Lamborghini

The car is tempting, but many readers said the first thing they'd like to do if they won the Powerball jackpot was to help others.

Yes, we all know that we’re more likely to be struck by lightning or attacked by a shark than to win one of the lottery’s biggest jackpots.

But the bad odds didn’t stop readers this week from dreaming about what they would do if they had been the biggest winners of the $580 million Powerball drawing on Wednesday night.

A post this week on how you could amend your holiday shopping list if you raked in the big jackpot got readers talking about how they could improve their lives – and the lives of others -  with hundreds of millions of dollars.

Of the nearly 20,000 people who took our survey, more than half said their No.1 goal would be to buy a really nice house.

“A new home for my parents to move in with me in their old age then remodel my old home and donate it to homeless veterans,” one reader wrote.

Many readers said their first impulse would be to help others, in addition to themselves.

“I'd make sure every kid in my county had a good meal, decent clothes, supplies, and something fun--just for starters,” one reader wrote.

Others said they’d like to give back to organizations that have helped them in the past.

“My gift would be to donate a majority to Children's Hospital -Wisconsin. They saved my kid's life and I will never be able to repay them,” one grateful reader wrote.

Many readers had modest dreams, involving the things and people they loved.

“Nothing too fancy. I would like my '66 Chevy truck fully restored, a decent house with a shop, and then a historic tour through Europe,” one reader wrote.

Forget toy cars, gingerbread houses and waiting in line to see Santa at the mall. If you’re lucky enough to win the record Powerball jackpot on Wednesday, your new holiday shopping list can include a real Lamborghini and a million-dollar custom-built home.

Oh, and Santa can plan to come to you.

There will be no need to think too hard about the price tags. The Powerball jackpot had jumped to a record $500 million by midday Tuesday, or $327.4 million if you take the cash option.

Of course, federal and state taxes will eat up a good chunk of that. But chances are you’ll still have enough left over to go on a serious holiday shopping spree.

Here are some items you'll want to consider:

A trip to the North Pole
You’re a millionaire now, so obviously you can’t just be content to visit Santa Claus at the mall. Why not go right to the source? Journeys International offers a two-week trip to the North Pole, including a champagne toast at the top of the world and copious opportunities to see polar bears, belugas and other wildlife. The trip starts at $23,995 per person, and a suite on the boat will run you nearly $35,000. Don’t forget to budget for the charter airfare and, of course, your designer outdoor gear.

Santa Claus

Tom Grill / Corbis stock

The downside to the North Pole trip is that it doesn’t happen until June. Maybe an actual visit from Santa is in order. The good news
is he makes house calls. SantaForHire.com promises real bearded Santas, with prices ranging from $150 to $300.

The best holiday meal

Neiman Marcus

If you win hundreds of millions of dollars, you clearly aren’t going to be cooking your family’s holiday dinner. For a mere $250,000, Neiman Marcus offers a private dinner for 10 featuring four of the world’s best-known chefs : Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller, Jerome Bocuse and Richard Rosendale.

The latest HDTV 

LG

High-end TVs are always a popular item on the holiday wish list, and now that you’ve won the millions you might as well splurge on the latest technology. The LG 84LM9600 Ultra HD 4K LED LCD runs $16,999 and will give you those bragging rights.

Your dream home
Self-gifting is all the rage these days, and what better gift to give yourself than a custom-built dream home? The holiday gift guide from the Robb Report, a magazine for the world’s wealthiest individuals, notes that for a mere $14 million, architect Richard Meier will build you a dream home overlooking the Caribbean Sea in Puerto Rico.

A holiday hot rod

Lamborghini

No holiday wish list is complete without a top-of-the-line vehicle. The Robb Report recommends a Lamborghini Sesto Elemento, a limited edition race car that runs more than $2 million.

A diamond tiara

tiffany.com

If you’ve won millions of dollars, you or your significant other is going to feel like royalty. Tiffany’s diamond tiara is a good option; a similar one recently sold for $135,000.

The best post-holiday vacation ever
The holidays are stressful, even for a multimillionaire, so you’ll probably want to plan a post-holiday getaway to a warm locale. The Robb Report’s recommendation: “Magic Moments,” a weeklong vacation for 24 guests hosted by world-famous illusionist David Copperfield on his private island in the Bahamas. It starts at $1.36 million.

Related:

What to buy when you win the $640 million Mega Millions

The winners of the Mega Millions lottery could use hundreds of millions of dollars to buy an island, a ranch or even a small company or sports team.

Or the three winning ticketholders who have a claim on the historic $656 million jackpot could give all, or a good chunk, of it away.

A couple of hundred million dollars may not be enough to cure cancer or enact world peace, but experts say there are ways to use newfound wealth effectively.

