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What not to do when you win the lottery

Arcade22

Philosopher
Arcade22
Joined
Aug 8, 2007
Messages
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Location
Sweden
The first thing Jane Park bought after winning 1 million British pounds in the EuroMillions lottery in 2013 was a Louis Vuitton handbag.

Then a chihuahua named “Princess.”

Then some shoes.

Then a purple Range Rover and a pair of breast implants.

And then 50 more designer handbags.

“I just went shopping all the time,” the Edinburgh native told the Channel Four Television Corporation.

Then something curious happened: Buying things for the sake of buying things got old. Instead of finding happiness via conspicuous consumption, Park uncovered an age-old maxim preached by holy men for thousands of years and ignored by enthusiastic lottery winners for almost as long: Money can't buy happiness, and large amounts of it have a way of, well, complicating things.

Park told the Daily Record that she blames the lotto bosses for “ruining her life.”

“I thought it would make it 10 times better but it’s made it 10 times worse,” Park told the Sunday People. “I wish I had no money most days. I say to myself, ‘My life would be so much easier if I hadn’t won.’”

“People look at me and think, ‘I wish I had her lifestyle, I wish I had her money,’ she added. “But they don’t realize the extent of my stress. I have material things, but apart from that my life is empty. What is my purpose in life?”
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-euromillions-officials-for-ruining-her-life/

Who would've thought that amassing frivolous luxuries doesn't lead to contentment?
 
Is she intending to spend what money she has left on a pointless and protracted legal battle and therefore end up poor again?

If she really doesn't want the money she could just give it away.


I think she's probably depressed because, if you spend money like water on stuff with no real lasting value it runs out much quicker than one might think.
 
I don't have a lot of money and my life is empty too. She can send me the money if it's causing her too much distress.
She can keep the dog-rat and the silicone implants.
 
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. She probably has already spent a significant percent of that money (how much are purple Range Rovers and breast implant operations?) and now she will be able to focus on her spiritual fulfillment. Her lesson learned (one hopes) paid for by the losers in the EuroMillions lottery
 
3point14 said:
I'm pretty sure lottery winning are tax free.
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Seems so:

https://www.national-lottery.co.uk/service-guide

Are my winnings tax free?

National Lottery prizes are not chargeable gains for the purposes of UK Capital Gains Tax and will not normally be assessed for UK Income Tax. If a prize is won and shared by a syndicate who entered into a written agreement before the win, then syndicate members should not be liable to pay UK inheritance tax. However, please note that HM Revenue and Customs law and practice may change. The above comments are based on our understanding of HM Revenue and Customs law and practice as of April 2014.
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At least she's supporting Britain's plastic surgery and beauty enhancement industry. Making Britain great again, a pair of new tits at a time (even if it happens to be a plastic and fake kind of greatness).
 
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.
 
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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I think I would keep a small percentage to do a few things immediately- buy some new furniture or a modest new car. Remodel my house or buy one if the overall payout was big enough. But I would place the bulk of the winnings under the control of a very reliable and fiscally conservative financial advising/banking service and tell them to invest it for me and to give me no more than a sustainable allowance each month no matter how much I begged. Who knows- I might even then pay a lawyer or CPA to keep a watchful eye on the financial service/bankers one a year to be certain they weren't stealing any of my money!

That way not only would I protect myself against my own temptations, I would also protect myself against "friends" and relatives begging me for money. "Oh sorry George, I would love to help you invest in that new manure-spreading business you want to set up, but all my lottery winnings are tied up at the bank and even I can't touch them."
 
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£1M

Buy house - £300K
Buy car - £32K

Invest rest
Work part time

Learn to play golf, possibly. Or bowls.

Job done,.
 
Those who buy a ticket and invest their hopes and dreams in the possibility of winning, and who then lose, gain more from the Lottery than those who win.
 
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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The problem there is that practical, sensible people do not play the lottery to begin with. The system self-selects those who are bad with money.
 
Lottery winners who end up in worse situations than before they won are common. Too many of them think it's an endless supply. I don't understand why they change their lifestyle so much -like they became Kardashians overnight.

If I won $1,000,000 free and clear, I would pay off everything. The chunk left over would be invested in the highest yielding vehicles I could find and remain untouched. I would continue working just as we do now and live a pretty comfortable life until I retire, maybe early if I could.

$10,000,000+ and I retire right then and there, paying off everything and investing the rest. I might work/volunteer sparingly just to keep busy but live a comfortable life off of the interest generated.

The mistake is going crazy and buying crap just to have it and playing big shot with your friends and family. That ends up generating more problems than if you had never won with all the failed business ventures, etc.
 
There are plenty of happy and thriving lottery winners. But they are boring and not newsworthy and so you don't read about them.
 
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.
 
William Parcher said:
There are plenty of happy and thriving lottery winners. But they are boring and not newsworthy and so you don't read about them.
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There are also fewer of them than you might imagine. Winning a smallish jackpot increases your chances of bankruptcy three(?) years out. This isn't merely down to reporting bias--there's a real phenomenon at play here.

Not much reason to focus on the winners, however--there aren't that many of them. The people who play habitually and don't win are even worse off.
 
mumblethrax said:
The people who play habitually and don't win are even worse off.
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Worse off than what? 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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