If you won the lottery, would you go public?

[Frosty6611]

If you won the jackpot on the lottery would you go public? I think i’d just tell my close friends and family and start a new life somewhere.

That wouldn't happen just because you wanted it - they could just promise you that was all, take the money then ask for more later

Sounds like a lot of people here have poor relationships with their families.

No I'm not sure I'd tell anyone bar DH

I had an uncle who won quite a bit - didn’t go public but went and told the whole family. Big mistake. Almost Everyone started asking for money. He gave it all away eventually. He was a kind man.

sohorrible, perhaps you all have good incomes, but when you are on the breadline, then you would ask a close friend for help. If you had millions, you might help. But my BIL's POV (who was a self made millionaire) was that if he was going to start giving money away, then there were more desperate causes, than anyone in the UK, barring needing medical aid. Refusal would change things.

Someone in my area went from min wage/benefit top up, to winning four million. It allowed her to lift her Son out of suffering with the issues his MH caused him, but she lost of mates.

The Rooney's choice is to pay for Holidays/nights out/Clothes for some of her Friends and Family. They've set up close family members in secure housing etc.

Some people can't lie, because of the position that they start off from and others knowing them well.

I would work out what i wanted, discuss it with my youngest (21), tell my Sister, who i can trust and then start to implement that. My eldest can't hold her own water and her partner can't be trusted, so once I am settled, they would be told.

But, I would lower the amount that I would admit to, because i would rather travel, than own things.

''I don't really understand so many people being so worried about people knowing! I know some people have CF friends and family but not most of us, surely? I'm sure none of my close friends or family would ask for anything. ''

Exactly the kind of attitude why people squander the money they win, ofcourse you need financial advise on big wins. You need to be able to make the money grow and ensure it is invested wisely in schemes that you have good professional advise on and not wasted and that there will be enough to leave your children after you die etc. Believe me, if you try to control money like that yourself, you will more than likely waste a lot of it and make poor investments. Tens of Millions can be easily spent in a decade if not handled properly. For instance, the amount of people who say to live of the interest and keep it all in the bank here is already a mistake- you lose out here in the long run as the principle sum loses its value and in time the interest diminishes...This move is always advised against by professionals.

No - can't imagine why anybody would. Forever more described as 'the lottery winner'. Your privacy invaded by the Press, your past dragged up, your future stocked by anybody with a camera. Begging letters. Acquaintances feeling awkward that you always pay the bill, or that you never pay the full bill - you couldn't win. Keep your job and some would accuse you of keeping someone out of work, give up your job and you might feel cut adrift from normal routines. Never able to have a normal conversation about the cost of things without been perceived as miserly or fake. No idea what people get from going public. Wouldn't it be great to do good deeds anonymously, reward loved ones privately and move to a mansion elswhere without your neighbours knowing everything about you because they read about you in the paper.

There's lots of cautionary tales out there about lottery winners who didn't manage their money properly. Roger Griffiths is a good example of this. It's entirely possible to squander millions of pounds if you try hard enough and once you start giving money to family as well that's where you can really start to lose the cash. Only my dh would know the amount won and we would give our immediate family a one off cash gift with everyone getting the same amount for fairness. (I've definitely over thought this!)

excuse my last post-2 posts up it was supposed to be in response to somebody saying winners did not need financial advise.

''What, doorframe, do you think a lottery win is wasted on common types?''

well yes it often is, there was a girl on this morning doing an interview a while back and she was just the type you'd see in Geordie shore, other big winners were the type of the ''king of the chavs'' Michael guy. Often the go public lotto winner is your non educated type- especially the ones who go public and squander it all away. Then there was that big American winner-single mum who paid massive bail to get her abusive drug taking partner out of jail and she was on chat shows talking about her win. Often it is the lower end of society than win- they are the ones who play it the most.

You see the same thing with celebs. Lots of young pop starts manage to squander their earnings rather than invest sensibly. Look at Jordan in the press at the moment. Had millions but facing bankruptcy. I remember seeing an article on how some of the one direction boys had invested their cash and remember thinking one of them in particular had been well advised and had done something utterly dull with the money. Can’t remeber the detail now though.

yes it amuses me here how some posters think it is so easy to have and control large sums of money-it is clear by their attitudes they have never had that responsibility. Maintaining and investing money and just managing it in general requires a lot of skill, research and expertise to do it effectively. Alot of us [myself included] have really no idea how to manage our money, we complain about our low wages and high cost of living when in reality it is too that we are unable to manage effectively the money we do have. So if we are not able to manage/utilise the moderate sums we earn monthly imagine us trying to manage millions effectively?!

doorframe32 No idea.

But I'd happily give it a go.

This article made me laugh - a family spent their £250,000 inheritance on crap and then were astonished they couldn't get a council house. I was expecting sadder faces, though.

HollowTalk
Yes - a case of thinking their money was theirs to spend on what they like and that taxpayers money was there to be spent on them to. Unbelievable lack of responsibility.

Absolutely not.

I'd imagine you get all the old Tom Dick & Harrys crawling out of the woodwork wanting to be your friend / borrow money / expecting to be treated.

I'd likely not even tell my close friendship group, just our parents & siblings really. Can't be too careful.