(The exact amount each lottery winner would receive would depend on whether they take a lump sum payout or agree to yearly installment payments, and there are taxes to consider as well.)

Rob Mitchell, CEO of Atlas of Giving, which tracks data on philanthropy, recommends taking a no-nonsense approach: Figure out what very specific problem you want to address, and how to best do that.

“The people who have achieved the most satisfaction ... are those that have taken the most business-(like) approach,” he said.

Mitchell said that's easier if you decide to do something specific, like construct a building or a renovate a stadium. It's tougher if you have a more general idea, like helping homeless people.

Still, there are areas where you can really see where your money makes a difference.

Ross Fraser, spokesman for Feeding America, says that for $1, his agency can provide eight meals to the nation’s approximately 49 million people at risk of going hungry. That means $200 million would buy 1.6 billion meals.

One way to make a major mark is to focus on the philanthropies that aren’t as big, or well-known.

Very large sums of money are often donated to major philanthropic organizations or big arts and academic institutions, noted Naomi Levine, executive director of the George H. Heyman, Jr. Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising at New York University.

But Levine said she thinks an individual could have a much bigger impact on local organizations, and particularly those that serve vulnerable populations such as the hungry, homeless, elderly or disabled.

“I would hope that the person who has that kind of money to give away would give it to the small social service agencies that need it so badly today,” Levine said.

Still, you must be somewhat careful that a small organization will spend your money wisely. That means reading publicly available tax documents to make sure the organization is using its money effectively, and grilling key staff members to make sure they know what they’re doing.

You might also want to take a look at how the big givers have done it. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is also funded by billionaire Warren Buffett, has devoted more than $25 billion to fighting malaria and other issues.

In total, Americans gave more than $346 billion to charitable organizations in 2011, a 7.5 percent increase over the past year, according to Atlas of Giving.

Bill McDavid / Hall and Hall

Mill Creek Ranch property

Welcome to the 1 percent, hypothetical lottery winner.  Here’s what you can buy with your winnings.

The Mega Millions lottery jackpot hit a record $540 million Thursday and by Friday it had climbed to $640 million with a lump sum option of $462 million.

If you're lucky enough to beat the 1-in-176 million odds and win, the bad news is you won’t be able to take home that full amount. That's because lottery officials will withhold 25 percent for federal gaming taxes, according to Arlen Harris of the Washington's Lottery, which participates in the Mega Millions.

Still, you should be pretty well set for life.

While you still might be on the hook for state taxes, you would have the kind of money to afford multiple homes, travel by private jet and take up a fancy hobby like collecting fine wine or antique cars, said Bruce Wallin, editorial director of the luxury goods magazine Robb Report.

"That kind of money affords the ability to pursue your passions to the kind of extreme that a lot of us dream of," he said.

You could even follow in the underwater path of Hollywood director James Cameron and spend a few million on a personal submarine, one of the latest trends among the superrich.

Still, Wallin cautions that you might want to try before you buy. For example, a 220-foot luxury yacht, complete with a crew and all the toys you can imagine can be rented for about $300,000 a week. That's well within your new budget and a good way to test the waters, literally, before spending $10 million or $20 million on your own yacht.

If you are ready to buy, here are some items to consider for your shopping list.

Your own island

Windermere

Allan Island in Washington state

What’s the first thing that’s going to happen after you win the lottery? Inevitably, that guy who was a jerk to you in high school or that relative who’s been ridiculing you for years is going to find you on Facebook and start hitting you up for money.

Time to get away. Far away.

Private islands range in price from under $50,000 to $160 million. For just a small fraction of your winnings, you can be the owner of 292-acre Allan Island in Washington state, listed for $13.5 million.

Still, the upkeep alone can be daunting. Wallin recommends renting an island before you buy.

"One of the things you'd want to do in winning the lottery is take a great trip," he said.

Your own ranch 

Bill Mcdavid / Hall and Hall

Mill Creek Ranch

Maybe you get seasick easily or you fancy yourself more of a rugged Western type. Don’t despair, you can still find plenty of privacy on the mainland.

With less than one-tenth of your winnings -- or $29.5 million -- you could be the owner of Mill Creek Ranch, a nearly 26,000-acre ranch in Red Bluff, Calif., with a 7,388-square-foot Spanish Colonial home.

Of course, you’ll have to budget about $48,623 a year in taxes. For perspective, that’s a little less than the median annual household income in this country.

A jet

Mike Wintroath / AP

A Hawker 4000 jet airplane

The good news about the Red Bluff property – it’s just a few miles from a jet-capable airport.

Here’s where you might want to take some advice from the other 1 percenters. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway owns NetJets, which provides fractional ownership of jets and saves you the hassle of having to buy a whole jet all on your own.

The Marquis Jet Card gets you 25 hours of flight time for a mere $119,000 a year.

