You check the numbers and there in you hand you now have a scrap of paper worth more than you could ever dream of – what do you do with it?
This scrap of paper is worth more than your house that is burglar alarmed more than you car with anti theft installation more than a Liz Taylor diamond that is kept in a vault more than the Mona Lisa that has security up to her ears more than the crown jewels kept in the tower under armed guard worth more than anything.
What do you do? If you tell anyone your house could get overrun with people wanting a piece of the action. A mob could break in and just take your scrap of paper.
You could phone the Lottery people but if you phone from your house they can trace the call and everybody will know were you live. Rampaging mobs.
Go to a phone box. Do you take the ticket with you? Get run over and some good Samaritan takes your scrap of paper from your pocket as you are lying injured in the road. Leave it at home? What if you get burgled or even worse your house burns down. Never happened in your lifetime but could just on this day. Who would believe you had the winning ticket?
Any SD actually had a winning ticket? Let us know what you did with you ticket on knowing it was worth millions.
It would stay in my wallet, on my person, until I turned it in to the Lottery folks.
When I was sleeping it would go in my fire safe.
If for some bizarre reason I had to hold off more than a couple of days before redeeming it, I’d put it inside an envelope with my vehicle registration and put it in a safety deposit box at my local bank branch.
No worries about calling from home. The folks at the lottery WILL wind up knowing my name before it’s all said and done. My phone number is in my name, and there’s nothing to hide there. If I can’t trust the lotterry folks, my solution isn’t to call anonymously. It’s going to be more along the lines of hiring an attorney to set up a dummy real estate corporation WITHOUT MY NAME ON ANY OF THE PAPERS and buying my new house through that corporation, then conducting all of my official mailings through a private mailbox service or by means of designating property I do NOT reside at as my official address. I’ve got 101 other paranoid ways to keep my address secret, but if the lottery folks won’t let me stay anonymous, those measures will come POST-lottery, not pre. In the interim, I’d probably arrange to rent a house from one of my friends at work that is in the flipping business.
First, I would get a damn good lawyer. Then I would have my landline shut off and my cell phone changed to a new carrier with a new number. Next, I would pay off as many debts as was humanly possible, including those to any and all family members. Then I would have my lawyer or other trusted but non-related representative go and turn in the ticket.
My immediate family wouldn’t be a pain if I won the lottery, but my cousins would be all over me like a bad rash, I’m sure. I would give some of it to my loved ones-- I’d pay off my mother’s mortgage, for example, but I’m not going to give money to relatives just because they’re related to me and think that they’re somehow entitled to it.
I wouldn’t be all that paranoid about the ticket itself. I woud take reasonable precautions, such as putting it in a plastic baggie so no spills could ruin it, and hiding it in a safe place if I couldn’t turn it in immediately, but I’m not concerned about rampaging mobs.
I wouldn’t go nuts with the money, either, and wind up broke and miserable as some people do. I would put a sizable chunk of it into a tax-free retirement account for starters, then I would do a few things Hubby and I have always wanted to do-- such as buy a luxury RV and travel all around North America at our leisure.
If it was a huge settlement, Hubby and I would set up a charitable organization, and have fun giving it away to deserving people. For example, if we were in a resturant and a nice waitress mentioned she was having financial problems-- boom, here’s a thousand dollar tip. If we saw someone stop to help another person chage a tire, here’s a grand for being a good Samaritan. We fantasize about that sometimes, and how much fun it would be to help kind people who aren’t expecting it.
I have very few material desires. I wouldn’t buy a mansion-- I’d use the money to fix up the house I already have. I’d buy books whenever the whim struck me
