Not many of my readers will remember this classic TV series that ran from 1955-1960.
But, since Kim has started everyone in the “February Blog Challenge” group posting about what they would do if they won the lottery, I flashed back to this TV show.
The premise was that a gazillionaire who lived on a huge 60,000 acre estate entertained himself by giving away One Million dollars per episode to a stranger.
He would call his trusty personal secretary:
Who arrived in the required hat with the required briefcase and was handed an envelope with the instructions to deliver it to the unsuspecting beneficiary.
We then heard the “back story” for 30 minutes while the guy hunted the person down to deliver the check.
Back to Kim’s blog entry…what would I do with a windfall. First of all, if you compare the average household income in 1955 to 2008, that million dollar tax-free check would have to be 17 Million today.
So- if the never-seen John Beresford Tipton sent his faithful secretary, Michael Anthony to give me Seventeen Million dollars, what would I do with it?
1) 1.7 million to a list of worthy causes. [15.3 million left]
2) $500,000 (less 10% that I would donate to the charities of their choice) to each of my siblings and my siblings-in-law. They would each be responsible for using that money any way they choose. But they would also be responsible for passing a portion of it along to their own children and grandchildren. I would not give money to nieces and nephews or grand nieces and nephews. [10.8 million left]
3) 500,000 to the non-profit retirement community where my mother lives. [10.3 million left]
4) One million in a higher education trust fund for the benefit of our grandchildren, great grandchildren, and so on. Given their young age and with good management, the principal should remain intact. [9.3 million left]
5) Three million each (less the 10% we will donate to charities of their choice) to our daughters. No strings attached. No advice. No demands. BUT with the understand that they need to build their own estate with that money, because our entire estate will go to charity when we die. [3.3 million left]
6) Three million to be invested for income to live and travel on for the rest of our lives.
7) After all of those initial disbursements, we will have $300,000.00 to celebrate the windfall with. We will use it to start chipping away at our 100 things to do before we die list. Since 90 of those 100 things are travel related, I figure (given that even unlimited money won’t turn us into 5 Star travelers) we will get through about 18 months before we need to start using income.
OH, by the way….I did buy a 100M Power Ball ticket today.