I have won the lottery: Now what?

I have no doubt that most teachers work hard (as a former teacher, I know this first hand). But, except for some private schools, and a handful of states, I do not agree that teachers don't make good money. You can make more money doing other things, yes, but I don't agree with the common mantra that teachers are "grossly underpaid". In addition to the generous time off (and I agree that it's not as much at first glance as people think it is, especially since in the summer you typically do some continuing education of some sort), the retirement plan is better generally than what most people get, AND you can retire usually with full benefits at age 57 (after 35 years in). THAT'S pretty good. I know a married couple who retired 10 years ago now at age 57 and 58. Both were teachers. Their retirement pay? $105,000 per year (total for both)...TEN YEARS AGO. They bought a second home in Arizona where they spend their winters to be close to their daughter and her family. They travel a lot, AND they've been doing this for 10 years now. At age 67 now, many people their age are JUST getting to retire now.

My summary of teachers:

1) Decent (not great) pay.

2) Excellent time off.

3) Early retirement possible due to potentially very good retirement benefits.

4) Not an EASY gig...if so, everyone would want to be a teacher...and it is a LOVE for many who do it.

CPA Joe wrote:

You people realize that the current max tax rate is 35%, right? Don't understand why people think taxes would be half the income.

Add in the other taxes and it is 50%, possibly more in some states.

Well said! Both of you!

If you have just received $6 million and you hate your jobs you certainly should quit your jobs.

Health Insurance - buy it. It will be more expensive but you have $6 million.

I would suggest looking for a new job that you may enjoy. Take a pay cut.

It will give you income, keep you productive and take up your time which would keep you from spending your money too quickly.

But you gotta make a scene when you quit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGLKnAvzlg4

My town needs a new track for the kids. We'll even name it after you.

50% is a good estimate, and depending on the state you live in and how much you were already making, it could go HIGHER than 50%.See here - http://www.fool.com/School/Taxes/1998/taxes980710.htmHere's the piece pulled out:"How lottery winnings are taxedFirst, you should be aware that your lottery winnings are taxable. This is the case for cash winnings and for the fair market value of any noncash prizes you might win (e.g., a car, vacation, etc.). Depending on your other income and the amount of your winnings, your federal tax bracket can go as high as 39.6%.Your lottery winnings might also be subject to state income tax. Thus, depending on where you live, your total tax bill could exceed 50%. You don't get any capital gains rate break for lottery winnings, nor is there any income averaging to help lower your tax bill."

Has it come to this? wrote:

Maybe Flagpole lives in Canada? Here the reality is that once you include income, sales, property and gas taxes, you are paying close to or over 50% if you have a decent income to start with.

Ohhhh Canada!

Flagpole wrote:

Just being conservative.

osu fan wrote:

I arrive daily at 7:00am at the latest and stay until 5:00pm at the earliest, if I have to double in the afternoon.

Guess what, I'm in before 7:00am and leave after 5:30pm EVERY DAY.

Most people who work 8-hour days get some time for lunch.

Try working on a trading floor, chief. I'd kill for 20 minutes. You really think most people work 8 hour days??

So let’s bring it down to 11 weeks off a year.

After "cutting down" your vacation time, you still get 2 months per year more than myself and my colleagues. Quit your bitching, seriously, you teachers have it good, and you probably don't live in an area where a small two bedroom runs nearly $4000 per month.

Email me and we can talk about ways for you to live off of that 6 million for the rest of your life. Currently we can guarantee about $240,00 a year in interest.

Oh stop nobody cares to hear about your job as there will always be someone out there that works harder than you. I arrive at work at 8 everyday six days a week, and have never left before midnight with the average being around two in the morning. On Sunday I arrive at noon and leave at midnight. I took only the company mandated 11 days off last year including holidays.

