(This post entitled "Turning $1000 into being set for life")
1000 tickets on a high-double-digit powerball drawing (the high player-rate in the REALLY BIG ones makes it completely not worth it). Seriously. $1000 isn't going to make a dent in my financial issues right now, and putting it all into the stupid tax is the only efficient way of converting it to an amount that WILL make a difference.
Just 1M in the bank equates to something like $1875 a month in interest at my CU's 2.25% rate.
A 12mo CD at the same credit union would result in a $51k of income PER MILLION invested.
So lets take a reasonable powerball drawing - how about tonight's $73M ($32.6M cash) drawing.
First thing you're going to have to do is set aside the tax on the winnings. Lets say you end up with about $16M after taxes. That's cool, you just won a $73M lottery and ended up with $16M.
Then, you're going to want some cash to kill your preexisting debts and to live off of immediately while your other investments mature. Take a million. Pay it all off.
So lets say you live in the real world (not New York, Florida or California) - this means that you can live comfortably, if GODLIKE on $200k/yr. Take 6M and stick it in a CD. End result, $306k of interest income. Reinvest the initial principals, of course. Now it's time to pay taxes again. Lets say that, for you, they're going to want 25% of your interest income. That leaves you with $229,500/yr. And you've still got $9M to play with.
So, lets invest that. You're going to need some liquid cash to handle unexpected things. So take $2M or so, and place it in various savings/checking accounts (it's important to make sure you stay under the FDIC insurance protection limits. This can't be stressed enough. The chance of a bank failure is virtually null, but worse things have happened). You'll end up with somewhere south of $45,000 in interest income. $33750 after taxes.
What do you do with the other 7M? Buy yourself a house. A car. A killer PC. I don't really care. I'd set aside an additional $3M in accounts labeled "DON'T TOUCH ME EVAR", just in case you somehow mismanage the main accounts... But beyond that, you have $263250 after taxes to play with.
Oh, and do go get a job. The health insurance and your continued social existance will be worth it. The money may not be.