If you won big on the lottery, who would you tell?

[Kingdomofsleep]

I haven't won. (Yet?!)

But I do kind of love reading fascinatedly about the lottery curse, how big winners tend to fall out with their spouses and friends and family. My DH says we could prevent all that by telling nobody. I then asked if that included our parents, who help us out financially in a modest way sometimes, as we ought to tell them we wouldn't need that any more. Dh said we'd tell just parents. But MIL, who is lovely and I love her, is the town crier and would tell her whole village within minutes without thinking.

I've got a ticket for tonight's draw and I find myself idly worrying about this as if I've won the 15 million pounds already or however much it is.

I’d tell DP (we’d finally be in a position to move in together if we could quit jobs - he lives up north) and sell our own modest homes and buy a very nice but ordinary house - four bed detached sort of thing.

I’d tell all friends I’d had a surprise inheritance of around a million - enough to buy said house, a decent car and do up the house to my tastes. I might take them all on holiday. Neither DP or I are very flashy or extravagant so even with £15m in the bank I can’t see our tastes change hugely. All my friends know I have an uncle I rarely see who’s elderly and single - I have no siblings so being the sole beneficiary is believable.

I’d have to tell DM but I might downplay the amount. I could pay for dad’s carehome though so I might have to be honest.

I’d tell all friends and work I was going freelance but in reality I’d stop working. It’d be easy to pretend I worked from home I was consulting.

No one ,DH and not even the dc

I wont tell anyone. Boyfriend at a push and doubt I’d tell the actual amount. Telling people about money is just so divisive and never a positive thing. Unless I win so much I crack and buy a mansion, lol, people will be unlikely to guess as I earn well and am a spender anyway

I have this daydream all of the time.

If I won Euromillions I’d buy the company I work for and have some fun with individuals!

If it was the UK lottery, I’d tell my partner and that would be it. I’d let people know we had won a little bit - hence the new car but not reveal how much.

I would say I had won some money and was sharing' it with some family and some local charities but I didn't want a lot of speculation so please would everyone I gave a share to keep it quiet. Then if anyone asked for more details I could say Look, I TOLD you not to keep asking, I just want to let it go and carry on as normal, I am not discussing it.

I'd tell my husband as I know he'd tell no-one. And my sister who is struggling in many ways and needs financial help right now.

I quite fancy a housekeeper / cook but otherwise I'd likely carry on as usual so I don't think anyone would be suspicious.

Although come to think of it a tidy house could raise suspicions.

Dh and I had a huge argument one time about what to do with our imaginary winnings 🤣.

I’m not sure id tell him immediately, until I’d worked out what to do. I’d want to set up dcs and all our niblings, as would help a couple so much.

Give money to SIL, as that would help BIL leave his job and set up on his own, which he’s not been able to do yet.

But the above is presumably a big win. Small one I’d have to see.

I think they'd probably figure it out when I suddenly retired, moved to an enormous house and spent at least half the year travelling the world.

No-one. My husband would want to tell his parents but they’d immediately want him to give half to his brother. When I inherited some money from my side, my husband told them and the first thing they said was how much money will you give to your brother and he was like none and they were really offended.

We’ve got a massive mortgage and school fees. We could easily hide a win of up to a million just by pre-paying fees in advance and paying off the mortgage.

I worked with someone who won £1m on one of the lottery online games - I think it was a scratch card type thing.

My initial thought was that £1m is not a tonne in this economy but depending on where you are in life - it could mean a totally different lifestyle. My colleague did tell friends and family because what they wanted to do with the money (buy a house, get married, travel) would raise questions when they had a low household income.

She was open about the fact she totally lost her relationships with her family. It made me question if it would be worth it!!

I would go through a solicitor or financial advisor to handle all the transactions. They would have to have my name, but it would be their company name on the transactions for gifts.

Yes, if you are middle-aged, 1m could well allow you to retire and never work again, as long as you were happy with a comfortable but fairly modest life.

If you're young, it's not going to keep you for the rest of your days but it certainly would still be life-changing if you used it wisely - buy a property/pay off mortgage and hopefully still have something left to invest.

No one. Just my son and siblings. I've had way too many cheeky fuckers and takers over my lifetime I'm afraid, and it's made me wary of ever sharing good news with people again. I used to be a people pleasing "I'll pay, don't worry!" type of person, and I can imagine how this would be magnified if I told people I'd have a big win.

I've been in this position but not from the lottery. I helped build a company and it was to be sold. My share would be £20m.
I told my bff and my sisters daughter. The niece was very grabby. My DC knew.
Sadly it was a deal built on sand and the founder had spent huge amounts of the business cash.
It's still going to be sold this year but my cut is less than a million. We live in the south east so that's not going far after tax. We'll be able to pay off our mortgage and have a bit in savings but that's it

Great read isn’t it - and so many unintended consequences and differences that I had not considered.