How do you stop your life being ruined by a lottery win??

[Foliageeverywhere122]

Inspired by the euromillions thread!

Ever the optimist, I started thinking about how exciting it would be if I won...and then started thinking about all those news articles you see in the daily fail about people who claim their lives were ruined by it.

So how do you actually enjoy a lottery win? Has anyone won (or inherited) a large sum of money and has advice? :D

I often think about this. Not sure why because I don't ever enter the lottery.
Hypothetically speaking I think keeping silent about having won would avoid a lot of problems. I would tell my mum but probably nobody else. I'm incredibly private and don't post anywhere on social media about the intimate details of my life and keep work colleagues at a distance.

You tell people you won a much smaller amount than you actually did.
That's if you tell people at all.

I had a plan to move house to somewhere nicer than here as an intermediate move to my final big house.

Some people do not handle you being richer than them very well. You would find out who was a real friend and who really needed money.

I did think I would put an envelope through every door on my immediate neighbours houses with a cash gift in for them after I moved. The shitbags getting absolutely nothing but could imagine - if the envelope distribution was done right could be quite entertaining.

I would want to ensure my family members were well provided for in terms of having a place to call their own.

Do I daydream a lot? Nah but I do spend a lot of time on rightmove picking the perfect house.

We inherited 800k a few years back, not millions but a good amount. Paid off the mortgage and invested the rest. We take some from the interest every month to top up our income and I reduced my working hours. We don't have to worry about money but are both sensible with it anyway. We do have an amazing holiday once a year though.

Also planning to pay for 3 kids to go through university.

My friend won just over a million: don't tell anyone except close family and friends. Live off the interest, quit your job and live life to the fullest.

The trick is to not involve others and get good financial advice, don't just blow it.

I knew a family who won £3 million 20 years ago and bought a lovely house, enjoyed 4 holidays a year but both continued working, mother was a nurse and father I'm not sure what he did. Still remained lovely, genuine people.

Pop it all into a savings account to start with
Don’t make any major life or financial decisions for at least a year
Splurge a small amount on self, friends and families
Give some to chosen charities
Use that year to get used to having a large sum of money at your disposal
Also use that year to think through what you want from your life and how can the money help you achieve your goals

Money only makes you more of who you are

By sharing with your close friends and family, say no to publicity, keep working or start a business, be charitable and go on holiday a shit load

It definitely wouldn't ruin my life.

There was a study into this a while ago and in summary what they found was that if you spent the money just doing things that you had always wanted to do, but not quite had the cash- e.g. visit America, build your own house, pay off your kids mortgages, then, mostly, you were fine.
It goes wrong when people buy stuff just as status symbols - the mansion in the country, the yacht (when you can't even swim) or where, as others have said, it allows you to indulge already unhealthy lifestyle habits - drink, drugs, etc

Giving it away is good, too.

I think they might notice at work when I roll up in a Lamborghini

I would tell people I had won a lesser amount Then set up a (decent) housing association to help house people who are in recovery making sure the rent was cheap and the housing was decent. I would also privately educate my son as his school isn’t great and he’s autistic and struggles. I’ve clearly given this some thought! Lol x

My partner knows this but I would give him half and give him the opportunity to leave. This in my mind is so he can go off and have fun with whoever he couldn’t whilst being poor. ( I am twice divorced so wary)
I wouldn’t tell any one but I would buy a nice house.

I do know that there are some family and "friends" who would come out of the woodwork if they had any idea I'd got money.

But I've thought that there are ways of being quiet and giving just enough info to keep people of your backs, eg, admitting to a win smaller than you actually have. People are used to me not sharing info, and I can be very vague at times. I'd be admitting to a small win, because I would have to explain how I could afford to buy a house as a single mum getting some benefits even though I'm working.

I'm not one for splashing out, so no real difference there. I'd do stuff without telling people, eg, who needs to know if I suddenly hired a cleaner? I'd also buy a small business to explain away some of the money.

Meanwhile, I'd be getting on and doing the stuff I've long wanted to do, such as getting a degree (never had one), learning to play some instruments, and learning languages now that I have my hearing aids.

Kids would get an allowance, but not too much. DS wants a decent desktop PC for gaming, which he would have room for in the new house I'd buy.

I'd get decent financial advise, though, would take the advice of the pp who mentioned private equity advisors.

Arghh! why do I only spot the spelling mistakes after I've clicked post? Advice, not advise.....

