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What not to do when you win the lottery

Archie Gemmill Goal said:
There seems to be only two sensible things to do with a lottery win.

1. Enjoy it by spending it in the knowledge that it'll be gone in a year or two and you'll be back to normal

2. Invest it and live a comfortable but not excessive lifestyle for the remainder of your days.

Seems that some people think you can spend it like water forever.
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It's not just lottery winners.

Folks that come into large sums of money from prevailing in a lawsuit, inheritance or selling their existing business etc, can end up broke quick if they're not financially savvy.

I know of a couple of instances where that big cash cow got slaughtered by the owner(s) and they just couldn't figure out where the money went. The house and exotic cars they bought really were't that much...

In contrast, the two richest men (and I mean in the 100's, not the tens of millions) that I've been personally acquainted with did not drive exotic cars or live in fancy homes. One guy told me the only new cars he ever bought in his life were for his wife and their kids. He was perfectly happy to drive his old Chevy Impala w/ a 396 (it goes like hell!) and he had the speeding tickets to prove it. The other guy had an old Ford pick-up for the country and a 1970's Cadillac land yacht he bought as a used car - that guy did have one hell of a fishing boat but it wasn't by any means excessive.
 
We had a million dollar winner here in Washington State some years back who blew through it quickly enough that within a couple of years he had returned to his previous occupation of robbing banks.
 
I have family that won big. Lottery winners also have to deal with the unreal expectations of others. How much do you give to family? How much can you help friends? Obviously as much as you want to, but that becomes a straining point for pre-winning relationships.

In the grand scheme of things, people that are not financially literate and come into money often mess **** up. And they have fun doing it. Until they don't.
 
BStrong said:
It's not just lottery winners.

Folks that come into large sums of money from prevailing in a lawsuit, inheritance or selling their existing business etc, can end up broke quick if they're not financially savvy.
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Same goes for pro athletes. There's a good SI story about it.

I frankly find it amazing how many people really can't tell the difference between having the money for X and being able to afford X.
 
timhau said:
I frankly find it amazing how many people really can't tell the difference between having the money for X and being able to afford X.
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I had to ask my wife to stop saying we couldn't "afford" things when talking in front of our kids. It is clear we can afford what we want but we often don't get what we want because we have other priorities. I could go buy a new fancy car today, which would be nice, but in the long run I'd rather have the cash than the car. It wouldn't bankrupt me or keep me from making my house payments, but it would change my comfort level, my sense of stability. Having cash on hand has a value well beyond the number on the account. We can afford a new fancy car, but it is not how we want to use our money.
 
Arcade22 said:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-euromillions-officials-for-ruining-her-life/

Who would've thought that amassing frivolous luxuries doesn't lead to contentment?
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I was a whole lot happier when I "had money" vs now when I am struggling to get by. I like having money a whole lot better.

The most expensive thing I bought was a 60" TV. No new cars, no crap. Some people are stupid no matter how rich or poor they are. A million pounds/dollars isn't much these days.
 
quadraginta said:
I think Joan Rivers gets credit for this quip. (Not sure.)

"Money may not buy you happiness, but it will let you park your yacht next to it."
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Weird Al Yankovic has a lyric in one of his songs "If money can't buy happiness I guess I'll have to rent it." It was the theme song to Johnny Dangerously
 
The Don said:
It's OK, she's going to sue the lottery and then presumably she's old enough now that any award won't ruin her life:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-suing-ruined-her-life-shopping-a7576356.html
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Too bad the Independent felt the need to add extra BS to the story.

The Washington Post story says:
The Daily Record reported that Park is debating whether to sue Camelot — the company that owns EuroMillions — for negligence and donate any potential winnings from that legal action to charity.
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Whereas the Independent says:
Britain’s youngest Euromillions winner has revealed she is planning to take legal action against lottery bosses for negligence.
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I guess she has a lawyer (actually the article calls the person a "representative", not sure if that means a lawyer), but he didn't confirm that he planned to file a lawsuit. What possible legal grounds could there be? "My life is empty and I don't know what the purpose of life is" is not the Lottery's fault. In fact, it seems they don't just cut people a check and say "here you go", they actually offer free advice to the winners. Whether they choose to follow it or not is on them.
“Our role is to offer tailored and specific advice and support to any winner, no matter their age,” the spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman added that Park was offered “extensive support from Camelot” after her lottery win and pointed out that the company has been in touch with her “from time to time” to “offer ongoing support.”

“A dedicated winners’ adviser visited Jane at home to pay out her prize, arrange private banking and support her through the publicity when she chose to share news of her win,” the spokeswoman continued. “An independent financial and legal panel was set up shortly after her win, and we put Jane in touch with another winner who won at the same age, to share their experience and help Jane adjust to the win.”
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So it sounds to me like they already offer support services. People are free to make bad choices. That's life. You can't sue somebody else because you made bad choices.
 
