I just won $180 million dollars. What should I do?
First and foremost: Tell no one. Not a word to anyone. I mean it.Okay, one or two exceptions: get a good lawyer first. He or she will be duty-bound to keep confidential your winning this much money. He or she can be appointed by you to go to the lottery commission to hand in your ticket, get it verified, and set up the trust or trusts to receive the money.You might have seen in news reports after an enormous jackpot was won and everyone wants to know who won it, “An attorney representing the winner claimed the prize.” And that’s usually it. They might add “The attorney said the winner is a private family in the U.S.” and no other details.You want that to be your story, too, and here’s why: You will instantly be besieged by requests from family, friends, family who might not really be family, friends who might not really be friends, charities, stockbrokers, and so on. You life could be become a living Hell once people know you’re suddenly incredibly wealthy.This doesn’t mean you can’t quietly help the people you love, support the causes and charities you believe in, and so on. All that can be done without anyone knowing where the money is coming from. You can say you had a particularly good year at work, sold an idea to someone, managed to set aside a small pile of cash over the years, etc. No one needs to know.And believe it or not, you are helping the people you love as much as you are helping you. If your name is public with this gigantic windfall, people will go to your family and say “Hey, do you think you can get your [brother/sister/son/daughter/cousin] to help me out?” And if you help a family member by giving a larger cash gift than you gave another family member, the resentment starts. It’s human nature.Unlike starting and building a company, for example, then selling it for a huge profit, there’s something different about lottery wins: people will feel like you haven’t “earned” it and don’t “deserve” it, therefore you “must” share it. It will get weird. It will get tense, and probably even ugly.Do yourself and the people you love a favor: change nothing drastically about your lifestyle, quietly help those you want to help, and silently enjoy the power of true financial independence.
How should a person in their early 20s invest their money?
My advice: 22-year-old should NOT invest or save money.I am 29, and I think that the stupidest mistakes I did when I was 22-23 was passing over one-of-a-kind experiences because $100 seemed like a lot of money back then.It's important to realize that when you are 22, the amount you save now in a month, you will be spending in a day 10 years later. So it's really not worth it.In the table by Ching Ho (another answer here) 20% saved is $11000/year. You could fly all over the world for this money instead, and you would be 22 - very energetic and able to experience stuff.In this world, you either have a lot of time or a lot of money. And when you are 22, you probably have a lot of time and some money. By 30, you will have a lot of money but no time to spend it.You will have plenty opportunities to save. The life is for enjoyment.UPDATE from Feb 2015. I'm almost 31 now, 1.5 years after I've written that answer. I've got quite a few comments, mainly criticizing my advice.I'm staying by what I said, and I can clarify:1. Don't get into debt at 22. Debt can destroy your life afterwards.2. Don't overspend or buy clearly expensive or unnecessary stuff.3. If you have money for something that looks like one-of-a-kind experience, get it. Don't miss it just because you need to save money.Know that when you are 25 and 30 you will earn much more money than you earned when you were 22. If you can save X/year when you are 22, but you can save 30X/year when you are 30, compound growth you got on X is nothing. (in best case it grew to 2-3X - which is what you can save in 1 month at 30).Start saving when you have a real job and your earnings are not going to grow significantly soon. I would suggest at 25-26 years.
How was the religion and economy in europe 1600-1700?PLZ HELP?
The religion was Catholic in France, Spain, Portugal and Greece. In The Netherlands and in England it was Protestant. Germany was not yet a nation, but numerous states, some of which were Catholic and some Protestant (Lutheran). This led to tensions and war. The Catholic inclined Stuart kings of England looked to France for inspiration - after Charles I had been executed, his son, the future Charles II took refuge in France. When James II ascended the throne as a Catholic there were tensions between him and Parliament which led to his eventual overthrow and the invitation to the Protestant William of Orange and his wife Mary to become joint monarchs. France began to take a harder line against Protestants during the century with Louis XIV repealing the Edict of Nantes which allowed religious toleration. Generally the century, throughout Europe, was not noted for toleration anywhere with constant conflict between Catholic and.Protestant. I'll leave someone else to comment on economy.