Serious question, do you know someone (or know someone who knows someone etc…) who has won more than a million in the lotto?
My uncle won 6 million in the Maryland Lotto about 8 years ago. It lasted him about 2 years. The entire two years, he was like a ghost to me, didn’t see or hear from him. Soon as he ran out of money and sold everything he had bought for crack, he shows up at our house with the DTs, opiate withdrawls and God knows what else.
Damn shame. I also read an article a few years back that Maxim Mag had on lotto winners and how the majority of them ruined their lives by winning.
Several years ago, my friend’s wife won just over $1 mil on the Indiana lottery tv show. Their deal was $50k a year for 20 years (something like $34k after taxes), so it wasn’t enough for them to go hog-wild with. They did put it to good use though. They used the first year’s payment towards moving up to a nicer house, and my friend quit his project engineer career to go back to college full-time to become a teacher instead. No horror stories for them.
My ex-boyfriend’s father won somewhere between $1-2 million several months back. He paid off the mortgage, gave $10k each to his kids, bought a new car, and now he and his wife work part-time.
I knew a girl who got lucky twice. Her father and her boyfriend were both part of the Lucky 13 who split $295 million.
The worst part? The week before she’d been planning to leave the boyfriend for an ex. She found out he won and suddenly her love was renewed. Each person received 7.1 million after taxes. Her parents were very smart with their mother but she and her boyfriend bought the craziest things. Within two years they’d gone through all but 1.5 million.
I haven’t spoken to her in years, but from what I understand he’s had to start working again and she’s left him. Just knowing she left him tells me that he’s broke.
She helped him burn through all of his money, and she’ll still get all of her parents’ money when they die. Ahh the universe works in terrible ways.
I have an aunt and uncle who won the lottery back in, I think, the late '70s. I have no knowledge of how much it was or what they did with it, but it was like serious 6 figures. It didn’t seem to wreck their lives or anything.
I didn’t win more than a million, but I was on the Ohio Lottery TV game show last year. I won $5,000 and spent a day off work hanging out with lots of toothless rednecks.
A group of people who also work for the town I work for have a weekly lottery pool. They split somewhere around 2 million a couple of years ago. About 100K each before taxes.
My father’s high school friends won $17 million up in NY about 30 years ago. They were a couple who got married early, then won while they were still young and have been together since then. They’ve done well with their money. They own a bed n’ breakfast plus a bunch of acreage in western NY and live pretty modestly. Their kids (who are my age) are also pretty cool. Not snobby or spoiled. Actually, they work pretty hard. They are a great example of how to keep the free money you’ve won.
My wife’s uncle won $4 million back in the 80’s. The backstory was that he was unemployed and spent all the money he had on lottery tickets every week. Everyone told hil what an idiot he was but the he won! He called off the job search, planned on buying houses in San Francisco, Boston, Florida, and Italy. With financial smarts like his, what could go wrong? He finally settled on just a house in Florida. He got heavily into self-publishing and wrote such blockbusters as the 100 page “Do You Speak Computer?” The weight piled on over the years until was well over 300 pounds and yet never could find the money for health insurance. The money stopped about 3 years ago and his wife left them and they split the house which was their only remaining asset. He still has no health insurance or source of income.
No that is called the American dream my friend! No one ever figured out what he spent the money on. He just gave it an honest effort to waste what he could over a long period of time.
A guy I work with was out at lunch a few months ago and bumped in to a guy he had gone to school with who revealed that he and his gay lover had won 5 million dollars in lotto or powerball or a lottery…whatever. They had just received the money, bought two Harleys and intended to leave the rest in the bank while they spent a year or two riding around Australia, only spending the interest.
They figured they could struggle by on the $6,000 a week in interest.
I must admit I am baffled at how the usual US lottery winning story is a Greek tragedy while in Australia the dumbest winners manage to handle their winnings sensibly.
They used to have adds down here in FL for the lotto that said something like “you only play when it gets over $10 million?!?”, basically trying to get you to play no matter what. Problem is, $3 million doesn’t go nearly as far now as it did 10 years ago. Hell, try living in Miami after a $3mil lottery win. You’d have to be pretty stingy/smart to get it to last.
Not a lot, it was ten grand and non taxable here. I believe they paid off their wedding and other bills and bought some furniture. (Mom still has the table!)
When I was a kid the parents of another kid in my Scout troop won a couple million. I kind of lost touch with the kid (we weren’t really friends to begin with) but I remember my parents telling me about how they had to spend a good chunk of their winnings on private security becuase of the flood of kidnap threats that came in.