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Let's say you just won the lottery (in the US). What is the smartest way to give money to your friends? (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I don't know why stuff like this keeps me up at night but let's pretend you just won some obscene amount and there's a lot of people you'd like to set up for life. Let's say after taxes you have $300m in your account

You can give someone up to 18k a year without incurring a gift tax and while that'd definitely be a nice bump to their income, you still have way more money than you know what to do with. So what's the smartest way to hook them up?

A couple of options I've considered are:

Give them a lump sum of $X million. They eat the taxes the first year and handle the savings themselves.
Create a company and hire them to "work" one hour a month for a big salary. If you put $25m in an account, the interest covers the salary. They get a steady bonus income with the added bonus of getting the best insurance available. Is that legal?
Set up a "shared" checking account they can use to pay for...whatever. But would these expenses count towards the gift tax? I do not know.
Buy houses and let them live there rent-free. I don't really like this one because I don't want to be a lord to my friends and family.

For the record, I did not win the lottery. I don't even play it. I'm just working out the details in a fantasy world for some reason

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The majority of lottery winners were already bad with money and dream of lavish lifestyles. My financial goal would be to not have to worry about money - hence why I'd be giving away so much away to friends and family.

My dream home would "only" cost $2-3m and a large portion of the expense is making it as green and efficient as possible.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I think you missed the whole point of the story. The long example given of Whitaker was a guy that was already rich. If you hit the lottery and start giving to friends, a good deal of what's written above will happen to you.

[+] [email protected] -10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'll be honest - I only read about half of the first post. It was a bit too doomer for my tastes

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I don't think you know what that word means

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Extremely pessimistic about the future? Everything I read there was negative and it's a damn essay, why would I think the rest would be any different?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Well maybe because it's one of the best comments of all time and it's a good read, but I'm not going to make you read it, I'll just think you missed out on the fun we were having. I think you're being flippant.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

It may be a good read but I was just asking a fun question. A copied reddit essay that starts by saying the theoretical situation I proposed would actually be terrible for me isn't what I was looking for I guess. Kind of downer.

And I still think my use of the word "doomer" is fine. The rest of the comment(s) may not have been pessimistic but the first couple of paragraphs I was referencing were about how I'm statistically more likely to go bankrupt or die..