Lottery winners

[jonb]

One of the things I would like to do sometime in my lifetime is write a book about how when people win the lottery it typically ruins their lives. Here's yet another example of this:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/12/01/lottery.winner.ap/index.html

[BrianTheGreat]

People fail to amaze me! :drink:

[flex22]

write a book about how when people win the lottery it typically ruins their lives.
Well, if I win the lottery, you'll have to leave me out of your book Jon.Because I'll be the happiest man in the world :D
Simply for the fact that I will be able to help other members of my family, not for myself alone.
Hmm, that reminds me, I'll have to start buying a lottery ticket :p

[marklutes]

I'm one of those people who doesn't fare well on long solo road trips. Some people say they stay awake and fight boredom by listening to music. Not me -- most times the music lulls me to sleep no matter what it is. So what I do to stay awake is talk radio (if available), books on tape, or mental problem solving. There's a point to this story, really, so stick with me. Well more often than not I end up spending the hours trying to solve problems. They could be real, weighty problems in the world or silly, fun problems. One of the silly fun problem topics I've had in my mental repertoir for the past decade or so is "what would I do if I suddenly found myself fabulously wealthy". So, in a sense, you could say I've spent a very long time thinking about what I would do if I won the lottery. My gut says that a lot of people end up ruining their lives because they never take the time to think about what to do with all that money. Once they get it they just suddenly start making rash decisions and end up throwing it away.

I remember back when Mr. Whittaker won his mega-jackpot. I got the idea this guy was fairly well-off to start with which I'd say makes him somewhat different from many winners. I recall he said he stopped to get gas in his car and was hungry so he went inside to get a few chili dogs. He bought the chili dogs with a $100 bill and told the clerk to use his change for lottery tickets. After he won he said that he was going to use the money to rehire some employees he just had to lay off from his business, and then get the business back on track. I'm pretty sure I read that he took the lump sum payment which would have given him -- what -- maybe close to $100 million after taxes. That seemed an inordinate amount of money to spend on righting a small business. And now two years later he's well on his way to destroying his life.

I've actually done quite a bit of research on the subject of lottery winners. Just personal curiosity really. There is one thing I can tell you with almost perfect certainty, and that's that if you ever hear the name of a lottery winner then that person is far more likely to have their life ruined by the money. The people who go on to live happily and comfortably are the ones you never hear about. I don't mean that in the "the bad stories are the only ones that make it on the news" kind of way. It's a practical thing. Anyone who has thought about what they would do with the winnings has probably spent a great amount of time planning for their own anonymity. The reason you never hear about the people who are successful as lottery winners is because they never collect the money. The smart ones lock the ticket somewhere safe and unknown, don't tell a soul about it, and hire a very good tax attorney to set up a blind trust. Ownership of the ticket is transferred to the trust, and then the trust collects the winnings. No signature on the ticket, no picture for the paper, no interviews. Nobody knows who got the money. Your odds of ruining your life with money goes way down if nobody knows you have it. Then you quietly go about helping people as you see fit without anyone banging down your door.

[flex22]

Too right, Mark.

I would definitely remain anonymous (apart from immediate family, and not all of them at that) if I won the lottery, and gain much enjoyment by helping people with my money.I would do this in subtle ways, so as not to draw attention to the fact I have millions stored away.Lol, I know, how? But this is somthing I also think about, often!

Some friends of ours a few doors down, who we had known for about ten years, won the lottery.Seven million pounds!
I'm not even sure how we found out.The woman used to come around to our house reguarly and chat with my mum and have a cuppa etc.I used to play football with the son.We were't their closest friends, but well, we knew them well.
When my mum told me, I said I must go around and congratulate them.Wow, I'll be in the presence of a lottery winner lol.Maybe they could throw me a few quid :D
Then my mum said that they'd up'd and left, just gone, like that!
At first I thought, that's a bit odd.They could have come around and said goodbye or something.Well the woman at least, the man kept himself to himself, but he was friendly enough.
This only happened last year, and I still wonder about it.Maybe they just knew the attention they'd get, and thought the best thing to do would be to leave as soon as possible.
It's a shame in a way, because in an ideal world they could have gone around telling everybody, and we would have congratulated them in person.
But I suppose, the more people who know, then the more likely some of those people would take advantage or become jealous of them.
Anyway, I hope they're happy, they were nice people.