What To Do With Your Lottery Winnings

Don’t think that just because you have won the lottery that all your prayers have been answered. Sure you may be rolling in money now but unless you manage your winnings properly you could lose it all. I remember a family who won over a million dollars and a year later they were back on welfare. Yep, they blew the whole lot in a year. That was years ago and these days winning the lottery can make you a multi millionaire but if you’re not careful you can easily blow the whole lot. Don’t believe me, well let’s take a look at some lottery horror stories.

• Andrew Jackson Whittaker Jr: On December 25, 2002 this bloke won $315 million in USA’s Powerball lottery. He decided to take the cash out which netted him $114 million dollars after taxes. You would think that amount of money would set you up for life wouldn’t you? Nope, Mr. Whittaker lost it all in 4 years.
• Callie Rogers: This teenager won £1.9million and because she didn’t know what she was doing not only did she lose the lot she got herself into debt. She now regrets ever winning the lottery.

These are only a couple of stories of people who have lost their fortunes and just goes to show that unless you know how to handle money winning the lottery will not solve your financial woes. Here are a few tips on what you should do if you’re ever lucky enough to win the lottery.

1. Anonymity: If at all possible remain anonymous because once you get your picture in the paper telling everyone how you’ve won millions you will be subjected to an unspeakable amount of people trying to get a piece of the pie.
2. Don’t Quit Your Job: This is the first thing that people do but unless your job is absolutely intolerable I would keep it, at least until things settle down and you know exactly what you are going to do. Keeping a sense of normality in your life helps to keep things in perspective.
3. Do Nothing: Honestly rushing into things is the worst mistake anyone can do in life and that holds true when winning big bucks in the lottery. If it was me I would deposit the money into a high interest account. That way the money is safe and actually growing why you’re deciding how best to manage it.
4. Invest In A Home: I would definitely use some of it to purchase my own home but I wouldn’t go crazy and buy something that is bigger than what I need. I sure wouldn’t buy a mansion that needs a huge upkeep. Heck, rather than spending millions on a house I wouldn’t appreciate I would buy another home in another part of the world that I love. That way I could rotate between the two never having to put up with the cold again.
5. Invest At Least Half Of My Winnings: By investing the majority of your winnings you know that even though you go crazy you will have something to fall back on. I wouldn’t put all my eggs in one basket though. I would put some in a high interest account. I would invest some in real estate and the rest I would invest in the stock market making sure I only purchased blue chip shares.

Naturally I would also use some of it to tour the world visiting places I’ve never been to and revisiting some that I have and have vowed to return. One of those would have to be Las Vegas. I only spent two days in Vegas during my last visit and I would love to see a lot more. No, I wouldn’t blow all my cash in the casinos but I would love to see the Bellagio fountains again.