re: You win the Powerball. Describe your first 10 steps.

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When you buy a lottery ticket you get nothing. That's the math.

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Not true. It's given me something to daydream about to pass the time during my 30-40 minute commute to work each way this week. Worth 2 bucks, in my opinion.

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The financial world doesn't have bigger problems than to brow beat the proletariat for spending $2 to daydream of winning half a billion dollars?

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This.

I bought exactly one ticket, just so i could spend the next 30 minutes in traffic thinking about what all i would do.
Plus the odds are better with one ticket than none.

And I'll wait for the next "what would you do" thread to pop up in a few months to waste another $2.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, but waiting until after you have won is too late to effectively shelter as much of the winnings as possible from taxes. The Poodlebrain Plan for winning the Powerball would be something like this:

1. Create the You Don't Know Who The F**k I Am Trust, appointing myself as trustee and beneficiary. Fund the trust with $85.

2. Create separate trusts to benefit each of the family members I plan on sharing the wealth with.

3. As trustee of the YDKWTFIAT, form the Sweet arse Powerball Winning LLC. The members of the LLC are the trusts I created for members of my family that I want to share the wealth with. In my case it would be 50% retained by the YDKWTFIAT, 10% each to my four siblings and 10% to split among my nieces and nephews. The YDKWTFIAT will be named the manager of the SAPWLLC, and the only identified party in filings with the Secretary of State. The cost to form the LLC is $75.

3. Have an operating agreement drafted for the SAPWLLC that gives the manager sole responsibility for managing SAPPWLLC, and the manager can only be replaced with a vote of greater than 50% of the ownership interests, so I have to vote myself out of power.

5. Contribute $10 of remaining assets of YDKWTFIAT to SAPWLLC.

6. Invest $1 of SAPWLLC assets in winning Powerball ticket.

7. Visit various banks and financial institutions to find one to act as co-trustee of the YDKWTFIAT and other trusts, and to establish bank accounts for SAPWLLC. (From this point forward the financial institution will be the public face of the YDKWTFIAT and SAPWLLC as I go incognito.)

8. Have the corporate fiduciary go collect the Powerball winnings as a lump sum less the 35% federal income tax.

9. Direct the co-trustee to distribute an appropriate amount of cash to each of the members so they can party like rock stars. I don't want them going overboard like OT-ballers.

10. Turn investment management over to asset managers and judge them based on portfolio performance while living happily ever after.

The above plan will avoid all transfer taxes on 50% of the Powerball prize, but it could be modified to give away more, or less, of the prize as one might desire. If we assume the lump sum will be $400 million, the tax savings for me would be approximately $85 million. The SAPWLLC will have to file an annual partnership tax return and the various members will be taxed on their allocable shares of the income. Thus the SAPWLLC will have to make regular distributions to the members so they can pay their taxes. But with the creative use of the LLC and trusts I would be able to control who gets how much and when.


I almost forgot.

11. Buy CarrolltonTiger a one way ticket to Israel.

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but waiting until after you have won is too late to effectively shelter as much of the winnings as possible from taxes.

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10% each to my four siblings and 10% to split among my nieces and nephews.

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no way i give 50% of it away.

Assume the lump sum is $400 million. The income tax they take right away is $140 million. So you walk away with $260 million. Giving away $130 million now to avoid paying $85 million in taxes later doesn't exactly leave me destitute.

If I take $30 million to blow like an OT-baller I still have $100 million to invest. Earning a lousy 2% gives me $2 million per year to live on. When I die I will have already taken care of my relatives. So I won't hesitate to leave it all to LSU on condition they name a toilet stall after me in one of the Tiger Stadium, Student Section, Women's Restrooms. That way I'll spend eternity touching the naked asses of LSU co-eds in some sort of spiritual sense.

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11. Buy CarrolltonTiger a one way ticket to Israel

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ETA: I feel like I should send you a check for all that.... (vigorously taking notes)

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I got 3 numbers in a row and then nothing.

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damn you were so close yet still had 1/75 milllion to go