for food trucks to come provide low-cost or free lunch to my co-workers at the store.

3. Personally re-finance my friend's Mom's home loan with an awesome (or non-existent rate).

4. Put that friend's sister through college.

5. In fact, those are one percent or ten percent dreams. In the full-blown version, I offer a college education to anyone 25 and under in my neighborhood (which is largely working class). I'd even pay for adults to go back to school, if they were motivated.

6. I'd love to be able to put commercials on television, especially now during the shutdown.

7. I'd like to offer the neighborhood the chance to have their houses fixed up or renovated free of charge.

8. I'd like to set up small programs to show how they could be done - and should be done, as far as I'm concerned - that help train people for jobs and take care of pregnant teens or provide options for a woman considering abortion.

9. I'd like to hire organizers to drive programs that I believe can be done by people power as opposed to federal money. I'd like to shame the Republicans by showing them how it could be done and how they never do it.

Latest Prizes

Doing some random math, my tabulations of what a $149.4m prize would pay out over 30 years arrives at roughly $3 million a year.

The news report I just saw said the one public winner so far took a lump sum, which came to $88m, which, after taxes, comes to $60m. That's a million dollars a year for sixty years, and he's already 45, so probably more years than he's going to live. 

On a news report here in Washington, D.C., someone talked about helping the homeless. I've always had that idea, and while walking home after buying my ticket last night, I wondered what kinds of things I could or would do if I won the full $425 million. 

One of my dreams would be to buy a bunch of homes throughout the city and rent them out to people who have lived their whole lives in apartments; public housing to be specific. 

I'd love to be able to give people in my neighborhood opportunities; either by doing repairs on their homes or - now that I think of it - offering them educational or training opportunities, be they children, young adults, or parents and or senior citizens. It would be an amazing experiment to offer an entire low-income neighborhood assistance or opportunities to unlock their potential and see how it changes their lives. Opening them up to all kinds of education - scholastic or vocational - and giving them fulsome support in those fields and then watching to see if their lives follow the track similar to those students who receive similar support by virtue of birth or environment. 

Latest Tallies

I saw the electronic sign in the Metro yesterday; it was $19 million for Mega Millions and $195 million for Powerball.

I've come to see how $195m is absurd amount. I could never spend all that money in my lifetime - oh, hogwash. I definitely could. With my desire to take trips, move people and create events, art, public campaigns, I could easily blow through that amount of money in no time.

First, Mega Millions:

Nineteen million gross is $9.5m net, which is $950,000 over ten years or $336,000 over thirty years. 

Whoops, bad math. My phone tells me it's $31,666 over thirty years. So I guess that's just a normal salary and I can volunteer for work and give my money to charity.

No, wait; that's $950,000 over thirty years. Man I'm sloppy this morning. 

So, $316,000 per year over thirty years. $26,388 per month; about $6600 a week.

That means I could give my family $1,000 a month each and still pay off an expensive car in three months.

Or I could buy something more economical; I've been seeing those new VW Beetles around a lot and I could go for one of those; I like the new, flatter, racier look. (Maybe it's "elongated" more than "flatter.")

I was thinking the other day that a master plan for me would be to buy a rundown house, organize a program for teens to fix it up and learn building skills in the process, then donate the house to a needy family and move on to another house. (Maybe rent the house at an absurd rate to the working poor.)

Maybe the kids in the program could have levels, moving on from house to house and graduating in skills and becoming mentors and teachers in their own right as newer kids joined.

There's an abandoned strip mall storefront near my work; I'd like to rent a place like that and then open it up for people to use. The other day I was thinking of making it a kind of "indoor park" for babies; I think I even imagined outfitting it like a regular store (maybe with all big, blunt things - or toys - on the shelves) and then letting the kids wander around.

I wondered if you could have an "enter at your own risk" type of policy with that sort of thing, so that the parents are still responsible for their kids while they're in the place. 

=====

With $195 million, I'd want to create some political campaigns. I'd want to pay to register and educate voters across the country, on a close basis. I'd want to work on getting IDs for those without them in order to combat voter ID laws. I'd want to work in immigration somehow; either creating "cushion villages" for people deported or helping to demonstrate how deportation would wreck the economy. (I wonder if I could walk into a town in the South and pay all the illegals to quit and move, just to demonstrate how crippling it would be to the local economy; to show people how much they rely on illegals. (Akin to the movie "A Day Without A Mexican," which I never saw but found fascinatingly intriguing.)

I'd want to work on food and housing issues, and labor and finance issues. I'd like to help with child care and job training in the poor community. 

$195,000,000 is $6.5m a year over thirty years; $541,000 a month every year, and $135,415 a week.

Of course, that's going on the gross total; if you calculate it at 65%, it looks like this:

$126,750,000 net

$4,225,000 a year for thirty years

$352,000 a month

$88,000 a week

Every month you could buy two luxury cars (BMW, Audi, Lexus and the like).

