What could you do with $1.6 billion in New Zealand?

The biggest-ever jackpot in the United States has been won, netting the still-unknown winner more than NZ$3.4 billion.

Once the taxman takes his cut, the walk-away-winnings will be more than halved to around $1.6 billion. So, what could you do with that chunk of change in Aotearoa?

If $1.6b isn't enough for you, take inspiration from our big banks and invest in the money-go-round that is finance. Banks look after our money and right now, they're producing record profits doing it.

ANZ just posted a $2 billion annual profit, up 8% on the previous year. Westpac chalked up a profit of $1.16b, up 12%, and BNZ’s jumped 7% to $1.4b.

All that while interest rates keep creeping up, and we pay more at the checkout and the petrol pump.

But the mega-profits have been criticised by the prime minister.

"What we are seeing currently, I don't think is justifiable," Jacinda Ardern said earlier this week.

The Rugby World Cup finals are on this weekend, with the Black Ferns defending their title against the current world No.1 English side.

If the Kiwis lift the trophy on Saturday, they can expect a grand bonus of $0 for their efforts. The Red Roses on the other hand will pocket $30,000.

Imagine if we could show women's rugby it's valued, and drop $50 million each on the 32-strong squad.

The red-hot property prices of 2020 are slipping away in a double-digit percentage decline. That means you'd only have to pay $1.3m on average for about 1230 houses in the Auckland region.

The national average house price is now down to $951,040, 5.1% lower than in November 2021.

If you want even more building for your billions, then head down-country and snap up around 3000 properties in Southland for about half-a-million each, set up your own kingdom and name yourself "Landlord of the South".

No judgment if you want to wear a toasty warm hat and long johns on the outside. It's cold and lonely being a megalomaniac and a landlord.

Billionaire Bill Gates has set himself the hefty goal of divesting himself of virtually all his wealth - that's $171 billion.

This year he gave a huge chuck of his fortune away to charity, including a $34 billion donation to his philanthropic fund, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

So, consider being charitable and divvy up the winnings to 5.1 million Kiwis, many facing the cost-of-living crisis. The $300 boon might be enough to lay a decent spread of fresh fruit and veg on the table this Christmas.

No one wants to think we'd ever see the return of the Alert Level 4 lockdown. But just in case a new Covid variant shows up (or some other virus), you could supply a few weeks of the wage subsidy.

In 2021 the Government spent around $5.1 billion over 12 weeks to keep people afloat as the country ground to a halt.

As it stands, the extraordinary powers used by the Government at the height of the pandemic are winding down. The Covid-19 Public Health Response Act is due to be repealed in May 2023.

Covid-19 Response Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall told 1News the Government is keeping the country's Covid measures "under continuous review".

"We're keeping a close eye on new variants and looking at other countries' experience. From what we have seen, new variants are not having a vastly different impact in other countries."

State lottery rules say the newly minted billionaire holding the record-breaking ticket can't remain anonymous forever, and they’re likely to draw international attention.

The winning ticket was sold in the Californian town of Altadena. The odds of winning the jackpot by matching all 5 numbers and the Powerball number are one in 292.2 million.