Jackpot!

I wonder what it would be like to wake up in the morning to find that one has become a millionaire overnight? That's what a Gloucestershire couple did last Saturday. They had one of just two winning tickets in the rollover Euro lottery and shared a prize if - wait for it - £113 million. That's right, they won over £56 million!

My financial situation is what could, I suppose, be described as comfortable. In fact, I am more comfortably off now than I have ever been in my life. The present comfortable situation has not always existed as there was a time when my income was so low that the children qualified for free school dinners and the state kindly supplemented my income with what was then called family credit. I have, however, never been in the dreadful position that some people find themselves where they have to choose between heating the house and having a meal.

What, I wonder, would I do with £56 million? Even at today's almost nonexistent rates of interest, that would earn £250,000 a year (if my mental arithmetic is up to scratch) before tax: a very comfortable income indeed. Alternatively, I could spend a million a year for the rest of my life and still leave a generous legacy to the children. But since I would probably find it difficult to spend all that much, I would probably give away a pretty hefty chunk of the money. The problem then is to decide to whom (or which charities) to give money. Perhaps it would be best to set up a charitable trust, appointing half a dozen or so other people to act with me as trustees, and take it from there. But the trust would still need a deed stating how the money was to be spent, so we would be back almost at square one.

Oh well, since I never buy lottery tickets, the chances of it happening to me aren't very great so I needn't worry about it too much.