How to Blow the $1.5 Billion Powerball Jackpot

Don’t waste your Powerball jackpot on smart investments, live extravagantly and blow the money on these wild ideas

The Powerball jackpot for tonight’s drawing will be $1.5 billion and even the most frugal are standing in line for their ticket. I figure I’m due for a bit of good luck so reached out to my blogger friends on how to spend my Powerball fortune.

I just finished publishing my four-part series on creating a Step-by-Step Investing strategy and wasn't looking for ways to make the money grow. I’ll be skipping right over the 1% and be joining the ranks of the mega-rich so I asked people what is the wildest way to blow the money.

How to Waste a $1.5 Billion Powerball Jackpot

So you’ve beat the odds and won the $1.5 billion Powerball jackpot. Settle down, you’re already out $570 million by taking the cash value. The Powerball people will withhold 25% for federal income taxes and you’ll owe another 14.6% to pay the top tax bracket come April 2017.

If you’re lucky enough, and you must be to beat odds of 1 in 292 million, then you live in a state with no income tax and can blow the rest of the money. That means roughly $561.72 million for your champagne wishes and caviar dreams.

Jim Wang, Wallet Hacks

Jim sent a link to the JL421 Badonkadonk Tank on Amazon that looks way too much like Jabba the Hut’s floating palace to pass up. Surprisingly, something so cool is also one of the least expensive items on the list…I’ll buy two!

Cost: $40,000 for both

Grayson Bell, Debt Roundup

I would buy an island, so I can keep away from all the people who think they “know” me and need me to help them out financially. It would be a peaceful place with very fast internet service and good beer!

Doug Nordman, The-Military-Guide

That's easy– I'd buy the island of Lanai back from Larry Ellison. I'm sure he's getting bored with it by now.

A lot of people said they would buy an island, most to get away from their new ‘friends.’ Good idea but I’m a social butterfly, as long as the people on the island don’t know I’m uber-rich. Young Island Resort is a fully developed resort in the Grenadines with 12.6 acres and 29 private guest cottages. Ok, so it’s more of an investment and not a totally ridiculous expense but I’m loving the idea of having my own Fantasy Island kind of thing!

Cost $10,000,000

Miranda Marquit, Adulting

Buy a castle in Europe. Renovate it to look medieval while still having modern comforts like heating, air and Internet.

It turns out that Wentworth Woodhouse, the manor that inspired Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, is up for sale. Built for the First Marquess of Rockingham in 1725, I’ll be rocking the 365 rooms in a house twice the size of Buckingham Palace!

Cost: £7 million plus estimated repair bill of £42 million (that’s $71 million to us Yankees)

Michelle Diamond, FitNPoor

I'd tell everyone I know that I won via a giant billboard that mocked my enemies by name. Then I would head to the estate where they film Downton Abbey, purchase the place, and recreate the entire experience complete with vengeful maids and 1910s costume jewelry.

Hmmm, am I the only person left not watching Downton Abbey? I’ll have to buy the box set and watch it at Wentworth Woodhouse.

Cost: £44.99 ($65)

Joe Saul-Sehy, Stacking Benjamins

I'd buy 1.4 billion more lottery tickets to compound my wealth.

I like Joe! A few people commented that they would run to Vegas or buy more lottery tickets. Sounds good but then I’d be stuck wasting even MORE money. Like the man said, “Mo Money, Mo Problems.”

Jason Hull, My Financial Answers

Use it all in a payment to contribute to paying off the national debt, maybe an hour’s worth.

Jason is a patriot but he’d be hard-pressed to make a dent in the national debt which increases by $31,558 every second. At that rate, all my Powerball winnings would pay less than five hours of debt. Just a minute, I just paid more than $368 million in taxes! Forget it.

Kelly Whalen, thecentsiblelife

Buy myself a cable network and create my own version of the news. Oh wait…that's been done a few times, hasn't it? Maybe I should just hand out million dollar tips every time I dine out.

Joining the ranks of the mega-rich, my opinion suddenly matters and needs to be heard. I might not be able to afford NBC but I might be able to buy RLJ Entertainment, described on its investor relations page as an owner, developer, licensee and distributor of entertainment content and programming in North America, the United Kingdom and Australia. The company has already got a mystery series, Foyle’s War, through its UK development arm.

