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Author :Ed & Teresa Herbert in Glamping: Teresa and Ed

Editor’s Note: January 2016 the Power Ball was at $1.3 Billion. Bloggers and Travelers the Herberts thought long and hard about what they would do if they were the lucky winners. Spoiler Alert: They did not win. But, after reading their article you may find, it sounds like they were already rich in many ways. As you read, think about what you’d do if your lucky numbers were called.

$1.3 billion dollars over time or $800 million cash out, about $580 million after taxes. Someone or some people could win that this Wednesday, January 14, 2016.

I might as well tell everyone that Teresa and I will probably win the Power Ball. That’s right. The Herberts will take all or a part of the $590 million this week. Why? Because we don’t know what we would do if we won it. We have our needs covered. We have planned for our future. We love our current lifestyle. So, if, oops, I mean WHEN we win the $580 million this Wednesday, what could we do?

First, we need to give our tithe to God. I don’t think one should give $58 million to one local church as that could have devastating impact on the church where other members stop giving because the church is loaded! Still, 10% needs to be donated to church or churches because that is not our money but God’s. Maybe we could give a large chunk to our current church, then to churches we were members over our lifetime. It is God’s 10%, not ours so we will give it promptly.

Related Read: Finding a Worship Service when you are Away from Home

Give to our communities to help those in need? 1.5% is what we have given to our United Way in the past. Again, $8.7 million to one United Way Campaign might be overkill in our area but one could help a few of the services with that money. So we have given to God and those in need in our community.

Now, what to do with the remaining $514 million? Put $10 million in a trust fund for future residuals as we age? Okay, now about the remaining $504 million?

Buy a new home? Actually, we are trying to sell our home in Piney Flats in 2016 because we travel so much now that it is empty. I guess with the money we could auction the house and take whatever Ron Ramsey can get for us.


With that money, we could really finish our Bluff City RV home nicely but as it is a smaller home (we are downsizing), we won’t meed much. We would put that front driveway in for sure!

Hmm, still have just under $504 million left.

Buy a new motorhome? A multi-million dollar bus of the stars with 600 HP, glitz and glamour bus? Nope. We love our 2015 Ellipse Ultra.

It is more than we could ask for from an RV, a comfortable home on the road, a safe haven as we travel, a fortress from Mother Nature over 400 sf of living when set up at the RV resort(s). No, we would keep our current motorhome.

Related Read: Buying an RV

Buy new cars? This one is more tempting but again, we have wonderful cars. I bought my beemer 3 series in 2006 with 52 miles on it. I now have 138K miles but they said the car would run forever so I am just trying to make an honest person out of the salesman. We bought Teresa’s Miata in 2004 with 6 miles on the new car. Today, with over 104K miles on it, she still loves that convertible and won’t think of trading it in. Our tow car is a 2010 Cadillac SRX with 60K miles driven, about 65K towed behind a motorhome but it looks great. We have talked about wrapping the car to match the paint on the motorhome when it needs painting so we might use some of the money for that.

Otherwise, when the beemer needs to go, which shouldn’t be anytime soon, I would look to get my Tesla but don’t need it today.

Buy a Vacation Home? Nope. We drive our vacation home. All 44′ of it. And we drive it to vacation spots with our bed, our kitchen, our stuff. No need there. We might buy a home in Ocean Lakes Family Campground for a family member to manage as an investment but do we really need to make any more money? We have $504 million in the bank! So, no Vacation Homes for fun or investment needed.

Buy lots of stuff? Nope. We don’t need lots of stuff. We have stuff we want. More importantly, we have been blessed with much of the stuff we need so we don’t need to waste money that way.

Related Read: Top Camping Gear 2016- The Camper’s Must Have List

Help Family and Friends? Yes, but to a point. Take helping our kids. There we would set up Trust Funds, contingencies, etc. to help our Adult kids today and in their future BUT…and it is an important BUT… we would not set them up to leave their careers at which they are very good at, love doing and would be missed if they left to live off too much money too soon.

We have some friends who have been so good to us throughout our lives, we would share some of our good fortune with them. Not much, but enough to brighten their year.

Related Read: The Wonderful people One Meets RVing

Help our parents? Stubborn as they can be, they would be difficult to help and they are very happy with their lives today. Still, we would splurge a little to take Teresa’s parents on the road in their RV, visit my mom in Florida more. So a little money there.

Help Siblings? We would help some that have worked hard all their lives, help those with their dreams but we, like all families, have some who have not contributed to society but taken for most of their lives. Not sure we can just give them more money to waste.

So what to do with the hundreds of millions of dollars left over? Our imagination says start a Foundation to help those in need, a hand up, not a hand out. Share the blessings to help people get on their feet and become a contributing member in their community, a blessing to others. Pay it forward. We like the way the Niswonger Foundation works to help children learn, earn and return, using money to improve the quality of life for years to come.

So if…opps…WHEN we win the PowerBall this week, we will not buy homes, cars, or lots of stuff. We will help family and some friends, set up a Foundation and put that $10 million away for our retirement, traveling more in our RV in the coming years.

What would you do if you won the $1.3 billion PowerBall? You won’t since we might…opps, I mean WILL have the winning ticket, but, if you could win, what would you do?