Pay off debts, secure a home paid off in full for my family with enough land that we can grow our own food, get new bike, and roam the world surreptitiously helping people.

Setup solar panels with 99% of it then probably die in an orgy of hedonism with the remaining 6 million.

Establish a trust dedicated to effectively and efficiently using the funds to advance my goals.

What are my goals? They’re centered around public health, housing, the environment, equality and justice.

Feels like wishful thinking, but then, so does winning 5 billion GBP…

Pay off all my debts and set the rest on fire

Step one, get an accountant, and lawyer. Things will get complex, and mistakes can result in spending more than you have which isn’t the goal. Thus an accountant to watch those numbers and keep me in the black. The big issue is taxes need to be paid so there needs to be enough left over to do that along with pay the accountant, but there will also be weird legal issues that come up.

Second, the money goes to charity. How it gets there will be tricky though.

The IRS looks at large donations and starts to assume I’m trying to dodge taxes by hiring a charity for something I’d do anyway - so my accountant will work with them to figure out what donation levels work for each that I care about. There are also some causes that I consider charity that do not meet the legal definition (often because they are political) and so the donation to them is still taxable (not that I’m trying to dodge taxes, but I’ll take advantage of anything that will help causes I care about)

I will set aside some money as a fund for me. However I’ll only allow myself to withdraw from it as payment for work done for charity. projects like KDE or FreeBSD can always use more help. There is a summer camp I’ll volunteer for once in a while. Habitat for Humanity needs help… The important part is I need to put in 35 hours a week or I don’t get money from the fund (I will allow 2 months of vacation and that summer camp will get 80 hours/week when in session which I will bank for more vacation). The important part here is I need to stay busy - doctors tell me sitting around doing nothing when you retire is deadly so I’m not going to do that.

Likely a lot of money will remain after I’m dead, so a trust fund will remain. However the instructions will be to drain the money as fast as possible. I know of several funds remaining from people who died 100+ years ago and the fund is now doing things I’m sure the original would oppose.

Buy the entire Supreme Court of the United States.

Dunno what I’d do with the other $6.415 billion though. Maybe start buying Congress members?

Build a workers coop for lots of types of businesses and then gift them ownership stakes in it after working for 5 years.

I would create a trust for my daughter, an annuity for my wife that includes payments for healthcare, and a separate fund for property tax and home maintenance to ensure my daughter has a residence and doesn’t have to settle later in life.

Next, I would through my friend list (it’s not big) and pay off mortgages for those that have them, and purchase homes outright for those that don’t.

Finally, I would use the remaining funds to buy up and then forgive US medical debts for pennies on the dollar. This last one would probably exhaust the funds, but would have the broadest positive impact on people.

Call a national account and law firm to set the money up in a way that minimises the amount of tax owed for ongoing years.

Call some wholesale investment fund managers and invest a several hundred mill in each.

Trust funds for the family with liveable stipends. Gets replenished by the wholesale fund dividends.

Finally get my drivers licence sorted and see where the wife wants to visit.

1. Pay off the remainder on my mortgage.
2. Pay off my parents’ mortgage.
3. Buy a new house that is large enough for my family to live comfortably in, without being ostentatious.
4. Give my old home to my in-laws. They could use it.
5. Set up a fund that produces enough interest for me and my family to live off of in perpetuity. $4 million in an account that produces 5.5% interest annually would be $220,000 (pre-tax) every year, which is plenty for our needs.
6. Set up a foundation to help the poor, fund environmental projects, support social justice causes, and so on with all of the rest.

I do not need $6 billion. No one does. I don’t want it. It would ruin me. The absolute best thing I could do with it is dedicate the overwhelming majority of it to causes I believe in, rather than hoarding it or buying a bunch of stupid shit.

I may keep 1m, that’s way more than what I need to live this life and donate the rest to hospitals and education institutions.

Hire a financial advisor and a lawyer. Then donate 4.5 billion to different organizations. I’d keep 500 million for myself to spend on 1 home each for me and my friends, pay off any debt that my parents or my in-laws might have, then put the remainder in a low-risk investment product.

Yeah, I’m building at least one city from scratch. The big thing is going to be figuring out where.

I’d probably be boring and try to use it to improve the lives of marginalised and impoverished people. Getting hospital waiting times down, improving access to mental health support, give people loans to get on their feet. That sort of thing.

Maybe I could also make a video sharing site to complete with Youtube and force them to make some improvements to remain competitive. But I’m not sure 6 billion will go far enough on that front.

And when you go to war they’re obligated to go too, possibly even in your place