What would you do if you won a huge sum of money in the lottery?

[BJenkies]

Long-time lurker here. I've recently been thinking, with the eurojackpot lottery main win being currently 111 million euros, what would you do if you happened to win that kind of money?

Personally, I would move out of my aggresive high tax home country ASAP, cut all ties there (maybe only buy a summer home as that doesn't qualify you for tax residency if you stay less than 183 days a year there), move to Dubai or similar place with very low taxation, invest my money into stocks, ETFs, commodities and probably real-estate and live the rest of my life in relative luxury, travelling around the world from my new homebase. Maybe get myself a Caribbean/Turkish passport by investment so I have a non-EU passport if the geopolitical situation changes drastically in the future.

 

[JohnnyDoe]

This is a loser’s mindset. Invest a bit of money into changing it.

 

[polonieth]

Long-time lurker here. I've recently been thinking, with the eurojackpot lottery main win being currently 111 million euros, what would you do if you happened to win that kind of money?

Personally, I would move out of my aggresive high tax home country ASAP, cut all ties there (maybe only buy a summer home as that doesn't qualify you for tax residency if you stay less than 183 days a year there), move to Dubai or similar place with very low taxation, invest my money into stocks, ETFs, commodities and probably real-estate and live the rest of my life in relative luxury, travelling around the world from my new homebase. Maybe get myself a Caribbean/Turkish passport by investment so I have a non-EU passport if the geopolitical situation changes drastically in the future.

Does your country count a lottery win as taxable income?

But anyway, I agree with JohnnyDoe, the lottery mindset is not a good one. You could achieve at least some, if not all, of your plans without winning the lottery.

Many say the lottery is effectively taxation on stupidity, Essentially it is, based on the cost of playing vs the odds of winning, but I don't mind people playing it for a bit of fun as long as it's not money they shouldn't be wasting. I've bought a few Euromillions tickets over the years, always fun to see that email you have a winning ticket only to click and see you've won less than the ticket cost.

 

[JohnnyDoe]

The winner’s mindset is: setup your own lottery (casino etc). Or sell “advanced systems” for winning.

 

[Martin Everson]

what would you do if you happened to win that kind of money?

Wake up.

 

[Alonzo]

Wake up.

The odds are so unbelievably high that I can tell OP right now that he will never win the jackpot in his life.

 

[intlman]

The lottery is a tax on stupidity.

 

[Andrew Gooden]

Long-time lurker here. I've recently been thinking, with the eurojackpot lottery main win being currently 111 million euros, what would you do if you happened to win that kind of money?

Personally, I would move out of my aggresive high tax home country ASAP, cut all ties there (maybe only buy a summer home as that doesn't qualify you for tax residency if you stay less than 183 days a year there), move to Dubai or similar place with very low taxation, invest my money into stocks, ETFs, commodities and probably real-estate and live the rest of my life in relative luxury, travelling around the world from my new homebase. Maybe get myself a Caribbean/Turkish passport by investment so I have a non-EU passport if the geopolitical situation changes drastically in the future.

Life is a gamble we win or we lose. You still have a chance as long as you have a ticket. Pay no attention to those who said it is a loser mindset. Your chance is as good as the next man. Continue to play your lotto. You may win and you may not. If you win that is good if you lose that's alright. Continue to dream as nothing is wrong with that. Greeting BJenkies! Cheers!

 

[tyrexoid]

Long-time lurker here. I've recently been thinking, with the eurojackpot lottery main win being currently 111 million euros, what would you do if you happened to win that kind of money?

Personally, I would move out of my aggresive high tax home country ASAP, cut all ties there (maybe only buy a summer home as that doesn't qualify you for tax residency if you stay less than 183 days a year there), move to Dubai or similar place with very low taxation, invest my money into stocks, ETFs, commodities and probably real-estate and live the rest of my life in relative luxury, travelling around the world from my new homebase. Maybe get myself a Caribbean/Turkish passport by investment so I have a non-EU passport if the geopolitical situation changes drastically in the future.

I would keep 3 million for myself:
- use 1 million to buy a small but high quality house in the Alps that'll last for 100+ years,
- use the other 1 million to buy myself out of 9-5 slavery for the next 2-3 years (I'll get bored though, so this is a difficult one to do in practice) and go visit all Disneylands and waterparks around the world while I'm still young and don't get motion sick ,
- use the last million to buy a farm, just in case. veggies are good for me.

and then donate the rest for charity, probably 90% of it would use directly to relocate and find temporary homes for Ukrainian refugees who lost their homes, and for kids who lost parents and families. the other 10% to UNHCR maybe, they do a good job with providing free transportation and food for refugees.
I know it's a bit selfish decision to keep all 3 million to myself, but I'm a relatively selfish person to tell the truth, so I'd first take care of myself before sharing it with others or some random NGOs .

 

[JimBeam]

With 111M in your pocket - you should be MOVING INTO high-tax country - not out of it.
You have secured you and your children for life and now you need stable country where you could live a normal, secure and healthy life.

I guess that Monaco or Switzerland would be first choices for most people of that kind of wealth.
Especially for those that want to show off a bit like wear a Rolex and/or drive a supercar.

If one can limit himself and live a more humble life - the choices are even better.
I guess I would have to chose between the Netherlands and Italy.

 

[intlman]

Don't take this the wrong way, but these types of questions are nothing more than mental masturbation. Heed @JohnnyDoe's advice.

 

[scooterguy]

The lottery mindset is not a good one to have, like others have said. Most people can easily retire with much more money than they think, as long as they have patience, a long-term plan, and live within their means.

I've seen people, however, really happy when playing the lottery, so it probably won't hurt to play it once in a while, as long as you are aware that you don't need to rely on it to achieve your financial independence objectives.

Anyways, for the sake of discussion, and to answer your question, if I ran into 111 million euros somehow, I would invest most of it, but would use around 10-20 million to make something great for some communities I am a part of (I have some ideas that would require money but would make little to no money at all).