I don’t know, I actually think I might consider it. I remember in the early days of the lottery someone kept it private and the gutter press were full of stories trying to get people to “out” them. People would find out quickly. I certainly wouldn’t have £50m in the bank and still work, drive my crappy car, go on cheap holidays etc so people could easily guess. I’d pay someone to burn the begging letters lol

I think I’d you won ‘just’ a few million people wouldn’t really guess.. you could explain away new house, car and nice holidays as inheritance etc.

But I’d you win a huge amount, enough to give up work and live a luxury life, people would wonder why!

Oh how I've thought what I'd do .....

Firstly, i'd do nothing for a few weeks.
I'm single right now, so I've no-one i "need" to tell immediately.
I'd take independent legal and financial advice. Without stating the obvious, these kind of sums are beyond the imagination of 99.9% of us, so i'd take that advice even though I consider myself reasonably financially-savvy.

A friend once told me of the conversation she had at work on this very subject, she proclaimed she'd buy a holiday house in Italy, in France, in a dozen other places around the world. When asked why she'd buy, she trotted out the usual line about rent paying someone else's mortgage, better to own than rent ..... he said that's a fair enough logic when you're Ms. Average, with average salary, whose idea of doing well financially was to have ONE holiday home. But if you win mega-millions, you can literally afford to think differently...... renting a suite at The Ritz or in Monte Carlo whilst you're there might be the preferred option.

I've always remembered that logic, massive lottery wins WILL change you and your financial planning. My current idea of "affluent" is my distinctly average car upgraded to the next model, my perfectly manageable & reasonable mortgage paid off, food-shopping in M&S rather than Aldi (Waitrose isn't this far north!) etc. But a massive win would (or could) change that. So who I would tell, and / or share the money with, would depend on how much more "noticeable" i wanted my wealth to be. I couldn't upgrade my car(s) AND my house(s) AND have holidays AND not work without anyone thinking "hang on ..."

Short answer .... keep quiet, tell minimal people, tell them less than actual amount (not for personal greed though), take advice & sort charitable donations first (e.g. establish if i was making one-off donations or committing to support something for years.

I definitely wouldn't go public. I've planned my cover story, any of you can use it if you win. It'll cost you a million 😆
Me: omg I can't believe it, an elephant sanctuary that I donate to in Sri Lanka had a competition to win a trip there and I actually won! I never win anything, it's amazing, can't wait to see the elephants....blah blah. Me two weeks later from Sri Lanka: omg I can't believe it the elephant sanctuary have offered me a job with lodging, it will be so enriching for my son to stay here and learn another culture/language....blah blah.

No one would know a thing and wouldn't cotton on to the fact that after the first two weeks in Sri Lanka I'd be crusing the world in my super yacht, private tutor for my son onboard while I spent my time between locations using my high spec electronic equipment to plan the disposal of my millions.
Fuck, I may be too overinvested in this plan, I'm going to be gutted when I don't win now 👎👎👎

As I have kids, I couldn't spend my time travelling the world anyway. I would continue to work. Maybe I would open a business instead. All my friends work. Who would I spend my days with?

I know someone who is mega rich. H3 and his dad sold their business for silly amounts of money. He bought the big house etc. He only lives in 5 rooms of this massive house and has put it up for sale again. All his friends work, they can't just drop everything here and go away on a whim with him. He is as bored as fuck. The money he has m3ans he never has to work again. But he went back to work. It's a very well paid job and it keeps him busy and means he doesn't spend vast periods of time on his own.

@doorframe32 I think you're right about needing professional help to manage large amounts of money. It can't just sit in your current account!
I think I'd do something around putting it into a low risk investment portfolio with an annual payout from the yield. But tbh I don't really know because I've never had a lot of money to manage!

Hell
No !

ikabod

Yes I think people seem to forget too that with large sums of money lifestyles becomes more lavish as with higher lifestyles the money can easily go fast so it is essential you have professional advise and be careful with it. My best mate works in banking and works with many wealthy celebrities and the richest in society[some of the stories I heard about the rich and famous], he would ask them why don't they retire with their millions and they'd tell him they couldn't as since they got rich their lifestyle becomes more lavish and so expenditure increases and so they had to work to maintain the lifestyle. You buy the mansion it cost ALOT to maintain!They also all had financial advisers and needed professional guidance, he said too that some of their lifestyles we couldn't imagine eg. they would ring him and order for 100k to be released from their account to pay for a birthday party....

Baffles me too how some ppl think they'd stay in their job as ''they'd get bored sitting around''.... If you have millions in the bank you can work by setting up a business etc like property and make real money and be your own boss-why on earth would you work for 1500 a month when you have 70 million in the bank???

All my friends work. Who would I spend my days with?

I haven't gone out to work for 20 years.

There are not enough hours in the day.

If you have millions in the bank you can work by setting up a business etc like property and make real money and be your own boss-why on earth would you work for 1500 a month when you have 70 million in the bank???

Well you see, having spent years working for myself I wouldn't go back to it. My best friends and DP work. So unless I decide to start supporting all them, I would have nothing to do all day.

As a single parent work has been great for me. I don't get as lonely during the day and gives me focus and routine. My mental health really suffered when I was off work.

Also as I said, I know someone who is a millionaire several times over. He went back to work for the same reasons. However given his career so far he earns far more than 1500 pm.

My dad has an amazing mention and got a massive lump sum. He went back to work as well because he was board and all his friends still work.

So I totally understand why people might choose to stay in work.