If I Won The Lottery

I was reading an article about a woman who won 190 million dollars in the states.Even after taxes, that is a lot of money, and if that were won in Canada, there would be no taxes off the top. It got me thinking about what I would want to do if my husband and I won the lottery.

This would be one purchase

I would want to pay out the loans that my old church has outstanding. Even though I left hurting, I grew up there and was involved there. I attended most of the business meetings, participated in the votes, and learned a great deal about living in community while a member there. I would want to relieve them of their financial burdens so that they may more freely allocate funds to other ministries.

I would want to do the same for our current church, as well as tithe. Our current community is so wonderful and I am proud to be a part of it. Yes, there have been hiccups already on our short journey there, but we stand behind the people in charge and the ministries that they support and have created.

I would want to give money to our friends. This is a tricky one, because we wouldn't want to make our friends feel like charity cases, so we would need to be delicate about how we did it, but we would definitely want to share the wealth with them, as we consider them to be our family. We don't want to keep it all to ourselves, we want to make sure the people around us are provided for.

I would want to set up trust funds for my underage siblings, for education and such, and give an amount to my adult siblings. They are so important to me. I would want to ensure that they are taken care of, and that they have the ability to pursue higher education if they so choose.

We would also give a sum to my husband's parents. They have been such great supporters for us, and have truly meant it when they said that we could ask them for any sort of help if we needed it. When we were in a lot of debt, and felt as if we were drowning, they came alongside us and made sure that we were taken care of. We would want to do the same for them.

I would want to give some to my own mom, but this is where it gets trickier. If this were to happen, and I still don't have a relationship with my father, I wouldn't want to give anything to him. It's not that I don't care for him, but I don't want him to reap the benefits of a relationship if he still chooses to refuse to take responsibility for his actions and reject me. So I don't know how that would work exactly, or what that would look like.

And then we would do the usual; buy a house with cash, invest for retirement, maybe retire early, take an extended holiday, donate to charity, things like that.

The chances of this happening are slim to none, especially considering the fact that neither my husband nor I buy lottery tickets. But it's fun to think about. What would you do?

-SP