Powerball

With that kind of money, why would you invest it in anything except something very conservative? It's not like you need that money.

 

This is what $1 billion in cash looks like, according to What does one TRILLION dollars look like?:

 

With that much my goal would be to create something huge that keeps getting bigger and helps an awful lot of less fortunate people for a very long time after I'm gone.

 

It's that same 2-by-4 stack, but it's 1,000 stacks high.

 

OK, so we now we know what Jason Whitlock would do.

 

I don't follow. According to the site, each palette holds $100 million.

 

Oh, OK ... My eyes aren't so good. So a trillion would be the same 2-by-5 arrangement, but it'd be 1,000-pallets high.

 

Ah, now I see. Yes. Or it might look like this:

Notice the pallets are double stacked.

 

In Zimbabwe, that much cash will buy you a goat sandwich and a flat sody pop.

 

That was one of my first two questions. Say an account can only be $250K and your bank allows four accounts. That's only $1 million total, with hundreds of millions still out there.
My other question was about anonymity. I believe I read only six states allow you to be anonymous after winning; the other 38 states where Powerball is played force the winner to be made known publicly. Some require winners to go through a press conference. That would really, really suck. Need money? Hey look, this guy lives near you! Here's his name, so go find his address! If at all possible, I would come up with a fake name, pretend it's Halloween and find a full-body costume and disguise my voice when going to cash in my winning ticket.

 

Over the dinner table the wife and I laughingly mused over the "What would we do?" question. The thought occurred to both of us that, should a big lottery win* fall into our lap, the days of compromising over our kids' musical instruments would be over. Our middle-schooler (violin) would be the only kid in her orchestra with a Vuillaume. Big brother, the cellist, would have to make do with a Gagliano (until a Stradivarius comes available), but we'd of course pop for the Tourte or the Fetique bow.



*Did you see what I did there? [/crossthread]