Ignore most of the stuff you see from the amateurs here. I am going to give you some good advice. I have an MBA from an Ivy League top ten Business School, and I used to work as a financial planner. I no longer do this. Get a good financial planner. Hire him on a fee basis; not him geting paid from some source where you put the money. That said, the key to these things is first to protect the wealth from yourself. Set up some type of trust with maybe a million of it, where you are the beneficiary of the trust, but don't own it. That way, like OJ Simpson, you can keep getting a sum of money every month for the rest of your life. Depending on the vehicle used, a million will give you from $5,000 to $8,000 a month for the rest of your life. This is called covering your worst case scenario, in case you get sued or have to declare bankruptcy in the future. Next pay your taxes. Don't pay off any low interest loans. Pay off all high interest loans. Pick a small splurge item and have fun enjoying this. This should not get past $100,000. Do a trust for the wife a half of what you did for yourself. After that invest the rest. This is where your planner will help. You got a lot of directions to go here. Remember the rule is to buy low so you can make a profit when the investment is high later. What's low right now. Real estate, selected stocks that are business cycle sensitive(low in a recession but high in economic good times. I know you are thinking, what about charity. You want to have a tree that keeps on giving every year rather that cut that tree to use the wood today. Give to charity after the first year, from profits on your investments. Done right you will help a lot more over time doing it that way that just giving it away up front. Don't worry about who talks bad about you, because if you go broke giving them money, they will be the first to tell you that were stupid. If you want to continue working where you did, that only maks sense if No one from the job knows you won that money. If people at the job know, they will becmoe a problem. If you already made that mistake, move job wise or even move to another state. Don't worry you will be fine, the trust proceeds between you and the wife will be at least $7,0000 per month, and in the early years it can even be set up to be tax free as a return of principal.

I dunno where your friends work but nearly all of my friends HAVE to work on Christmas eve. We get one day for Christmas, and one day for new years. I would love to know what math formula you were using to have 2 days = 2 weeks therefore they cancel out. Please show my boss that I should be getting 5 X my money!!!!

But I will add a week because two weeks vacation is probably not the norm for non-teachers, more like 3. Younger people new to the industry usually start at two which is why I will assume you are fairly young as A) all your friends are telling you they only have 2 weeks and B) you are complaining about how little you make as a teacher. Teaching is a very flat structure, many teachers very little administrators. In a normal work environment you would only make some serious pay when you get promoted and generate more revenue for your company. Yet work as a teacher for 15 years with all the benefits and then try to complain about your pay (here's a hint: It'll be more than you deserve) when you are not doing anything different than day one.

In addition almost no one I know only works 8 hours. This is the American way, you only work 8 hours and eventually they will find someone who puts in the extra time for the same pay and... well say hello to unemployment checks. Personally I work just as much as you ~ 6-4 but usually later too (not too bad as i beat traffic both ways :-D) and work on average of 3 weekend days per month with no extra pay (I am on salary).

Now to the part that I think will piss you off. Teaching is EASY. After a year or two when you know the subject you will be teaching, have things planned etc. it's a cake walk. I remember when I was in school about 90% of my teachers didn't grade homework they just "checked" that you did it. This is a joke and essentially all you have to do is grade a test every month yet you "only have 20 minutes for lunch."

I know I know you might be saying to yourself "but HYNaMT, I go the extra mile, I grade all homeworks and have extra help everyday... EVEN on weekends!!!" Well I say good for you, but you were not defending yourself you were defending teachers in general, and teachers in general are overpaid for what they do.

Truth is if you take 3 months(12 weeks, see above why comparing NYE and Christmas is BS because I don't get off for Kwanzaa, Chinese NYE, Lincolns assassination day, MLK, all the jewish holidays, etc.) off my salary and compensate for your benefits (Unlimited sick days-thanks tenure, great medical blah blah blah) and............

HOLY $hit teachers get paid just about as well as everyone else PLUS a ridiculous pension and early retirement. Add to the fact that being a teacher is an easier job than most and... well nothing really most teachers I know don't complain too much, for instance my brother is a teacher and knows how well he has it. I have nothing against teachers but when they start complaining about being overworked and underpaid, well I just feel the need to give some perspective. Anyway hope you have a nice day trolling letsrun at work on your busy schedule.

