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.

NO! I found out one of my first cousins won about £1m on the lottery and kept schtum. I don't blame him.

Someone told me once that Camelot give you an additional percentage of your winnings if you go public as it's basically their PR sorted...

So true winners get their winnings, plus a % of it on top!!

They don't. What you win is what you win, regadless of going public or not.

@Biker47 thought as much!

Someone winning £165mill and getting an additional % on top to go public?! Makes no sense!

No I wouldn’t go public as my family would bleed me dry. Yet they would never raise a finger to help or pay a penny if I was in need. Would pay max into my pension, buy a 4 bed house, new car - something like a focus which wouldn’t arouse suspicion as I could say it’s a company car (as I used to have one), pay for a cleaner and gardiner. I don’t tell my family when I am going on holiday as a wet weekend in caravan is used as evidence to try to extract cash from me.

I wouldn't tell anyone.

Ooh yes, Coutts, the Queens bankers..in fact even if you have millions of disposable cash to deposit they're still very select on who they let bank there apparently...

Nope. Nobody but my close family will know.and only then as I'd give them some. I may let a couple of close friends know if the win were big enough that I wanted to give some away.

Other than that I'd enjoy my fat bank account and opportunity.

No way. To people who knew me, if they ever asked about the extra money I appeared to me spending, I would say I was left money in a will.

No, but I would move somewhere new and start over anyway.

I would tell close friends I want to keep in touch with that I had won enough to leave my husband and support self and kids. I don't want an extravagant lifestyle, just to be independent.

Does anyone remember the poster on MN who said she was checking her ticket in bed late at night and found out she'd won the jackpot? She also said her husband was verbally and physically abusive and that it was her way to a new life....or was it just a bored teenager posting on MN over half term? Never found out if it was genuine or not.

Dunno, Teddy, but it's one of my escape strategies.....

Sorry airsealengineer I must have cross posted, didn't mean to be insensitive.

No, but I'm pretty sure people might get an idea when I start rocking up for dinner in helicopter.

airsealengineer
Mine too.

One time we as a family had the 'you've won the lotto, so what would you do', conversation

It got quite heated as DSS got shirty as we'd only give him (and 4 other siblings) £1m each out of our fictional £10m win.

I won't be telling a soul - maybe not even DH if our work syndicate wins

Nope.

No, not a chance! I might say I'd won enough to pay off my debts, which had then freed up a big chunk of money each month and therefore meant I'd be able to spend more freely but otherwise I'd want to keep it a secret. I wouldn't suddenly get rich though as that'd obviously give the game away!
The problem is though that my husband would want to be generous and give it away to some people. I would suggest trying to find a way of giving it anonymously so as not to let people know.

No

Oh yes, DH and I have been known to disagree violently about what we would do with the money.

Its probably a good job that we won't win....😁

Apparently the big winners go public to avoid the stress of having to hide it....

So in other words they want to splash out straight away. Surely worth being a bit more subtle about it all.

Depends on the size of the win. 1 million - no id tell no one except dh. 40 million - they'd find out when I opened my foundation.

I'd want to give some to dh's sister but I don't think she'd be able to stop herself telling the in-laws and they wouldn't be able to stop themselves telling all their friends...

For that reason, I wouldn't really want to tell dh but I suppose I'd have to.

One of my first purchases would be a 2-bed, high end flat somewhere lovely, decorated entirely to my taste and used as my private bolt hole when I needed a breather from my lot!

Not a chance. To be honest - there isn't a huge amount about my life I would want to change anyway. For me - the comfort would come in knowing it's there, if that makes sense. And being able to turn my phone off on holiday when I go to work. And book a holiday somewhere as a family we've always wanted to go. This would not necessarily be a five star place. My job is niche enough that I think people would struggle to pin down what I earn. I think they assume we're just being 'tight' too.

(A lottery win is a problem I'll never have anyway. Sigh.)

Oooohhhh! Just had an idea about my 'what to do with the cat, while we're abroad for months recuperating' issue. We'd buy a cattery and keep the staff on (non profit so pay the staff more) so she could be the on site cat! We could visit!

Good to know I wouldn't have to go to the effort of going into London to Coutts.

I'm ready to win now Universe .

I wouldn't tell my DC either. We could just about pass a change of fortune off as an inheritance from my absent father's side of the family (siblings have different fathers). We're NC with my mother and the rest of my side of the family and DH's siblings are disinterested at best despite lots of past effort on our part but we would certainly see his elderly parents, who still live in his native country, comfortable which wouldn't take a lot.

I have no doubt his and my siblings would come out of the woodwork if they knew we had come into money and I couldn't risk that what with our teens being on social media and our surname being very unusual. I wouldn't want them accidentally telling people either as they'd be forever wondering what people's motivations were and a kidnap risk!

Cannot understand why anyone with minor/young adult DC would go public.