Tonight is the $70,000,000 big one!

There is going to be a monster jackpot on Tatts tonight, amounting to at least $70,000,000. Yes, that’s right, I haven’t had a shaky hand from too much booze and inserted any extra naughts. It really is seventy million! And having seen that in all the advertising this week, it occurred to me, as I’m sure it has with millions of other punters, just what would that amount of money mean to me and my family?

It all seems very simple when you first think about it. Virtually unlimited funds, to do with as you like, relax and sit back in easy street for the rest of your life. Give the kids (we have three of them, all in their fifties) $10,000,000 each, which will still leave $40,000,000 in the kitty for us. Put $30,000,000 of that straight into some safe, interest earning account at the bank. Nothing fancy, at our age the capital alone would last us the rest of our lives, without any clever nonsense in the stock market, or starting a new business.

As it is, $30,000,000 (I’m really enjoying typing all these magnificent amounts over and over again!), could earn us several million a year in interest, even after the taxman took his enormous whack.

That leaves $10,000,000 in the current/savings account, just to squander and have fun with. So first we’ll pop out and either buy, or have built, a nice house, where we want and with all the bits and pieces a rich person’s home should have. Then we’ll buy that luxury car I’ve drooled over for years but could never afford. (No point in getting one for my wife Jacqui, she’s never been interested in driving and has never learned the art). And finally there’s all the brand new, hand-made furniture we’ll need, to go in the new house.

Then we have to figure out what to do with all the free time we have, perhaps a couple of back-to-back world cruises, or buy a holiday home up near Brisbane to use if the fancy takes us, or buy a large motor yacht, so we can go cruising around the beautiful Australian coastline. I’d guess all that, the house, the holidays, the holiday home and the yacht might set us back a couple of million, which would still leave us with $8,000,000 in the petty cash. It’s hard to get rid of that much money, isn’t it, so let’s share $1,000,000 between a few charities, that will help!

Then I started to think more carefully and with greater logic.

What about the other side of this wonderful coin… What about the sacks full of begging letters that arrive for people who don’t keep their winnings a deep secret? What about the worry that crooks will discover who you are and the next thing you know, your wife, your kids or your grandchildren get kidnapped, and you receive letters demanding a ransom? What about your friends, in your local neighborhood, who suddenly want nothing to do with you, because they think you’ll become all ‘snobby’, with your big car and luxury home? And what about all the ‘financial experts’ who come knocking at your door, telling how they can turn your $20,000,000, or whatever amount into twice that much within six months; all you have to do is hand over your financial affairs to them, and they’ll “see you right”?

I think for a lot, if not most people, vast sums like those I’ve mentioned above would be well beyond the average Joe Citizen to know what to do with and could lead to more unhappiness than good! Certainly it would worry me! My idea of a really good win on Tatts would be something in the region of perhaps one, or two hundred thousand, a nice amount to ensure that you could live reasonably comfortably, but not enough to drive you mad, or attract too much attention in your direction.

What would really be your idea of a good Tatts win? Have you had any success?