Earlier this Saturday I had a single $10 bill to my name. I spent $5 at Price Choppers for a can of ravioli ($1), a tomato for a sandwich ($0.52), a 1.5L tub of maple walnut ice cream (only $2, bargain!) and a pack of hotdogs ($1) for my dog Sam. I also bought a 371ml thingy of Irish Cream coffee flavouring ($1.99) so I can tolerate instant coffee. I then spent the last $3 on a Lotto 649 ticket for tonight’s $11 million draw.
(cue in dream-like music) 11 million dollars….what would I do with it?
2 million would go to my existence, calculating 50K a year for 40 years, assuming I live to be 95.
2 million would go in trust for my son paying him 50k a year when he is 40. Prior to that he would still live with me and go to school and/or work.
1 million would be there just for me to blow. I think I’d take a buddy to Vegas to see if I really could do well as a professional poker player, I’d travel a bit or maybe just buy into a golf course. I’d give a bunch away just because I could.
That leaves 6 million for a dream I have been harbouring for about 10 years. It would be called The ******* *** Foundation, named after my son. This foundation would be a benevolent organization with the sole purpose of helping those in need. Not just the poor. Say someone had the dream of starting a small business but couldn’t get the capital. My organization would give it to them. Give it, not loan. There wouldn’t be a whole lot of red tape and delay, they’d just get it if the idea sounded like it stood a chance. All the Foundation would ask for was say 10% of net profits…forever. If the business fails we lose, if it succeeds the Foundation gets money into the kitty. I am sure money could be raised with fundraisers and stuff like that too. The Foundation would build/buy residences for the homeless and poor. Scattered in all areas of the city so as to NOT create a ghetto, with rents geared to income with a reasonable cap so if successful people wouldn’t have to move if they didn’t want to. It would offer clothes for job interviews or tools for employment. It would offer food and showers for those who needed them or whatever was leg up was needed.
To slow the influx of the needy moving to London or people lining up for assistance there would be one simple rule. Ask and you will not get. The Foundation would have a team of trusted people out and about seeking out those in need. Sure the plan is flimsy. It’s only a dream after all, but if I had the money I would “waste” it trying to make it work. If nothing else it would employ a lot of people (staff) who would be paid well, but not outrageously and all would get the same no matter what their position. By today’s standards I’d say 30K a year plus housing.
Overall I would like to create a for profit organization with a working model that would put so-called non-profit organizations to shame. A 6 mil opening donation helps, but hopefully it would be self-sufficient before that money ran out.
Jobs. I’d want to be in the job making business. I’d want to be in the helping people business. Most of all I’d want to be in the “see you assholes, this is how people with money should conduct themselves” business.
Oh sure it’s all easy to say. I haven’t won the money and odds are strong I won’t. Still, if I had a shitload of money it would stay in London and help Londoners without interference from City Hall. Maybe I’d even be able to help the whole city by just paying some tab the city incurred so they wouldn’t have to gouge it out of the citizens.
Look, it’s just about time to check the ticket.
Oh yeah, and I’d have a job for my Twitter friends I have not yet met and anyone who posts a comment on this blog. 😛
Okay….so what would YOU do?
London Ontario Canada 
Oh, I should add: if the lottery was a bigger lottery – say $40M+ I’ve already got a dream estate planned (not put into AutoCAD…yet) and let’s just say it involves a really nice pool, some pretty wicked tech, and a whole lot of vehicles.
Comment by Rob Allison — June 25, 2011 @ 10:51 pm
For me, if the prize was bigger I’d just do the foundation bigger….including a fleet of cars with and without drivers.
I have always (since the boxy Chryslers came out) had this image of a black car with a barely discernible Batman wings on the hood rising from the grill. It would be so faint one might only think they saw it. Something about that idea tickles me.
And I forgot to mention my Think Tank concept that has yet to be formulated. Being bucks up I could afford to lure folks to it, but that in itself would be counter to the concept. Rock and a hard place there.
Comment by thatguyinlondon — June 25, 2011 @ 11:00 pm
Hmm…Really it depends on the size of the lottery. For the sake of discussion we’ll use the same $11M that’s up for grabs tonight. (Sadly, I have not bought a ticket so you have a better shot than me).
I would probably take $2-3M (we’ll say 3 for math’s sake) and disburse amongst family and friends. They would be “shareholders” of the ticket and the cheque would be awarded to them by OLG so that the money is tax free.
With the remaining $8M I would, in all likliehood, take a million or two (math = $2M) and set it up as some sort of endowment fund for charities. I already have a few in mind that would be recipients and may also use a portion of it for scholarships to college.
So that leaves $6M. There would be a new house and probably a couple new cars. I figure I can do all that for $500K.
$5.5M. That amount would be invested *somewhat* conservatively although I’d still be expecting about a 5-8% return. On the low end that gets me ~$250K per year in returns. After taxes we’ll call that $125K. I can easily live on that never touching the principal. I wouldn’t need to set up a trust per se for the kids until after I die but I’d have lawyers get me a nice iron clad will that would look after them.
Part of me would want to open up a business. Something not too difficult to run that plays well with my hobbies. Maybe a comic/gaming shop. It would need to be something that doesn’t really exist in London in the capcity that I’d like to see it at. It wouldn’t necessarily need to make me rich but it would need to be self-sustaining.
So in the end it looks like you’d be more generous than I would and you would definitely have a different way of investing in the community. I like your idea as well though. Maybe if I’d have thought of it first I’d have used it.
Comment by Rob Allison — June 25, 2011 @ 10:49 pm