In one month could buy a reasonable three-bedroom house in some suburban places.

Six Hundred Simoleans

Did you win? I didn't.

Okay, I didn't play, either. I don't have one dollar to be giving away to the lottery administration. (Of course, I don't have it to be giving to McDonald's, either, but that's what I've done this evening.)

I told a friend that even if you gave away half of this win, you'd still have a ton of money.

So, 600 million. Let's do the math:

Minus 50% for taxes = 300 million
Divided by 30 years = 10 million a year
Over 12 months = 830,000 a month
Equals 208,000 a week
Equals $29,000 a day

That's of course if you take it in the installments. My feeling is that if you take the lump sum you get less than half. Mostly that's because the top amount they advertise is if you take it in the installments so that they make up the money in investments (or maybe future ticket sales; I don't know how it works).

Even with just a fourth of the money ($150 million), you could make a difference in so many lives. Going back to the original calculations, you could give away $500,000 a month and still have $350,000 for yourself. Every month. How crazy is that?

My thing is creating jobs. With $500,000 a month, I could fund 20 jobs at $25,000 a year. I could create over 200 jobs in a year. And I could do that for 30 years. How incredible would that be? How would you feel if you could do that?

Maybe I could buy or build apartment buildings and make them low-income or mixed income housing, because profit wouldn't be my motive. Maybe I could provide support personnel for every child in a failing school, or a counselor for every family in one housing project. Maybe I could fund my own ideas through other people; find some go-getters to follow through on what I've never been able to.

I was talking to a friend about the prize and she was saying that she has a plan for when - when, she's convinced she will win - her ship comes in. Listening to her outline her initial steps, all I could think of was her daughter and how she would have to manage that relationship. I tend to think I would be fine, but that's not based on anything. I think my one brother would resent that I - the foolish brother - had won it. I might have trouble with another brother as well; one who is not very successful in life. I don't know if he would stay solvent no matter how much money I have him. (Of course, this applies to me as well.)

That's what they always say; it strains your relationships. I think I'd be overly generous and so this wouldn't be a problem, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't have a problem internally, with me.

Changing the World, Changing *My* World

I want to change the world. One of the reasons I often want to win the lottery is to be able to do something to change the world.

But I also want to change my world; I want to buy things for myself or be able to create some kind of magical, mythical or philanthropic persona by buying things.

For instance: I think I've talked about my fantasy of driving up to my brother's house in a fancy new car (recently: BMW Series 7), ringing his doorbell and collecting my belongings that he's storing in his house and driving away. In my recently imagining of this scenario, I debated whether I would tell him that I'd bought three (three!) houses and had more than enough space to store my stuff. I debated it because it showed weakness: was I just saying it to show off or to shove it in his face? I couldn't say no.

I imagined one of the houses I would buy, that it would be right smack downtown and that it would be huge. I think you can still get a lot for a million dollars in this town. (I'll have to check that assumption with Realtor.com.) I imagined how I would offer an entire floor to my one housemate, giving him a kind of freedom and luxury he doesn't have now but which I think he might enjoy and I feel he deserves, for the kind of person he is.

Now let's talk about changing the world.

There is an organization that I've volunteered with in the past that recruits tutors for underperforming students. They have a building in one part of town but have started a couple of remote site programs, too. I'd like to buy houses in the neighborhoods by those schools so they could convert them into site buildings and run the programs out of proprietary spaces.

I thought about this because there's a building for lease at the end of my block and I thought: I'd like to lease that building. At first, it was for no purpose at all; it was just to show "strength," in one sense. Then I thought: well, if I want to start a neighborhood training program for local teens to learn office skills and job skills, I could base it there. I could have classes in different computer applications and have tutoring sessions as well.

Internationally, I'd like to build refugee housing. I saw a report the other night about Syrian refugees moving into various countries around the Middle East and I wondered how one could help make the experience a little better. One way would be to provide better facilities, either through some kind of temporary housing (a giant Morton building? Katrina cottages?) or maybe building some kind of waste treatment system or providing composting toilets.

Of course, there would be other ways to enrich their lives; maybe I could help set up some kind of educational program for the kids and an artisanal program for the adults; try to give everyone a sense of purpose and normalcy.

Back here in the U.S., I'd like to buy airtime or commercials. I'd like to make commercials criticizing or satirizing other commercials or selling techniques; I'd like to try to educate people about what commercials try to fool them about. People are more and more media savvy, but maybe if I made "joke" commercials that spoofed the techniques it would be more fun and educate people more easily. And it could be something fun for people to look forward to.

I should write out in more detail these different plans so that - if I came across the money or wanted to write a grant - I had it laid out for someone else to see. But generally my ideas are about creating space for people to learn and live (which I think is at the heart of everyone's philanthropic drives).