Exactly How Long Would $400 Million Last?

The estimated jackpot for Wednesday's Powerball drawing is $394 million and I wonder just how long that money would last.

Now, I know that when my numbers are picked, I'm not going to get the full $394 million.  Of course, you have to pay taxes, and if you are taking the lump sum it's a lot less. But, for the sake of this discussion let's just call it an even $400 million.

Remember the movie Brewster's Millions starring Richard Prior? Montgomery Brewster was given the challenge of spending $30 million dollars in 30 days in order to receive a $300 million inheritance. it's a lot tougher than it sounds, particularly given the specif rules he had to follow including one that said he could not give the money away.

So let's imagine for a moment we have $400 million and we are going to try and spend it all in 30 days - and we can't give it away.

For starters, let's buy a house in the Colorado mountains for $10 million and a house near Grand Junction for $2 million. While we are at it, we might as well get a brand new pickup truck for $50,000 and a car for $40,000. Next, let's go to the fanciest stores in Colorado and spend $2 million on new clothes for the family. While we are in the mood for shopping let's splurge a bit.

* Broncos Season Tickets - $5,000 (really good seats)
*75" Big Screen TV - $3,000
* Custom Golf Clubs - $1,000
*Tropical Vacation - $10,000

Okay, so I can't think of anything else I would really want. I'm not into jewelry, I don't want a boat, I'm not into guns, I don't ski, and I certainly don't want my own airplane.

We need to eat every day, so let's eat out twice a day at a Grand Junction Restaurant with our family of four. I think we could eat really well for $500 a day, so for 30 days that comes to $15,000 a month on food.

At this point, I've spent $14,124,000 and I don't need to buy another house or car. I just need to eat and I've got nearly $386,000,000 left. That means I could spend $15,000 a month on food, or whatever, for the next 2000 years before I would run out of money.

Of course, the reality is, if I won the Powerball jackpot, I would give millions of dollars away to friends and family, but the point is, $400 million is a lot of dough. Someone's life is about to change in a big way. It's probably not yours or mine, but it sure is fun to think about what we might do with $400 million.