Well, if they've got it so good... become a teacher then!!!!!!!!!

Idiot

Now what?

Hookers and blow, hookers and blow.

HYNaMT, I suggest you take what I wrote and what you wrote and show it to your teachers from when you were a kid. They'll be extremely disappointed in what you wrote.

Did I mention Christmas Eve or New Years Eve, Kwanzaa, Chinese NYE, or all those other silly things? I don't work in NYC or Boston; so I don't get all those holidays off. I said Christmas, New Years, Easter, Labor Day, July 4th. Those are the 5 holidays that I'm off during my breaks that I would get off anyway if I weren't a teacher. Yes, I'm making an assumption, but that's not 2 days nor did I equate it to 2 weeks. And when did I say anything about my friends and what they do? My friends and I don't have arguments over whose job is harder. I didn't even say that your job wasn't hard. I said that mine was. And until you try it, you don't know what you're talking about.

If you think that "essentially all i have to do is grade a test every month," you're an idiot.

And yes, I do teach math. And reading, writing, science, and social studies. I teach kids how to read, I teach kids how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Some of those kids come to me on a first-grade reading level, some on a fifth grade level. Some now how to multiply already, others can barely count on their fingers. But the difference between me and the teachers that you had who didn't grade homework is that I'm held accountable. Things are a lot different now than when we were both in school.

but please, tell me more about my pension. I'd love to hear more about it. you're so knowledgeable on all things teaching. do tell.

lastly, I didn't complain about how much money I made. I just said that I don't make a lot of money but that I also work 9 weeks a year less than some other people might. I never said most people work 8 hours a day either. I said most people who work 8 hours a day get more than 20 minutes off for lunch. go back and read it again.

idiot.

unlimited sick days? please. I get 11 paid sick days a year. if i want to take a sick day, i have to work twice as hard to write sub-plans for someone to know what to do for 7 and a half hours with my kids. because i have the same kids all day and i teach them all subjects. it's not just "pop in a video for an hour" like it was when we were in high school. i can't show movies for 7 hours a day.

good Lord there is so much wrong with what you posted. retard.

Sounds like your job is hard. I didn't say it wasn't. I just said mine wasn't easy.

I don't think that most people work 8 hours a day. When I did say that? I said that most people who work 8 hours get some time for lunch. That doesn't say that most people work 8 hours. silly.

no, i don't live in an area where a small two bedroom runs nearly $4000 a month. but i do live in an area where over 50% of my students are on free & reduced lunch and their parents barely know how to read well enough to help them at home.

but then again, it seems as though you and "I hope you're not a math teacher" barely know how to read either.

I wasn't BITCHING, I was telling one guy that teaching wasn't easy. apparently you've all forgotten! If your job is so awful, quit. I love mine. It's hard as shit and I'm damn good at it. Probably better at my job than you are at yours.

Since all you shits think teaching is so easy, come and join us. But don't be surprised when you quit within the first 5 years because it's not what you thought it was. that's what happens to 66% of new teachers within their first five years. they quit because it's not the cakewalk they thought it'd be.

Did we ever figure out if this guy was telling the truth?

I assume everyone in his community already knows who he is. So the LRC community would love a profile on this guy.

So if you are for real email me at

weldonjohnson@letsrun.com

We'd love to do a profile. I'd even do an anonymous profile assuming you give me some information to confirm that you actually won.

wejo wrote:

So if you are for real email me at

weldonjohnson@letsrun.com

We'd love a donation, especially considering the fact that we owe Bobby Mack a sponsorship.

interpreter wrote:

wejo wrote:

So if you are for real email me at

weldonjohnson@letsrun.com

We'd love a donation, especially considering the fact that we owe Bobby Mack a sponsorship.

AND BOOOOOOOOOOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE!!

great work right there dude!