If I Won the Lottery...

The Currently EuroMillions Jackpot is set at £58,000,000. That is a lot of zeros people. Though neither my husband or myself play the lottery, we do sometime speculate what it would be like to win the lotto. So I decided that for this weeks blog post I would have a little fun. I did some research on how much of winning I could actually get and how much tax would be paid, and then went on a make believe shopping extravaganza!!!

So for starters I had to read up on the EuroMillions FAQs, which was actually quite informative because I found that because I am hypothetically playing in the UK, my money wouldn’t be taxed. I would get the whole lump sum! Now, I know for the US Powerball there is a the lottery tax, which is about 40% when taken in a lump sum. In the UK, if I were to win, I would eventually have to pay HMRC inheritance tax, which is about 40%, so it is like a delayed lotto tax that the people in my will are going to have pay.

Now that I know I am going to get the huge lump sum, which is apparently just transferred into your bank account now (they used to be given a cheque), I can start making a shopping list. But before that I will be visited by a counsellor from the EuroMillions Company to help me cope with the being an overnight millionaire, which to be honest is probably a good thing. I am going to pretend I have been counselled and all that jazz, keeping in mind I was told not spend a shed load all at once.

Where is the fun in that?

For starters, the first thing to go is my student debt, don’t need that hanging over my head if Ben and I ever decided to move to the US. Because I was lucky with scholarships and my worked my butt off in college, I have less than the average debt of most US college students. So I haven’t even made a dent in the money yet.

Next is the obvious purchasing of a house. Since we will be able to buy it straight up with cash, there is no mortgaging involved which is great because housing London is ridiculously expensive and we don’t need the added stress. We want to live near the ZSL: London, Ben’s

One of my favourite things about this house is the garden

parents, and a good tube line. Camden has all of that and so much other stuff to do, so we are gonna buy there. So we buy a house.

After we buy that beauty of a house and renovate it to our liking. We still have a huge chunk of change left. A lot of advice given by past winners is to not retire early, the cost of living is super high and you also want something to keep you busy during the week. But hey, just because we have decided to keep our jobs doesn’t mean we can’t go on vacation some time! So we go on an awesome holiday, in which we gorge ourselves on amazing food and drink from dawn till dusk, and because I am in love with the movie Moana and want to go to the beach, we decide on Hawaii! Beautiful beaches, snorkelling, and volcanoes, what more could a girl want?! On the return trip, we make a pit stop on the way home to visit my family in Indiana (and to go clothes shopping of course).

Look at this scenery people

But now we have an issue, we have probably only spent about 15 millions pounds. What are you supposed to do with all this extra cash? Invest it smartly? Give to your favourite charity in hopes they name a building after you? This is the part of this hypothetically that always stumps us. Where do we go after that? Our lives are never the same, but they also aren’t too different. We are the same two people, with the same loving family. We still get up and go to work just like everyone else. We still do regular people things. So I guess even if we won the lotto, we would still just be people. Hopefully the money wouldn’t go to our heads, but you never know.  Although after thinking super hard about this, pretend buying a house, and planning a luxury vacation has made me wish I won the lottery. What would you do if you won £58,000,000?