I am risk averse. I have solid family (my side) that I trust completely. Given that, each person you tell or give $ to - you open up the opportunity for the whole thing to break wide open. This type of winning would make me literally scared for me, my wife, and my kids' lives. Given that, I'm not sure when I would tell my brothers. Would I want to and let them enjoy it with me? Hell yea. But they aren't starving either and are both successful. I think I'd just sit tight for a bit - figure out how to structure things for the time in which I'm ready to start naming beneficiaries and go from there.

Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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Yeah, I agree with you on that.

Swiss private banking is your best bet all things considered.

Another strategy would be to buy the most expensive asset you can find ... like a super-yacht ... and borrow against that asset to do whatever you want to do after that. thats Cayman Islands all day every day. thats their rice bowl.

Thats a very common strategy for the ultra rich. Most people have no idea what goes on behind the scenes. But if you always wonder why billionaires always have a super yacht, thats why. Its a tax strategy, and a strategy for preserving wealth.

Most of the time buying a boat is a money sink, unless its a super yacht type situation, in which case its one of the smartest things you can do.

After thinking about it for a few days, that would be my strategy with $750 million in today's environment.

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Can you help me out on this? How well does a super yacht hold it's value? Is it easy to resell? My brain is running in circles as to how forking over $500MM+ for a big flashy toy is a wise money management strategy. I believe you, I am just feeling really stupid right now.

You borrow against that asset.

Can you explain this to me like I'm 5?

Why pull money from well performing investments to buy more stuff when you can get a loan with lower interest rates with that asset as collateral?
Then you buy art or something and keep it going....

When they buy something like a yacht or priceless art, their worth doesn't drop by that amount, it increases buy the value of the assets.

You borrow against an asset to create synthetic income without having to pay taxes (loans are not taxable income) while at the same time enjoying the asset, in this case a yatch I guess . . . Ask me how I don't know!

Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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You hit the mega millions jackpot.

$1.2 billion payout, but you took the cash option and walk away with $750 million.

They send you a form for where you want the money sent.

Now what? What do you do?

I'd like to hear what everybody's plan would be.

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Buy Bitcoin

First things first, I'd create a trust to accept the money and I would tell nobody. Not even my wife if at all possible. She's the biggest blabbermouth and can't keep a secret for *****

I'd hire the best tax lawyers and CPA's money can buy. Once everything is in order, I'd take my wife and kids and disappear for 3-6 months.

After that, I'd start trying to find ways to connect and socialize with the top 1% circle and pick their brains on not only how they keep their money but how they grow their money. I'd use every single trick in the book that they taught me.

I honestly don't think I'd want that pressure and I like my life how it is. I would probably give 90% of it away to fund research for children's cancer as that's something that's close to my heart. I'd keep the other 10%, invest wisely, keep my small business running like a machine, and retire early.

Scruffy said:

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You borrow against that asset.

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So let's say you won 500mil,

you buy this yacht for 500mil,
Take a ~1% loan for 250mil,

how is it making money to pay off your low interest loan ?

OasisMan said:

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Scruffy said:

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You borrow against that asset.

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So let's say you won 500mil,

you buy this yacht for 500mil,
Take a ~1% loan for 250mil,

how is it making money to pay off your low interest loan ?

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Yeah, I've never heard of this yacht strategy and would like to understand it.

I imagine you'd have to somehow tie the yacht to a business and maybe there's a way to take a huge deduction to offset a bunch of income?

I always thought this strategy worked best with cash flow producing and fast depreciation schedule assets though. No clue where a yacht falls. I think you still get bonus depreciation on jets though…so maybe you start a jet charter business, buy a $250MM jet, bonus depreciate the whole thing, and then borrow against it. Charter the jet out to cover the (deductible) interest expense and convert $250MM in taxable income to tax free income with the lease or charter fees covering the loan?

I do know you can use bonus depreciation to wipe out a bunch of taxable income when using a loan to purchase…because you can bonus depreciate based on the full eligible purchase price or cost, not the amount of equity you inject. So you basically get a big write off using the banks money.

Of course that's recaptured whenever you sell, but I suspect you can just use a 1031 exchange perpetually?

Surely some wise CPA can give us the 30,000ft explanation of something like this.

I'm curious about the yacht thing too - and wonder if the same strategy could be used on a much smaller scale.

$750MM?

Move $25MM where I won't lose any

Invest another $25MM to generate income for expenses

$200MM for property purchases and upkeep:
ranch
city condo
gameday house
beach house
lake house
mountain condo
Italian villa

And spend a lot of my time deciding how to give away the other $500MM. Aggie athletics, college of engineering, the poor pygmies in Africa, etc..

Do you set up an REIT or LLC to purchase all those properties? Always wondered about that.

I would think so. Obviously would get some professional help on structuring and executing.

I didn't buy this time, but every now and then I buy a ticket when it's super high (>$400MM) just to do this mental exercise and see what's important to me.

Your odds of winning are 0 if you don't buy a ticket, and are still approaching 0 if you do.

I bought one ticket. Got the pb number and one other..$2.. I'm Even Steven. We were in the keys and I bought a Florida ticket... if we had won we were going to send my son home(was going to tell him I was extending the vacation with a surprise week in Bahamas for my wife and I), to take care of dog and cows. She wouldn't be able to stay away from her practice much longer and I would ha e needed to get back to deal with this crappy drought.

Would have been a great problem to deal with, and was fun playing what if's....

Colt98 said:

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I bought one ticket. Got the pb number and one other..$2.. I'm Even Steven. We were in the keys and I bought a Florida ticket... if we had won we were going to send my son home(was going to tell him I was extending the vacation with a surprise week in Bahamas for my wife and I), to take care of dog and cows. She wouldn't be able to stay away from her practice much longer and I would ha e needed to get back to deal with this crappy drought.

Would have been a great problem to deal with, and was fun playing what if's....

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The "what if" part is really fun

Ogre09 said:

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$200MM for property purchases and upkeep:
ranch
city condo
gameday house
beach house
lake house
mountain condo
Italian villa

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This would be my strategy.

I don't want a boat or any fancy toys. But I would like several very nice homes in different settings. Summer at the ranch out west. Winter at the beach, etc., etc.

I'm kind of thinking: invest all, own nothing, rent everything. Maybe even fake death.

I guess only if you care about not wasting money.