Maybe I could do a reality series of my life at Wentworth Woodhouse? Sort of a Keeping up with the Kardashians meets Downton Abbey?

Cost: $7 million (RLJ market cap – p.s. this is not an endorsement of the stock!)

Chris Huntley, TermLifeAdvice.com

Spend it on an offer I have from a Nigerian National Petroleum Company.  They have recently drilled $40 million worth of oil in sub-Sahara region.  They want to dig for oil in the U.S. as well, but given the fact that our country doesn’t allow non-citizens to transfer money to U.S. accounts, they need me to help them open up an account with only $100,000.  They will then be able to fund it completely and will pay me a commission of $4,000,000!!

Ok, this isn’t so much a waste of my Powerball Jackpot but an awesome investment! I’m in all the way.

Cost: $100,000

Joseph Hogue, PeerFinance101 and Crowd101

I had a few ideas of my own that I wanted to get in before I blew all my Powerball jackpot.

We were supposed to have flying cars by October of last year…thanks a lot Back to the Future 2. Turns out, Terrafugia sells a ‘kinda’ flying car that’s on pre-order for $280,000 and expects first deliveries sometime this year or next.

All the rich people I see on TV are always buying expensive shoes. I like my comfortable sneakers but want to get some diamonds for the soles of my shoes. A one carat diamond has a diameter of roughly 6.5 millimeters or about 0.25 inches. To cover my approximately 45 square inches of each sole, let’s say I need 1,440 diamonds at $1,400 each for a total of $2,016,000 to strut in style.

I drink about a pot of coffee a day. Until now, it’s been the cheap stuff but I think I can afford to drink the best after winning my hard-earned Powerball fortune. Kopi Luwak (yep, the cat-poop coffee) is the world’s most expensive coffee at $1,000 per kilogram. I’m going to need about 45 kilos to last me a year for $45,000 to keep this rich boy awake.

Jonathan Vargas bought the all-female professional wrestling company Wrestlicious with his $35.3 million Powerball jackpot in 2008. I’m not really a fan of wrestling but I think I could learn.

Cost: $37,641,000

Lisa Phillips, Affordable Real Estate Investments

I’m going to buy a stake in a sports team, produce two movies, build an authentic castle with a moat and spires….and oh yes, Star Wars hotel and casino.

There’s a lot here but I do like the idea of buying a sports team. People tell me I look just like Mark Cuban except bald, short and pale. I won’t be able to afford much but might be able to pick up the Milwaukee Bucks NBA team for an estimated $405 million according to Bleacher Report.

Cost: $405 million

AJ Mac, Principles of Increase

Buy up a few thousand acres of land and create a theme park of swimming pools. Attendees can choose from pools filled with either cheese dip, glitter, packing popcorn, gold dust, or water.

Well, I’ve already got 12.6 acres on my resort island so we’ll use five acres for a really weird theme park. Amusementlogic.es estimates that the cost is between €3 and €18 million to build a 15,000 to 125,000 square meter park, or roughly €170 per square meter. Total cost for a 20,000 sq. meter park is around $3,714,000 plus the cheese dip, glitter, packing popcorn and gold dust.

Cost: $3,750,000

Elle Martinez, Couple Money

Buy a home for every month! April in Paris, the cool London nights of June, New Year’s in Hong Kong and so on.

I’ve already got Wentworth Woodhouse and my island resort so I just need ten more sufficiently extravagant estates to round out the year. Topping the list is Rota (Spain), Moscow, New York, San Diego, Medellin (Colombia), Hong Kong, Sydney, Morocco, Venice…and Des Moines, Iowa.

Cost: Budgeting $20,000,000 for my monthly cribs

Carrie Cantazaro Rocha, PocketyourDollars

Run for President!

This is one of my favorites. A real life Brewster’s Millions! (Richard Pryor, we miss you.) President Obama and Mitt Romney each spent an average of $989 million during their 2012 campaigns. That’s a little more than I have left to spend. Maybe I can run for Mayor somewhere.

Cost: I’ve got $7,188,935 left for my run at the White House!

Ok, so it wasn’t a complete waste of my $1.5 billion Powerball jackpot. I’ve got a lot of cool houses, a really weird water park and a shot at being the leader of the free world. Maybe I will keep $2 out to buy another Powerball ticket.

Your turn, what would you spend your Powerball fortune on?

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