I won the lottery (a few years ago) AMA

[NCuserer]

NC for this as I remained anonymous, which was fairly pointless as I did tell some family and friends and it spread from there.

Coordinates I mean*

I always imagine if I had a big win I could eventually be able to say to myself ‘there, that’s it, it’s now time to sit back and actually enjoy life’ I would love to think it would alleviate all stress and anxiety that’s encompasses every day living as a normal working class person. Has that been the case for you or do you now have other frets which weren’t a problem before?

@PropertyFlipper I believe she said she noticed the winning numbers as they were very similar to her ID, so she remembered to check her ticket.

Did you move your son to a private school? This is one of my dilemmas in my fantasy lottery win, he is happy at the local state school.

Was your decision not to share significantly with your family influenced by their past behaviour or their reaction to your win?

When op said that her money is in a private bank, I'm quite sure that she didn't mean Joe Bloggs & co. Flat 1a High Street, Small town. Dodgyland.

The UK private banks have been around for a very long time so one would assume they are very safe.

Arbuthnot Latham & Co., London, founded in 1833
Brown Shipley, London, founded in 1810; a member of KBL epb Group
Cater Allen, London, founded in 1816: a member of Santander
Child & Co.., London, founded in 1664; a member of Royal Bank of Scotland
C. Hoare & Co., London, founded in 1672
Coutts & Co., London, founded in 1692; a member of Royal Bank of Scotland
Hampden & Co., Edinburgh, founded in 2015
Weatherbys, Established in 1770 as a bank to the horse racing industry, now based in Northamptonshire

Re the £85k protection covering you per banking group. Two things - before you opened a second account somewhere to put excess in you’d need to check it’s not part of the same banking group. AND if you have a joint account the protection goes up to 170k (85 each).
An option is to invest in national saving and investments which has higher 100% protection and some accounts/bonds can hold or have investments of 2-3mill. Premium bonds themselves limited to 50k.

This was a lovely thread (apart from the judgy-pantsy-ness of some folk) - set me off daydreaming nicely for a bit. The OP sounds like a lovely, grounded person, and -if- when we win the lottery I'd love to think we'd be the same. (Off to do some money dances, or spells with green ribbon and dollar bills, in hope....!!)

Trouble is... they assumed that about Barings Bank. The second oldest merchant bank founded in 1762.
Then along comes Nick Leeson and pouffff..... gone.

I wonder if the Queen has thousands of bank accounts with only £85,000 in each one?

Haha... nooo... her investments will be spread far and wide though! Offshore, in tax havens, and in trusts.

I sometimes while away a hour or two wondering what I would do if I won the lottery to the degree you have, but not in the "What would I buy if I won 14 million?" but more "How would people react?"

I'd certainly go down the road you'd hoped you would and tell as few people as possible. If I made donations, I would do so anonymously if possible, to forestall the situation you experienced with charities chasing you for an even bigger gift.

My question, though is "Did you ever get complete strangers asking you for money?". I'm guessing if you kept it within the family this was unlikely. Maybe it's just me, but if any of my family won the lottery, there is no way on earth I would be asking them for money. That is tacky and entitled beyond belief. If they offered, it would also need to be on a no-strings basis (I know a friend whose mother offered them a 6 figure sum, but only if they ditched their partner).

@TheWomanInTheIronedMask

My post was deleted as it quoted a racist comment another poster made and called them a twat for it Just wanted to say I wasn't myself being racist or troll hunting (although I don't actually believe this thread anyway )

I am genuinely surprised how many people take things at face value on the internet.

I myself won £137 million on Euromillions and live on a yacht with lots of staff.

Yes and that's your only splurge right? Along with 50 pairs of shoes?

Other than that you still live in a slightly bigger than average house and expect your kids to find their own way

Congratulations OP. I've loved reading this thread . My question is... if you were to meet someone/marry, would you do a pre-nup? How long would you need to be dating before you told them (if you ever decided to tell them of course) x

Our friends won £1.7m about 5 years ago. They were advised to go public in a quiet way as then Camelot can protect them.
It was only advertised in the local paper. They have a financial advisor even now. They were late 70's when the win came about.

*How much have you donated to charities?

Did you prioritise those that help women?*

Why should op specifically prioritise charities that help women over anything else that might be important to them? Genuine question

Do people realise that lucky dip doesn't mean you can't see the numbers ever?

You'll see the lucky dip random numbers that's been chosen for you once the ticket is bought. So if OP bought lucky dip ticket, the numbers would be there to check the result with.

The difference between lucky dip and not is only that you didn't choose the numbers yourself before paying. Random numbers were generated for you.

I do find this thread a bit weird. I think the best part of winning that amount of money would be to give some to family and friends. DH and I have often gone through a list of what we'd do etc. (as a bit of fun). I can't imagine just sticking it all in the bank and not sharing.

@Ireallydontknowimtired

Do people realise that lucky dip doesn't mean you can't see the numbers ever?

You'll see the lucky dip random numbers that's been chosen for you once the ticket is bought. So if OP bought lucky dip ticket, the numbers would be there to check the result with.

The difference between lucky dip and not is only that you didn't choose the numbers yourself before paying. Random numbers were generated for you.

Of course people realise.

I suppose those with photographic memories would find it easy to look at random numbers then recall later they were similar to the lottery winning numbers. I would not have a clue. Even if I looked at it, which I probably wouldn't. I would just stick it in my purse.

@Couttscustomer

When op said that her money is in a private bank, I'm quite sure that she didn't mean Joe Bloggs & co. Flat 1a High Street, Small town. Dodgyland.

LOL. I like that bank myself - very safe.

All the financial information is online to read for anyone interested, let alone the in depth and bespoke information from all the financial advisers, accountants, wealth management consultants, etc to those who won but some are also handing out free information to the OP, on this thread, that they doubt is true. Best to accept being entertained like the rest of us.