I love my home but it’s HA so I would have to move out when I win. Luckily there’s a bungalow just down the street come up for sale with the same outlook. It would need some work doing - I wouldn’t need an en suite in a two bed bungalow when I live by myself and the bidet in the main bathroom can take a hike, so I’ll take a holiday while that’s done.
Then I would retire. 11 years ago when I started my job I could walk there. After moving offices three times I now have a 24 mile trip up the motorway to get there. It’s been fab WFH since March but we are due to go back for part of the week from September. I’d happily wave it bye bye!
I would like a new car so it would be fun choosing that. Nothing too flash, but to be able to chose the colour would be fab 😂
My children and my best friend would benefit as well of course with smaller amounts to all my friends.
I don’t need much so charities close to my heart would get generous donations.
A girl can dream 😁

I’d sit down and do sums on what my ideal lifestyle would look like/cost. Set aside an amount that through relatively safe investments (probably property and government bonds) could achieve that income, add to that the cost of an ideal home and maybe one or two apartments in parts of the world I love. Trust funds for my children’s education. If there was any left over I’d use the rest to make more medium risk investments and funnel any profits from that to outrun inflation first and then if that’s achieved all of it would go towards philanthropic causes via a charitable foundation through which I’d employ those in my inner circle that I am close enough to as advisers to disburse those funds in the most efficient manner to do the most good.

I’d take out a whopping life insurance police to cover the inheritance tax for when I croak, and I’d make sure my kids would be raised to simultaneously handle the large amount of wealth, but have a solid grounding in empathy and to be socially conscious that their lives of ridiculous privilege confer on them a responsibility to be of service to those without wherever they can.

A family member won a hundred grand a few years back. Over the next 12 years, he spent it all, bit by bit on absolutely nothing much... pretty much has a nice bicycle and a games console and TV left to show for it. He was so in fear of loosing it all, that he took the advice of someone in his bank and invested half of it, which lost a lot of money over the years. The rest, he used to continue his life of living with his parents and remaining unemployed. Fearful of being ripped off and treated differently by people, he never appeared to have any money (as he'd been for a long time), so refused to help pay off his parent's mortgage in case the housing market crashed and the money was lost, and didn't have the incentive or desire to start a small business, and now he feels shittier than ever, having made all the wrong decisions, and having nothing to show for it. He regrets winning, and feels really low due to the guilt of knowing he totally wasted it and it could've changed his life.
So, how not to ruin you life if you win? I'd follow lots of the great advice I've read on here, and don't hide it so much that you end up spending it slowly on nothing much until it's all gone...

Big money takes a lot of management, admin, business acumen. I think its misunderstood that being well off is all parties and lavish lifestyle (well I suppose it is if you just party on it and don’t invest or buy anything) and also if you want the cash to have longevity (depending on age.. a couple of million quid isn’t actually that much spread over say 50 years). Even 100 million could be pissed up the wall if you partied hard, bought some flash property and cars etc. I can see how people end up in trouble when they don’t deploy the right support to manage such massive amounts of cash, it would be like running a business in itself..

@Newmum3200

Big money takes a lot of management, admin, business acumen. I think its misunderstood that being well off is all parties and lavish lifestyle (well I suppose it is if you just party on it and don’t invest or buy anything) and also if you want the cash to have longevity (depending on age.. a couple of million quid isn’t actually that much spread over say 50 years). Even 100 million could be pissed up the wall if you partied hard, bought some flash property and cars etc. I can see how people end up in trouble when they don’t deploy the right support to manage such massive amounts of cash, it would be like running a business in itself..

Indeed. When you lose track of the "value" of money because you've got so much of it, it's very easy to over-spend and find yourself in trouble. (Unless the figures are so huge you couldn't spend it such as hundreds of millions). It's not just buying the assets, such as cars, houses, yachts, etc., it's the upkeep, including staff (cleaners, gardeners, chauffers, maintenance etc) - the "one off purchases" may be affordable but you can end up with assets that drain you with the ongoing costs.

I've often wondered if there's a way to give people money without them knowing. There's a lot of people that have helped me out over the years, and I'd love to repay them but wouldn't want them or anyone else knowing I'd won! If they got a wedge of cash through their letterbox they would be suspicious.

I meant without them knowing who it's from!

Love this thread!
Inspired by the lottery thread I bought a ticket and won a prize!
I won £4.70.
It will not change my life
Tickets cost £5.
But the 30p lost was worth the dream!

@The80sweregreat

Of course people would question my new place with the pool and the sauna and look it up on zoopla etc etc. You could say ' I only won x amount' it but they wouldn't buy it! You could say ' auntie sally won the big one and gave me x amount' Gets you out of giving them anything much I suppose ( unless you wanted to) I think most people would twig or dig around. Then be jealous and you'd lose friends and family and be depressed and turn to drink , so maybe winning big isn't all great after all! (I'll never find out and always be poor I bet) It's a fascinating subject though.

About Zoopla... I don't think it is right that they disclose amounts paid for properties. Surely it's a personal thing to the vendor(s) and the purchaser(s) only. I've always thought this.