Listen, we all have fantasies of living like the one percent.
Envision a future in which you forget how to cut a cucumber and grocery store trips become foreign, you staff a full-time chef, you never have to do another load of laundry yourself and you have a driver.
I can go on.
On Friday, one lucky person could win the Mega Millions lottery jackpot which is currently up to $1.28 billion. If there is a winner, the prize would be the second largest in Mega Millions history. Of course there are taxes, and that means significantly less cash, but still, it is a lot of money.
Options are to either take 30 annual payments over 29 years or an immediate cash lump sum, which is estimated to be $747.2 million, minus federal and state taxes.
Still, we are looking at a lot of money. What to do with it all?
The practical advice is to sign and guard your ticket, stay anonymous, hire some solid financial advisers and spend thoughtfully.
But who needs to be practical when the odds of actually winning the jackpot are like 1 in 302.5 million?
Staying in the realm of fantasy for a moment, here are 21 ways that lucky winner could live luxe:
1. Buy a yacht, but be reasonable. Do not buy a 50-foot yacht which starts at around $145 million, not counting staff and docking, so let’s buy a smaller boat and keep the cost around $15 million.
2. Summer in the South of France and eat out for every meal for awhile. You can afford it.
3. Buy a Rolex.
4. Buy good jewelry.
5. Look expensive, not flashy. Don’t turn into a “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” cast member.
6. Get some work done. Lift your whole face up if you’d like. You have to look the part.
7. Go Hollywood with your teeth and pay cash.
8. Oh, have you quit your job yet? Do that.
9. Log into your bank account and look at the sum multiple times per day for fun.
10. Disappear. Poof never heard from again.
11. Go live on a farm in Ireland. (Just me?)
12. Buy a West Village home in New York City.
13. Buy young blood for the plasma and inject it to slow the aging process.
14. Adopt several animals. Buy them expensive clothes.
15. Purchase $300 face cream and use globs of it nightly. Hire someone to rub it in.
16. Hire a bodyguard. Make sure no one gets kidnapped.
17. Only fly private, but offset your carbon footprint.
18. Buy good art.
19. Buy a sports team if you’re into that.
20. Don’t do it all in one day.
21. Donate a substantial portion of your pile of money to worthy causes. Feel the joy of generosity.