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First thing I would do is hire a forensic accountant and a lawyer. Before I even claim the money. Have them go over every minute detail of my past and clear up any debts. Second thing would be to quit my job. No explanation, no two weeks notice (have more than that in vacation time anyway). Then the hubs and I would claim the money. No fan fare, no big hurrah...just quietly claim it. Then the fun begins.
Next step in the plan? Get the house paid off. Spend the summer getting the house just how we like it. Get the daughter's college paid for, Buy a few places for relatives that are in need, but don't tell them it's from us. Have the lawyer finagle something so they don't know who it's from-maybe they 'won' something. Then in the fall, travel. See all the places we have always dreamed about.
Finally, retire. Have the stained glass studio up and running and that's what I'd do. A few charities near and dear to my heart would benefit greatly. Not having to work for a living would be the biggest change.
First thing I would do is hire a forensic accountant and a lawyer. Before I even claim the money. Have them go over every minute detail of my past and clear up any debts. Second thing would be to quit my job. No explanation, no two weeks notice (have more than that in vacation time anyway). Then the hubs and I would claim the money. No fan fare, no big hurrah...just quietly claim it. Then the fun begins.
Next step in the plan? Get the house paid off. Spend the summer getting the house just how we like it. Get the daughter's college paid for, Buy a few places for relatives that are in need, but don't tell them it's from us. Have the lawyer finagle something so they don't know who it's from-maybe they 'won' something. Then in the fall, travel. See all the places we have always dreamed about.
Finally, retire. Have the stained glass studio up and running and that's what I'd do. A few charities near and dear to my heart would benefit greatly. Not having to work for a living would be the biggest change.
1. Past debts ok.....but if you can't remember them then they are probably not collectible by the other party anyway.
2. Hired a lawyer but you and your husband quietly claim it? (it won't be quiet, without fanfare).
3. Pay off house, remodel........Why? You certainly won't be able to live there again once the public finds out who you are and how much money you have. My kid needs cancer treatments, my husband has a billion dollar idea that needs to be financed, my niece needs college money.....all good intentions for your money.
4. "buy a few places for relatives"....ever see the movie "Million Dollar Baby" where the prize fighter buys a home for her mother. Mother responds, "You should have just given me the money".....Expect that kind of response from your relatives, also keep in mind the gift tax (any gift over 14K single/28K married couple) means if you give a 500K house away then you now owe the IRS 236K for giving the house away (500-28 = 472 X 50% tax). So your anonymous 500K gift just cost you 736K.
5. Stain glass studio- Great hobby but after you make your first 30-50 pieces then what? You can give some away, make some pieces as gifts but honestly you don't need to make the pieces for income then what could you possibly do with the finished products.
I read the woman who won is in the process of claiming her prize at the office in Tallahassee FL. Someone should alert the bonehead media who have been camping out in the parking lot of the store the ticket was sold at.
My question to them is: Why were they camping out in the parking lot of the store where the ticket was sold?? Did they think the winner was going to try and claim the money at the frickin' grocery store?? Seriously, why? Idiots!
Anyway, I hope the woman has fun with her money. She did go to the lottery office armed with two lawyers and her son.
By BRENT KALLESTAD / Associated Press / June 5, 2013
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — An 84-year-old Florida widow who bought her Powerball ticket after another customer let her get ahead in line came forward Wednesday to claim the biggest undivided lottery jackpot in history: $590 million.
Gloria C. MacKenzie, a retiree from Maine and a mother of four who lives in a modest, tin-roof house in Zephyrhills, where the lone winning ticket in the May 18 drawing was sold, took her prize in a lump sum of just over $370 million. After federal taxes, she is getting about $278 million, lottery officials said.
She did not speak to a crowd of reporters outside lottery headquarters, leaving quickly in a silver Ford Focus with her son and family friends. She was accompanied at the lottery offices by two unidentified attorneys.
MacKenzie bought the winning ticket at a Publix supermarket in the town of about 13,300, which is 30 miles northeast of Tampa. It is best known for the bottled spring water that bears its name — and now, for one of the biggest lottery winners of all time.
The $590 million was the second-largest lottery jackpot in history, behind a $656 million Mega Millions prize in March 2012, but that sum was split, with three winning tickets.
In a statement read by lottery officials, MacKenzie said she purchased the ticket after another buyer ‘‘was kind enough to let me go ahead in line.’’ MacKenzie let the lottery computers generate the numbers at random. She said she also bought four other tickets for the drawing.
‘‘We are grateful with this blessing of winning the Florida Lottery Powerball jackpot,’’ the statement said. ‘‘We hope that everyone would give us the opportunity to maintain our privacy for our family’s benefit.’’
The winner had 60 days to claim the prize. Lottery spokesman David Bishop said MacKenzie, her lawyers and her financial adviser spent about two hours going through the necessary paperwork.
‘‘They had clearly been preparing for this. They took all this time to get everything in order,’’ Bishop said.
Minutes after the announcement, a dozen reporters in Zephyrhills were camped outside MacKenzie’s gray duplex, which backs up to a dirt alley and is across from a cow pasture.
Neighbors were surprised by her good fortune.
‘‘She didn’t say anything about it. She’s so quiet and secluded. She’s usually in the house,’’ said James Hill. ‘‘I'm very happy for her. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer person. She was always pleasant and smiling.’’
Another neighbor, Don Cecil, joked, ‘‘I hope she gets a better place to live.’’
MacKenzie’s neighbors offered few details about her life. They said she mostly kept to herself, but they've seen her take short walks along the street and exchanged pleasantries with her.
Her house, situated among mostly mobile homes and pre-fabricated houses, has a chain-link fence with a sheet-metal roof and an old TV antenna.
MacKenzie retired to Zephyrhills more than a decade ago from rural Maine with her husband, Ralph, who died in 2005.
Back in her hometown of East Millinocket, Maine, relatives and friends were surprised to hear of her good fortune.
Robert MacKenzie, Ralph’s brother, said the couple met just after World War II after Ralph got out of the Navy. He went to work in the town’s paper mill, laboring as a technician for almost four decades.
He said the couple raised four children in East Millinocket, a town of less than 2,000 people in northern Maine. A daughter and son still live in East Millinocket, another son lives in Florida and another daughter lives out of state, possibly in Massachusetts, he said.
Robert MacKenzie said he didn’t know his sister-in-law had won until a reporter called him.
‘‘Holy mackerel,’’ he said when told of her winnings. He added: ‘‘It hasn’t soaked in, but I'm happy for her. That would be great because she’s a widow and she can have a nice home now.’’
One of the MacKenzies’ daughters, Melinda ‘‘Mindy’’ MacKenzie, a high school teacher, still lives in the family home in East Millinocket in a quiet middle-class neighborhood of white clapboard houses.
Ralph MacKenzie enjoyed snowmobiling, hunting and fishing, said Andrew Hopkins, a retired high school teacher and assistant principal who taught some of the MacKenzie children.
‘‘They were good people. That’s about all I can tell you,’’ said Hopkins, who lives across the street.
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You can give some away, make some pieces as gifts but honestly you don't need to make the pieces for income then what could you possibly do with the finished products.
Seriously, why? Idiots!
