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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

If you won on the Premium Bonds / Lottery

75 replies

SeptemberSuns · 04/10/2023 12:51

I won £50 on the Premium Bonds yesterday, I was really pleased. It's not a lot of money but better than nothing. It got me thinking about winning the big prize.

A million probably wouldn't be enough to give up work and live the life of luxury but would go a long way to making life a damn sight easier! I could go part time, pay off the mortgage, or even move to a nicer area, have a nice car. Stop the worries about retirement.

It would change my life for the better no doubt, but I don't think I'd tell a single soul. My mum would tell my brother and his wife and kids and they'd no doubt expect. My partner is a tight stingy well-off person who doesn't share any of his wealth with me or even treat me occasionally. My friends are always talking about how wealthy they are.

Would you tell anyone and if not, why not? There must be others like me out there??? I'm only talking about a lottery win or PBs - winning a lot of money.

OP posts:

PuggyInTheMuddle · 04/10/2023 12:58

A million pounds is £25k a year for 40 years ( plus interest) so once mortgage, car etc are sorted it isn’t a life of no-work and luxury for ever onwards.

However, it would be fab. I would move to a house in a better area, reserve a chunk for deposits for the Dc, and expand my budget for retirement with the rest.

Summering23 · 04/10/2023 12:59

This is exactly why I'd prefer to win the set for life game rather than the actual lottery. Much easier to hide!

Original poster

SeptemberSuns · 04/10/2023 13:00

@Summering23 I'd have no problem hiding it. It wouldn't even need to be hidden, no one would see it. I'd just have a nicer life.

Oh the dream! :-)

OP posts:

WinterDeWinter · 04/10/2023 13:00

Please leave this partner who doesn't value you - you are worth so much more.

Original poster

SeptemberSuns · 04/10/2023 13:01

@WinterDeWinter - I've thought about it a lot! I stay for reasons too long and complicated.

OP posts:

SisSuffragette · 04/10/2023 13:05

I'd only tell my husband, as you say it's not enough for a huge lifestyle change. If interest rates stay as they are I'd stick it in the bank and use the interest for nice things and extra savings. I'd treat my family more often but not in excessive ways, but theatre trips with mum, lunch with nan etc

Hoolahoophop · 04/10/2023 13:07

Depends how much and from where. £1M on premium bonds. All mine, its return on investment. £1M on Lottery half for me, the rest split between siblings. Id use half of mine to invest for kids, the rest to make life easier.
£200M on Euro Millions. Buy my dream house then Big old trust with all family members trustees and entitled to a percentage of investment profit. I'd also put a provision in for 25% of profits to go to charity each year.

GasPanic · 04/10/2023 13:10

1 million is not a lot.

The problem is that shared between people it rapidly diminishes. People who get a share want more. People who don't defriend you because they didn't get any.

I would shut up about it, but it is possible to treat deserving friends/relatives without letting them know the bigger picture.

If it was some really big value (say Euromillions) then publicity has its own issues. But then at least you have ample cash to deal with the consequences.

BarnacleBeasley · 04/10/2023 13:11

I think I would give up work but not massively change my lifestyle if I won £1milliion. If you could invest it and generate, say, a 4% return (being conservative), that would be £40k a year without actually depleting the capital. And you wouldn't need to save in a pension because you'd still have the £1 million for that. Think you'd pay less tax too because it would be CGT not income tax. So although I wouldn't be making us much as my actual salary, there'd be fewer deductions and it might work out pretty similar.

recklessgran · 04/10/2023 13:11

No, I wouldn't tell everybody but I would tell my kids and help them all out with a lump sum of £100k each to use as they please, six of them so that would take care of £600k. They're all adults at different stages and with different priorities but they're all really sensible and, you know, one life and life's for living! Then I would defiitely retire and use the remaining £400k for DH and I to holiday more or less continually [DH is 77] until one of us shuffles off. What a fabulous dream.

MrsSkylerWhite · 04/10/2023 13:13

We wouldn’t tell our adult kids immediately. Wouldn’t want it to dampen their studies/ambitions. Would help out subtly until they’d fully established their careers.

recklessgran · 04/10/2023 13:25

@MrsSkylerWhite I completely agree with you - in your shoes I'd be exactly the same. Mine are all in their 30's and 40's but not all tied down yet and one DD in particular, an aspiring surgeon also doing a masters on the side so that she can eventually teach medicine, has a massive student debt still to pay off. Another is an assistant head, just married with big mortgage and wanting children but needing to save for maternity leave ahead of even trying to conceive as her provision is terrible - you get the gist I'm sure.

Original poster

SeptemberSuns · 04/10/2023 13:25

Euro Millions is a different story. I'd definitely give up work and live the life of luxury.

But a million would do me just fine, probably could even cope with half of that. :-)

OP posts:

AsWrittenBy · 04/10/2023 13:39

SeptemberSuns · 04/10/2023 13:01

@WinterDeWinter - I've thought about it a lot! I stay for reasons too long and complicated.

He's not a nice person "My partner is a tight stingy well-off person who doesn't share any of his wealth with me or even treat me occasionally" Seriously, you deserve better

Ilefttownonsaturday · 04/10/2023 13:48

I'd buy a bigger forever home, buy a pied a tierre near my mum and boost my pension. That's all the money gone, one million doesn't last very long.