If you take the lottery's annual payment option, that would represent just a few days' worth of your yearly payout.

Your dream car

Porsche

Porsche 918 Spyder

Before you won the lottery, maybe your idea of a dream car was just something that didn’t leak too much oil and was less likely to break down on the freeway during the heavy commute hours.

Now, you can afford to have a lot more fun on the road.

The Porsche 918 Spyder may be a good option, if you can wait a while.

Porsche only plans to make 918 of these, so it will set you back $845,000. But on the bright side you’ll be saving money on gas. The plug-in gas-electric hybrid, due out in November 2013, has a V8 engine that generates 500 horsepower plus two electric motors that help it get an estimated 78 miles per gallon.

A great party

Frontiers Elegant Journeys

Orient Express Royal Scotsman

Look, you’ve just won the lottery: Beer and chips at your place is just not going to do.

When it comes to luxury party planning, the options are endless. If you want to keep the gathering intimate, and keep the paparazzi and unwanted guests out of your hair, it’s best to keep moving.

The Royal Scotsman will take you and up to 36 of your closest friends on a four-day excursion through the Scottish Highlands. Yes, you’ll be traveling on your own private train. The “rolling house party” starts at just $166,800, or less than 1 percent of those annual payments.

A sports team, or a few companies

If you do win the lottery, the most common bad joke/piece of advice you're likely to hear is, "Don't spend it all in one place." (Wow, is that going to get old.)

But if you do want to go big, CNBC notes that your winnings are enough to buy the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League or a medium-sized company like Rosetta Stone or Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

Storify: What would you buy?

Bryan Smith / Zuma Press

Sure, a $500 million jackpot is big, but after taxes ... better just tell the hiring manager you would have to think about your options.

The Mega Millions lottery jackpot has hit a record $500 million. Would you quit working if you won it?

If you have a job interview this week, that is hardly an idle question.

The lottery, to be drawn Friday, is on a lot of people’s minds this week, and as a result hiring managers may pull out a doozy of an interview question.

Joyce Lain Kennedy, author of “Job Interviews for Dummies,” calls the lottery question one of the top 10 “prime-time tricky probes” employers lay on workers these days.

When you answer the lottery question -- or any interview question -- you want to leave out any inkling you’re not excited about working hard, no matter what the circumstances.

“Recruiters report that high numbers of job seekers blab negative information without realizing they’re making a farewell address to a job opportunity,” Kennedy said.

Even if you would dump work in a heartbeat following such a windfall, it’s best to keep your feelings to yourself.

Kennedy advised responding along these lines: “While you’d be thrilled to win the lottery, you’d still seek out fulfilling work because working, meeting challenges and scoring accomplishments are what make most people happy, including you.” And don’t forget, she added, to “say it with a straight face.”

Many of you would have no problem with the question, based on an unscientific poll of my 13,000-plus Twitter followers.  When I asked, “Would you stay in your job if you won the lottery?” more than 90 percent offered a resounding “yes.”

Most comments were along the lines of @heatherecoleman’s tweet: "Yes - I love what I do!"

But a few tweeters were contemplating post-winnings career adjustments.  “There would be major course change," said @ed_mcfarland.

For some employers, the best answer to the lottery question is one that’s honest.

“I think it is worse for the candidate to say that they would stay, never leave, etc.,” said David Lewis, president of HR consulting firm OperationsInc. “I’m looking for honesty and real people vs. fakers who are trying to tell me what they think I want to hear.”

Others believe an answer that sounds like you’re looking for any reason to get away from the daily grind is troublesome.

Ken Wisnefski, CEO of Internet marketing firm WebiMax, often asks applicants a lottery-type question: “What would you do with $1 million?”

“I have had one gentleman say, ‘I wouldn’t be here right now,’ and that gentleman did not receive a second interview," he said. "I have, however, heard responsible answers including, ‘I would invest it and grow it to $2 million.’  That response earned a second interview and eventually a position at my company.”

Patricia Siderius, managing director of executive outplacement services at BPI group, offered a good suggestion for an answer to the lottery question: “I would need time to understand how this fortune will or will not change my life.”

A life change is exactly what Benjamin Flynn, 38, a New York City cab driver, is worried about and why he’s not sure he even wants to win millions.

“Money is the root of all evil,” he said. But, he added, if he did win he’d quit his job and go back to school to become a surgical nurse.

Before we all start planning our lives post lottery-winnings, it may be time for a reality check.

Your chances of winning the Mega Millions is 1 in 176 million, according to Jim Lackritz, professor of management information systems at the San Diego State University’s College of Business Administration. “Not a good chance, and not worth it,” he said.

An individual winner of Friday's jackpot could elect to take an immediate cash payout of $359 million before taxes.