Last night some lucky sod in our town won 8.7 million euros on the lottery. Thankfully I don't know him (because lets be honest, nobody wants to know a lottery winner) but it did get me thinking 'what if'. We all daydream about it at some stage but what if it really happened? Just imagine yourself, sitting down with ticket in hand waiting for the results. The first 2 numbers get read out, you raise an eyebrow and perhaps glance at your partner. The 3rd and 4th number get called and suddenly you have entered the 'serious' territory. Your palms start sweating and your heartbeat increases. You know that the chances of the next few numbers matching what you have are a million to one, you're no longer looking up at the telly now. You're fixated on that piece of paper in your hand and the voice on the telly. The final numbers get read out and suddenly you go into a state of shock. You have won the lottery. Naturally doubt would set in first. You double check the numbers, even triple check the numbers. You double check that it wasn't the Lotto+ numbers that were called out. You check your Sky+ box to make sure you're not watching a recorded program from last week (that would really suck). Everything checks out, you are now a millionaire. What do you do? What thoughts would cross your mind? Do you tell the family? Do you go into work? Do you quit your job? Do you just sit and stare into space for an hour? What?
Lets tackle those questions, Would I go into work? No way. Heck I wouldn't even ring work. Well maybe I would ring them but I wouldn't bother trying to come up with an excuse. There'd be no 'I've got the flu' or 'I'm not feeling well' or any kind of excuse. I'll just say I'm not coming in tonight. If they ask why, I'd say I'm just not in the mood and then hang up. End of story. Of course if I did go into work after winning the lotto it would be the easiest night I've ever had at work. I would do *bleep* all. Chances are I'd get sent home after an hour anyway.
Would I quit my job? In a heartbeat. The key word there is 'job'. If I had a career then no I would'nt quit. A career is something you enjoy doing, a job is something you have to do. I've been at my job for 11 years and I can safely say that if I leave tomorrow I wouldn't even get a handshake.
Would I tell my family? Believe it or not this is actually a tough question. I've seen families fall apart over disputes about money if someone wins the lotto. But yeah, I would of course tell them. I'd have to get them all gathered at the same place at the same time and then argue with each of them asking for money.
Would I share the money with family? Yes. Even though (and I probably shouldn't say this as they might read this) we are not the closest of families. Don't get me wrong we are a close-enough family, none of us are fighting and there's no bad blood or anything like that but we don't all meet up every week or ring eachother on the phone or even chat on Facebook. That's just not us. We all have our own lives and our own families to keep us busy. I would share the cash though. How to share it is the hardest part though. 100K each sound fair right?
What would I spend it on? Ah yes, the million dollar question (literally this time). New car, new house, 1 million into Sarah's savings, 1 million into our unborn child' savings, 60 inch flat screen, top of the range Dolby Surround, latest Photoshop software, latest PC, new PS3, long holiday, holiday home and then I'd add 10 euros to my winnings and pay off the rest of the bills. :)
It depends how much I won but I would share it with my mom for sure. The rest of the family, not sure but maybe a bit.
I would probably take a year off of work so I could travel but I would still want to work. I can't imagine spending every day without doing something productive. I wouldn't want to start up my own business as that's just a money sink and depending what you get into you'll have to be pretty lucky to come out even, let alone being successful.
I'd buy a condo that has an upstairs/downstairs and go bananas with decorating it. IRL The Sims! I'd get a decent car, nothing too expensive / flashy though.
i would love to win the lottery out here in the states. especially there is this big one coming and yo could win 276 million u.s. dollars. if i got that, that would be really sweet. i am still thinking about what i wuld do if that happened.
Athlone, Ireland 
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I would probably take a year off of work so I could travel but I would still want to work. I can't imagine spending every day without doing something productive. I wouldn't want to start up my own business as that's just a money sink and depending what you get into you'll have to be pretty lucky to come out even, let alone being successful.
I'd buy a condo that has an upstairs/downstairs and go bananas with decorating it. IRL The Sims! I'd get a decent car, nothing too expensive / flashy though.