KohlaParasaurus · 04/10/2023 13:49

recklessgran · 04/10/2023 13:11

Before I got to your post I was thinking the same - £100k to each of my adult children, who are all reasonably sensible, a percentage set aside for charitable giving, and the remaining sum (assuming a £1M Premium Bond win) would still be life-enhancing for DH and me. Otherwise I'd probably tell my sisters (I know they wouldn't ask for handouts) but not my parents because Mum would be unable to resist giving the children advice that may be completely inappropriate for them and then I'd have everyone chewing my ears off about one another and I can't be bothered.

Biker47 · 04/10/2023 13:51

I wouldn't tell anyone other than my partner if I "only" won a million, a good chunk would be instantly gone on debts and paying off remainder of mortgage, then would probably buy a bigger house outright, but tell everyone I was mortgaged upto the eyeballs, then slowly upgrade the cars and bike telling people they're financed, use the remainder to live, while increasing my pension contributions from my wages to bring down my predicted age of retirement.

ClareBlue · 04/10/2023 13:52

If you have a loving supportive long term partner then tell them. Literally don't tell anyone else. Whatever you do there will be resentment, jealousy, fall outs, and nastiness if you do. Just enjoy the facts it makes your life easier and maybe gives your children a leg up in whatever they are wanting to do. Children of course treated exactly the same.
I've seen it a few times and I think all of them ended up wishing they never got it or definitely they never told anyone.

inloveandmarried · 04/10/2023 14:04

PuggyInTheMuddle · 04/10/2023 12:58

A million pounds is £25k a year for 40 years ( plus interest) so once mortgage, car etc are sorted it isn’t a life of no-work and luxury for ever onwards.

However, it would be fab. I would move to a house in a better area, reserve a chunk for deposits for the Dc, and expand my budget for retirement with the rest.

A million invested well is £70k + a year! Plus the million...

Never spend capital.

justteanbiscuits · 04/10/2023 14:21

£1m I would do the work on the house that we'll never afford - mainly an extension - and pay for somewhere local to rent while it was all being done! Set some aside for kids university and a deposit for house. And then we'd holiday nicely a couple of times a year!

Euro millions. I have very big plans for! Give up work, travel with kids, better house plus somewhere near family to make visiting easier. Help family out to make their lives comfortable. Then a big £50m project that would be a bit outing to say but is a family dream!

JaceLancs · 04/10/2023 14:21

If it was only a million I would buy DP a house for 250k, give DC 250k each, which would leave me 250k for home improvements, pay off mortgage and a few holidays
DP is not good with money so I would not give him cash and would retain ownership of the property - so he could live rent free
Obviously if I died before him - I would leave it to him
More than a million would mean I could help my nearest and dearest more, help friends, give up work, give to charity and maybe start a hobby business

Thinkbiglittleone · 04/10/2023 14:24

With a million pound, I would give my best mate a bit, probably £200,000.
Give a bit to my brother and in-laws.

A big family holiday for both sides, then save the rest I suppose.

widowtwankywashroom · 04/10/2023 14:30

I have premium bonds, every night I plan what I will do with the million when I win it, £125,000 for each of my two children, £5000 each for nephews etc that takes me to £45,000. a new car for my mum.
Then I want to buy a property in Spain and a bungalow here, once I am in the bungalow sell the house I am in and reinvest that money

spitefulandbadgrammar · 04/10/2023 14:42

I love the £1m fantasy because it doesn’t stretch to everything so you really have to think your dream plans through. Anyone can imaginarily piss £150m Euromillions up the wall and have plenty spare; £1m to pretend spend is for the true grafters.

I’m in a fixer upper so I’d weigh up: fix it up but live through a giant reno, or spend a bit more to just move somewhere turnkey?

Either way I’d invest most of the rest to form a replacement income, capital saved for retirement, quit my day job and just do my evening job (novelist), so no one need know I’d won: I’d still be working and everyone knows writers do more than novels so they’d assume I was doing some freelance proofing, teaching, etc, that we’d saved for the reno or moved to avoid renovating.

I might put aside enough to outsource laundry while the kids are tiny or for 2-3 years of a part-time housekeeper who also cooked – it would eat into the capital so a smaller income but, hey, I wouldn’t be saving for renovations anymore or needing to eat my feelings about the mess and the two jobs.

Lil bit into JISAs for the kids for uni, and pensions for them so they’re not miserable like me. One (1) nice holiday once the children are less breastfeedy and hard work.

Boringly I’d talk to an IFA about whether better to invest a lot and keep my mortgage, or pay off mortgage and have less to invest. We’ve moved and ported a lot so we have the option to pay off sub parts of the mortgage to ease the burden without having to blow 30% of the winnings on it.

happyhelene · 04/10/2023 14:50

I'm currently a single parent, so I wouldn't tell anyone if my teenagers (they have bonds too) or I won the million. Especially not my ex husband.

I would have to find a way to give a share to someone, and repay, who has helped with finances (school fees specifically) and in that case would need to tell them and admit entirely.

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