I would stop trading and start a garden...Try and put on about 40 pounds....take it easy....No worries M
Anybody who says money cant buy happiness has never been poor. That is a fallacy created by people who have never been nor have the ability to become successful. Try getting your clothes from the church charity box. Using food stamps and living in the smallest most broken down house in an already super poor neighborhood. I have, and living the polar opposite has made me VERY happy. Not trying to sound like a martyr here just speaking truthfully from my heart.
It would be foolish to say that my lifestyle wouldn't be raised, but I'd probably not raise it too much. Being tight is my nature, so I doubt I'd blow through the money. For instance, we'd travel more... but it would still be budget traveling. My wife works full time between two jobs. So she would probably quit one, and keep the one on campus, and go back to school to finish her degree. Me? I like my work, so I'd still work. So, 2.5 Million after taxes? I would: Pay off our house and remodel/add a bathroom. Buy the house behind us (to control who rents it). Rebuild my Mustang. Give 5K to the college funds of the kids of our close friends and family. Take 100K to trade with. I figure after that, I'd have about 2 Million left over to really consider: Buying a building in our downtown for a club/musical venue. Buying a radio station. Starting my own non-profit. André
Just keep in mind that over 50% of the rest of the world is dreaming right now, "Wow, what would I do with $5,000?"
I'm gone try to clarify, have - do - be: When I "have" 5 million dollars, I'm gone "do" this or that and will "be" that person. It will never happen... be - do - have: When I "be" the person that has earned 5 million dollars or have the same mind set, I have "done" the things that where necessary to create the wealth an still do, and "have" the result : 5 million dollars.
But ... I'm guessing you worked hard to get to "the other side". Sadly I've seen cases of people with little money winning a lottery and blowing it in a short time due to their need for "happiness" and instant gratification. I think the big difference is one who works for the money and reaches a level of success is more disciplined in HOW they spend the money ... since they know the sweat equity that went into it ... and one who comes upon a windfall is happy only as long as the money is flowing freely. I make less trading than I did in the corporate world but I'm a hell of a lot happier.
I would use $1 million of it to have all of my enemies eliminated. The other $4 million I'd use to buy Powerball tickets!
Why settle for 5mm? If you're gonna dream, dream BIG! Someone told me once (never got to try it to see if it was true) that a pile of hundred dollar bills worth a million dollars would be 2 feet high. So a billion would be a thousand times that....or almost twice as high as the Empire State Building! And Bill Gates has how many billions? Good argument for socialism. Then just today I got this in an email (which is what made me thing of the above): A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into perspective in one of its releases: A billion seconds ago it was 1959. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate Washington spends it.
A woman here in Colorado won $5Million lotto. Took the winnings in "annual annuity". She met a Financial Adviser who "advised" her to factor out the annual income stream into a lum sum. She did, turned it over to him. He defrauded her (and others). When she got the cash-out check, didn't bother to pay the IRS right away. Now she's broke and owes the IRS >$400K... she's thoroughly hosed. Moral: "Winning lotto could screw up your life"