Lottery Dreams
I'm just a malfunctioning alien-human hybrid publishing my thoughts and experiences
I'd keep 1/4 to a 1/3 of it liquid in a bank account, the rest being put into a tiered-risk investment plan, giving myself a monthly annuity controlled by someone else and could never take control myself. That way if I blew through the cash in the account, I'd still get a monthly payment for the rest of my life.
As for actual expenditures, I'd get remote access land somewhere. Something you'd have to ATV/snowmobile/boat into. If by boat, I'd stock up and and stay on the property during that in-between season where the ice is too thin to traverse.
My original idea was a small log cabin maybe 8'x10', single story type, hand built thing. But these days I'd lean towards a 4-season Yurt with a wood stove. I'd cut all my firewood by hand to give me something to do. There's just something wholesome and fulfilling about cutting firewood. I wouldn't use gasoline/diesel powered anything except for the ATV/snowmobile/boat, no log splitter. Maybe a chainsaw as backup, but I prefer to do anything by hand when the opportunity comes. Like making homemade bread, I could buy a bread maker, but I do it by hand as it gives you a better appreciation for the product and how people had to do it before machines were an option. I'd build a standard, unheated outhouse. An outdoor solar shower setup but would use stove heated water in the winter.
I'd also need a root cellar. Supposedly a properly made one can keep the interior just above freezing despite -30'C or -40'C temperatures outside.
This is where it gets a little weird. For food, I would do a standard grocery run at my leisure, say once a month. But since there's no electricity, it would have to be mostly canned food, fresh fruits and veggies. Extra fruit could be dried in a solar still or just purchased that way more likely. I could get a high quality cooler with dry ice and keep meat for about a week. But the core of my sustenance would be a powdered meal replacement. It's the human equivalent to dog food, having all the vitamins and minerals and protein you need. You simply add water and shake it in a shaker bottle. The shelf life is somewhere between 6-12mo and not all that expensive per meal. No refrigeration required. People have done experiments with it for months on end and were in perfect health after.
I'd have internet via a solar powered Starlink setup to run a tablet for books and music. I also had the idea of building a solar panel/wind/microturbine system capable of running a gaming laptop for a few hours a day, but that would be an optional project. Hobbies would be astronomy both optical and radio, and astrophotography. I might need a small gasoline backup generator to run the astronomy/astrophotography stuff on days where a portable solar system didn't get enough sunlight. But hopefully not.
Just simple living. I'd also need a boy and girl pitbull named Buster and Lucille, a potato cannon, that anti-drinking implant that goes in your butt-cheek that can kill you and the dream would be perfect.