Poll | 06/13/2009 12:00 am

What is the first thing you would do if you won the lottery – and won big?

Read more about: Charity, Lottery, Money, Relationships

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The first thing I would do is to change my phone number. That would cut down on all the requests from people I barely know who would suddenly claim to be my dearest friends. Then I would give anonymously to the charities I would love to support but can’t afford. I would help both of my children, not that they need it necessarily, but extra is always nice. And I would re-visit certain places that I did not see as thoroughly as I wanted for lack of time, like all the Hawaiian Islands, and Catalina Island, the Outer Banks of Carolina, and of course the Florida Keys. I would feast my eyes on the sea from land….not keen on boats!

By Amanda Blue on 06/13/2009 8:01 pm

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lol, i like that change my phone number. i know just what you mean!

By Nancy Pea on 06/13/2009 10:39 pm

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Nance…yeah, the IRS would be the first on the line, if any of us hit the Lotto!

By James the Game on 06/13/2009 11:18 pm

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lol at the casino’s they take their chunk out before you ever see it. so i would imagine it’s that way at the lottery. you don’t get the check the same day either. i think they have to process it which gives the IRS time to jump in, roll around and grab whatever they can before they give you whats left. lol!

By Nancy Pea on 06/13/2009 11:48 pm

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Since I don’t have a job to begin with and I hate to travel, I would spend it. On a TV, Computer system with printer, scanner, and get an iphone. And the rest for family use.

By Beth Cornell on 06/13/2009 8:43 pm

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Pay for all my favorite people to get breakfast in bed all weekend for a year. Get an RV and travel where the wind blow me. Buy a private cottage on the ocean. Have someone else color my hair. Quit my job and do volunteer work for the Red Cross disaster worldwide (like my time during Katrina). Do the inter-coastal waterway on an old live-in boat. Eat fresh Dungeness Crab in Seattle. Mow the lawn when I want do and when I don’t…pay someone to do it.

A therapist friend once told me to make a list of what I would do if I won the lottery. Take a good look at the list and see what really take money. She said that you would find that many things don’t take money. It just take the will to do them. So I guess I should just get about doing them!

By Eileen McSherry on 06/14/2009 12:48 am

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First, I would pay off all my debt. Then I would take a few weeks of vacation to visit favorite haunts and explore them more in depth. After that I’d buy a modest house on a decent sized, but not huge, piece of property - maybe ten acres or less - and spend the rest of my time volunteering and learning all the things I’ve wanted to learn but didn’t have the financial cushion to attempt as a life supporting career. I would love to learn glassblowing and woodworking.

By Karen R on 06/14/2009 2:37 am

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When I win a big lottery, I will go to small towns whose downtown areas have been decimated by large outlying malls and revitalize the areas by rebuilding small businesses. The formerly empty storefronts would go to creative individuals who really need the work. These shops and art galleries can bring in tourism—changing a long street of windows with signs that say "Store Closed" into a bussling, happy area once again. Oh, I have given this a lot of thought.

By kermie b on 06/14/2009 7:26 am

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Kermie, this touches my heart and the fact itself has changed the face of our country. We have become a nation of "gasoline alleys, fast food and big box stores" and every berg looks like the next. I miss Main Street! After my retirement we went back to my hometown and made an effort to do just this. We were able to see some small successes but there were many who fought any kind of change from their comfortable ways on the last quarter century or so. This was in the south and I wanted to start and craft and education program for those less fortunate and market their wares. I did make some inroads but the fight wore me down. At least, I tried.

Oh, and, I think I would drop dead if I won the lottery so it is a good thing I don’t even go there.

By Agyness O on 06/14/2009 3:58 pm

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Agyness—I grew up in a small town, which was bussling when I left for college. Fast forward a few decades and one of my brothers told me, warned me, really, not to visit that same small town because it was, in his words, "dead." This saddens me that I cannot revisit memories of my youth—even the apartment where I grew up burned to the ground several years ago. The only thing left there for me is to visit the graves of my parents who died when I was a child. If I had the money, I would go back and make those empty buildings into artist’s refuges, small businesses, and that rarest of gems—independent bookstores, with readings and lively coffeehouses. But empty buildings they are, and such a waste. To this day I refuse to shop at "box" stores and patronize small businesses in my neighborhood here in NYC. The so-called savings of the mega-corporations are not worth the soul of a neighborhood.

By kermie b on 06/14/2009 4:28 pm

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I know all too well of these unfortunate situations across America. My little town, despite the ravages of the last 25 years, has just undergone another set back because of recent economic difficulties and four more plants have shut down. I fear that it is dying now, too. The remaining residents have no place to find work and there are many that have just not recieved an education for current job market in cities within a 50 mile radius. It is right up there with many as one of the prettiest small towns in America. We are allowing these little donwtowns to rot and go by the wayside. If I won the lottery, I"d call you and we could do our "thing". I do understand your feelings completely!

By Agyness O on 06/14/2009 8:45 pm

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Awesome!

By Christine Cline on 06/14/2009 9:14 pm

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I’d pay off a line of credit, buy a great new vehicle (I’m planning on doing that anyway, but I’d get a fancy one), then I’d give money to family and various causes I believe in, mostly concerning animal welfare.

By christine w on 06/14/2009 9:53 am

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I rarely play the lottery except when the jack pot his huge, then like many others, buy a couple of tickets. The one thing I would hate, is it to change my life…I am very happy right now and if it meant being miserable for having so much money, then I don’t want that change. I would not quit work, because I love my job, but I would make one of the biggest donations to our Domestic Violence shelter so they could open more beds and offer more services, such as first month rent and deposits for women and their children to get back on their feet. Maybe even a new shelter which would provide everything and a huge play yard for the children to play and be safe from violence. To hear them laugh with such joy. That would be music to my ears.

I would also like to buy a new home for both of my daughters so they wouldn’t be house poor. And set up trust funds for families they will someday have. But I don’t want them to stop working, because they learn by having responsibilities. Just make it easy for them to live not on such a tight budget.

I would like to downsize our home to a townhome, since we don’t need all the yard work and snow removal care. But I would miss my big garden, so that I would have to think about. I just don’t want it to change my life…just to live more comfortably and the same for my daughters.

By Libra Lady on 06/14/2009 10:18 am

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I may have this wrong in how to comment but here goes I would pay off debts, put 50,000 in daughter’s college fund,give money to our parents bank and invest and then try to start a business.

By Regina Vorhauer on 06/14/2009 10:05 pm