Would you quit your job if you had won a $90 million dollar lottery?

August 4, 2009 3:07 AM

Would you quit your job if you had won a $90 million dollar lottery?
posted by red_rika to Work & Money (12 answers total)

It'd be tempting, but somebody's gotta inspect these bikinis.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 3:20 AM on August 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

Yes. No. I don't know. I'd probably just sit around, chatting with my friends, until I was removed by a moderator.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 3:33 AM on August 4, 2009 [3 favorites]

Probably not. I don't mind work so much as I mind the fact that I have to work.
posted by syntheticfaith at 3:34 AM on August 4, 2009

No, maybe $91 million, but.
posted by b33j at 3:43 AM on August 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

Most middle class people need some type of structure in their lives; work provides this. There have been lots of documented instances of folks who win the lottery (or receive other such windfalls) quitting their jobs with things turning out badly.

This guy blew through some £9.7 million in about 18 months, and reportedly has little to show for it as well. Wiki has more information on the poor guy.

I'm personally somewhat against lotteries, as I think funds could be better diverted into more productive uses but if folks do win they really shouldn't get any of the money until a distinct period of time (e.g., one year) has passed, and they'd received some remedial financial education.

We do such a terrible job of teaching folks how to handle money, its no surprise that when ordinary people receive such windfalls their world's all but end.

While a million isn't enough for most folks to quit their jobs (that's actually my trick question to see how much folks know about finance, and about 9/10 fail), $90 million (net of tax, gross would be a different AskMe) is approaching serious liquidity and as long as you didn't go too crazy you could live rather well of the revenue stream a properly diversified portfolio of that scale would safely generate.
posted by Mutant at 3:49 AM on August 4, 2009

Ummm... too much contemplation already, yes. That's 45 after tax, take 5 for family, donation to the good cause, and a few toys and houses. Can you live on the interest of 40?
posted by sammyo at 3:51 AM on August 4, 2009

Yes! Yes I would. I would then work full-time towards gaining a Phd in Geoscience in order to be better informed about how to apportion that cash (new, modest house + pilot license costs aside) into a series of trusts and grant funding opportunities to promote, support and apply research that will make a much bigger difference than I can hope to achieve via the individual effort I hope to contribute through my current path of part-time foundation study/full-time job.
posted by freya_lamb at 3:52 AM on August 4, 2009

Isn't this a bit chatfilter? Have you recently had a windfall and are pondering on your next move, or is this wishful shoegazing?
posted by Smoosh Faced Lion at 3:53 AM on August 4, 2009

There's always a kernel of something interesting in these chatfilter questions, and yet everyone just leaves snarky non-answers until they get deleted. Why do people often lose their entire fortunes? I'd like to think that I would not do the same with a prize on the order of $90 million, but maybe that's what the rest of em told themselves. Would your luck be improved if you were already a relatively productive, secure member of the workforce? In my fantasies, I would not immediately quit my job, but stay on for another six months or a year and try to ponder exactly what I could do with that money. If you won $90 million and got a lump sum it would probably be somewhere around half that, if not mistaken. So let's just say you have $45 million. That's enough not only to fulfill all my personal desires, such as traveling the world, taking pictures wherever I go with good equipment, and having a nice home to come back to, but also to help others in an effective manner.

$45 million isn't on the level with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, sure, but you could do a lot with that money. I would either start researching non-profit institutes to find one that I believed in to give some money to, or I would go to school or otherwise educate myself in the ways of non-profit policy work to try to really do some good on my own. As much as I believe that there are already many ingenious people out there working for the common good, I also think there aren't nearly as many people as problems that need to be solved. I think that given some time, study, hard work, and the requisite lottery cash, I could contribute a novel and needed change to the world in some field. I would have to study and think about it, and probably wouldn't take any action for years.

But yeah, I would keep my job.
posted by malapropist at 3:59 AM on August 4, 2009

Oh hells yes. In a heartbeat. Heck, I'd quit my job for a cool 1 million.
posted by emd3737 at 4:00 AM on August 4, 2009

No, definitely no, but my job is much like winning the lottery anyway, except not so well paid.
posted by jeffburdges at 4:01 AM on August 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

Writing a book, clearly.

And yes, I would. Are you kidding? 90 million is.. a lot. Most of those poor shlubs that blow their lottery winnings are blowing through a lot less than that.
posted by cj_ at 4:08 AM on August 4, 2009