The number of people asking for money just after they won was astounding! Boxes of mail would be left at their front doors….

But, they were decent with money before; investing for retirement, kids school, etc.

So what do they splurge on: The couple from AZ travel the Northern Hemisphere in January and Febuary to ski. The guy in ID leases a new Merc every year, just after New Year’s Day…and the world’s best personal wood shop! Screw Norm’s! this guy’s is stunning.

What are we, a bunch of capitalist wimps?? C’mon, TAKE it like a man!!

They took a few more trips every year, bought a little bit more jewelry, bought really nice beds when they needed to replace the beds in the guest room, stuff like that.

But they were already reasonably happy, and living comfortably within their means. *shrug*

trainwrecks make good stories. boring “and they paid off their house and lived a little more comfortably, socking away some of it for later” kind of stories are … well… boring.

I have an idea, send me the money, and I promise not to be miserable….

money may not make you happy, but it beats being poor

You find out who your true friends are when something big (good or bad) happens to you. I feel bad for people who come into a ton of money just to learn that their friends and family aren’t as loving as they thought.

Coming into a large sum quickly is just not healthy for most humans. Even people born into it have a less than average chance of coming out “OK”.

Working and slowly gaining your capital is better, but at one point it becomes about gaming the system and not actually doing anything worth while–also counter-productive. Without gaming the system (finding ways to manipulate and abuse others out of their money) you really aren’t going to get much past a few million.

Think of it like a role playing game. You might play for months. One day you decide to cheat and enable “God mode”. I promise one week later you will have no interest in that game–pretty much ever again.

That, after all, is the only lottery story that will make normal people like us feel good or even smug.

I mean, who would want to read a book full of stories of people who won the lottery, were smart, and now enjoy a life none of the people reading this will ever enjoy?

Exactly.

Good news stories don’t sell very well – just ask a newspaper.

You can write the script: Fancy truck, travel, shady friends. He was dead — drug overdose and/or drowned at a rental property in Hawaii — within a year or two.

* * *

If anyone ever does win a lottery . . . first thing to do (well, after hiding the unsigned ticket) is to find a tax attorney and have him set up a trust for you, with you as the owner. Kind of like a personal shell corporation. You can divide up ownership among family members at this time if you wish.

The ticket gets submitted in the name of the trust . . . not you.

Why? Lottery administrators publish the winner’s name and town, and if it’s an anonymous sounding corporation then there’s no way for random spongers to contact you.

You still need to learn to deal with your new wealth responsibly, but at least you won’t have to deal with strangers begging you for help.

so if you’re happy, more money probably won’t make you happier, if you’re sad, it may very well not make you happy.

Just like many of the other events which have a significant impact on your life, winning the lottery will tend to make you more like yourself, whatever that is.

You look deeper into these sob stories of the poor winners and you find that they didn’t know how to handle money even before they won. Give them more money to mismanage and it becomes more apparent.

Same old story: blew it all on friends, kids, hangers-on and a failed restaurant venture.

The insufferable SOB is flat broke and destitute today. Some people don’t deserve to have money.

I laughed at that…just wanted to clarify that taxes are not voluntary.

I can pull the same trick with virtually any subject, I can tell you some stories about urban bike accidents that would convince you that riding a bike in the city is certain calamity – ff you didn’t already know that millions of people do it and only a small percentage of them get hurt.

Sure, if you are the guy who pawns a ring to buy tickets, probably it isn’t going to work out well. If you are a normal, intelligent person who buys one on a whim, or who is given some tickets by a relative as a holiday gift (they always give me scratch-offs, though, for some reason), then you probably have a decent chance of handling it ok.

Oh, and those that find the burden of money too great for one reason or another always have an easy out, just give it all to charities.

All in all, I’d still rather win one than not.

In short order a relative I’d never met who lives in another country needed money “to pave the dirt roads” in his hick backwater village.

My best friend asked me for $40,000 to give to his foreign relative whom he had never met so they could leave their poor war torn country. He told me that this relative whom he had never met promised to pay it back, so it was ok.
Since this friend himself was chronically unemployed he also asked me to hire him in a management position, and give him equity in the company, but not to do it “as a favor” because he didn’t want any favors.

Another close friend couldn’t understand why I was still working and didn’t retire at 30 now that I was a millionaire. (hint: You can’t live off a million dollars for 40-50 years in New York)

*sigh*
People get weird when money is involved.

It sounds like you need a personal assistant to manage all those parasites who keep bugging you for money. I could make myself available for $250k a year (plus benefits).

This is why I avoid making friends. You know, in case I find myself wealthy some day.

Well, obviously not. The fact that they were buying lottery tickets is proof of that.