William Parcher said:
Worse off than what?
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Worse off than they otherwise would be.

I know happy and prosperous people who play the lottery as weekly habit. They never win. They are happy people. I get the sense that they would be less happy if they couldn't play as a regular routine. But they have never won.
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Well, I know people who smoked two packs a day, lived into their 90s, and wouldn't let you take their cigarettes away if you tried.

Doesn't mean smoking's not bad for you.
 
Giordano said:
The good news is that being a one time recipient of million pounds (which I assume is taxable), although substantial, is not enough to turn anyone into a truly rich person.
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On the contrary, gambling winnings are tax-free in the UK. It was noted at the time that when the first winner of the US version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire scooped the top prize, they actually ended up with less cash than the British player of the UK show who had (then) recently and wisely baled out at half a million Sterling (the highest anyone had got at that stage).

Can't be bothered looking at the news reports, but it is my understanding that if someone wins above a certain amopunt of money (£500k?), the winner has to meet with the NL appointed financial advisors to help them plan what they intend to do with the money. If this young lady ignored such advice, she's only got herself to blame.
 
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Dr. Keith said:
I had to ask my wife to stop saying we couldn't "afford" things when talking in front of our kids. It is clear we can afford what we want but we often don't get what we want because we have other priorities. I could go buy a new fancy car today, which would be nice, but in the long run I'd rather have the cash than the car. It wouldn't bankrupt me or keep me from making my house payments, but it would change my comfort level, my sense of stability. Having cash on hand has a value well beyond the number on the account. We can afford a new fancy car, but it is not how we want to use our money.
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When I was younger I was broke. I'm still broke, just less so.

When friends implored me to come out and I advised them I couldn't afford it, they'd hear something different to what I said and exhort me to attend the event because it was only £x and we'd have a good time.

When I said I couldn't afford it, I meant I simply did not have the money. What they heard was that I'd rather not spend the money. What was amazing was that this was sometimes difficult for them to comprehend.
 
newyorkguy said:
I knew a guy that won Lotto in New York and received about $30 million. When I say I "knew him" it was from having bought slices of pizza from him. (His small pizza shop was near my job.)

He did it the opposite way.

At first after winning he said he was going on a vacation, give some money to relatives, start a college fund for his kids and buy a new house. Then he was coming back to work at his shop. He said, "I love operating my business, I got great kids working for me and I love my customers." Only soon after reopening he discovered it wasn't the same anymore. "What's the point of working 14 hours a day selling pizza?" he told the community newspaper. "For what? I already got more money than I can spend." He said that running the business was no longer the same, no longer gave him the same feeling of satisfaction. So he closed it down. He said he wanted to use his time to travel with his wife. Especially in Italy and all over Europe. He planned on doing a lot of traveling.

This was about ten years ago and I lost track of him. I have a feeling he is enjoying his life.
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Years back, before the National Lottery, the only such fast-track to riches was the football pools. Back in the 1990s the respected Channel 4 Cutting Edge documentary strand did a profile of various winners who had had differing degrees of coping with their good fortune. Just about the happiest, though, was a guy who - when he won - was the handyman at his local greyhound racing track. He subsequently bought the track, carried on with his old job, and was as happy as Larry.

They also interviewed one of the financial advisors from Littlewoods Pools, who said that normally he advised as strongly as possible against winners starting businesses, especially in areas they were unfamiliar with, and particularly not opening pubs, which was apparently depressingly common.
 
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Information Analyst said:
They also interviewed one of the financial advisors from Littlewoods Pools, who said that normally he advised as strongly as possible against winners starting businesses, especially in areas they were unfamiliar with, and particularly not opening pubs, which was apparently depressingly common.
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Opening a pub is a great idea! If one happens to be a publican...
 
3point14 said:
When I was younger I was broke. I'm still broke, just less so.

When friends implored me to come out and I advised them I couldn't afford it, they'd hear something different to what I said and exhort me to attend the event because it was only £x and we'd have a good time.

When I said I couldn't afford it, I meant I simply did not have the money. What they heard was that I'd rather not spend the money. What was amazing was that this was sometimes difficult for them to comprehend.
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Exactly. A person should be comfortable being clear. Whether being clear means I can't afford that or I don't want to spend my money on that. Saying one when you mean the other is just misleading double talk that leads to stress and confusion.

We wanted to take a family vacation once and one part of the family demurred and said they couldn't afford it. So, the rest of the family pitched in and covered the cost. We had a good trip. The next month the part of the family who couldn't afford the relatively reasonable cost of the trip announced some unrelated large purchase that seemed frivolous to the rest of the family. Feelings were hurt. That was the start of me putting my foot down about being clear on financial matters with our kids. I hope they will be clearer with each other in the future.
 
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