On Monday, they should find a good lawyer if they don't already have one that they trust. Follow that lawyer's advice and set up the necessary trusts that make it possible to claim the prize without revealing your identity. By this time, I hope you at least informed your spouse, but swear her/him to secrecy.
Do NOT quit your job! At least not right away. But don't take any crap from your boss either.
Take all your money in a lump sum. Don't elect to get paid a fixed amount over a number of years. Who knows what will happen if the government runs low on money. Look what's happening in Illinois for example.
Now that you have your money, DO pay down all your debt. Your credit cards, your mortgage, your loans, etc. Make yourself debt free. DO NOT go out and buy flashy cars and other luxury items. It might help to watch this scene from Goodfellas a couple times.
Take all the rest of the money and invest it. Diversify. Put some in interest bearing accounts. Some in stocks. Some in real estate. Put some of it offshore. Then sit back and live your normal life for a year. Continue working your job. Because you are debt free, what you make is yours to spend. You can go out to dinner more, take some nice vacations, maybe get a new car but not too flashy, ok? Maybe a Nissan Pathfinder or a Ford F150. Definitely not a Cadillac or a Jaguar.
After a year, see how much you made in interest on your principal. That will be your new income. Now you can quit your job, move out of state, start living the high life. Live off the interest, keep the principal and add to that principal as much as you can. You are now set for life and you are not going to end up like those other lottery douchebags who find themselves dead broke because they acted like idiots.
Oh yeah, I forgot the most important thing. If a Freeper wins this Powerball, they must pay all operating expenses for Free Republic so that we no longer have to have Freepathons.
Bugatti Super Sport and three big breasted bimbos to wash it .....poof !
Dream over.
I read through your whole post before I saw who wrote it. No surprise, someone with smarts and common sense, consistent over the years I’ve “known” you. You have it EXACTLY right.
There was a well off man from Santa Barbara, CA who I believe was in some kind of finance. He won the lottery. Don’t remember how much, but a lot. He and his wife fixed up their house the way they wanted, each got a new (but normal) car, and each year they took a vacation where they wanted to go. Everything else was invested diversely and they kept their jobs (not sure she had a job). They just went on living the same way, but that security was peace of mind, and I’m sure it would be nice to say, “Tokyo? Let’s go this spring.”
I hope someone like you wins.
first mil covers all that, with change. Then there is another 799 mil more.