Lottery - not good for all winners

[metro]

Callie Rogers broke after lotto spending spree | World News | News.com.au

[USG '60]

That kind of money has ruined a lot of lives. I truly feel sorry for those who win in the hundreds of millions. I think it would be horrible in a lot of ways. Not saying I would turn it down, but I have never bought a ticket either.

[HVAC Instructor]

Money is an inanimate object, and as such has zero ability to ruin anyones life.

Poor upbringing, financial ignorance and making poor decisions, however, has ruined many lives. That is what has happened to these lottery winners.

Give the money to a financially responsible individual and the story will be completely opposite. The sad fact is somewhere around 90% or more of Americans will die broke, with Social Security as their sole means of support with or without the lottery according to BLS statistics.

[Luke]

Money is an inanimate object, and as such has zero ability to ruin anyones life.

Poor upbringing, financial ignorance and making poor decisions, however, has ruined many lives. That is what has happened to these lottery winners.

Give the money to a financially responsible individual and the story will be completely opposite. The sad fact is somewhere around 90% or more of Americans will die broke, with Social Security as their sole means of support with or without the lottery according to BLS statistics.

That's very libertarian minded of you.

I agree.

[oneforone]

It just goes to show you that a little patience and planning can take you a long way in life. Living like there is no tomorrow will screw you over every time.

[positano]

Forgive me if this is too far afield from the intent of the thread, but can anyone shed light on the net result of the Oklahoma lottery? I recall when the merits were originally debated the anti-lottery folks were confident a state-approved lottery would reduce us all to crime and compulsive gambling, as well as a variety of other accompanying vices. The pro-lottery folks claimed the lottery was going to rid our school systems of all their financial woes and that the schools would have trouble spending the millions. (That's all tongue-in-cheek, but you get my drift...)

From what I've seen, neither has come close to true. Has the lottery been a wash?

[metro]

Money is an inanimate object, and as such has zero ability to ruin anyones life.

Poor upbringing, financial ignorance and making poor decisions, however, has ruined many lives. That is what has happened to these lottery winners.

Give the money to a financially responsible individual and the story will be completely opposite. The sad fact is somewhere around 90% or more of Americans will die broke, with Social Security as their sole means of support with or without the lottery according to BLS statistics.

Correct, even as the Bible says, the LOVE of money is the root of all evil, never does it say money itself is evil. In fact, the Bible discusses money more than 800 times! 800! Why? Because he knew money would be a top issue to most people. Money fights are now the #1 cause of divorce today. Bankruptcies are at all time highs. Coincidence?

[kevinpate]

I haven't done a serious study positano, but my speculative guess is that whatever money lotto has brought to the table for education has been more in the nature of minimizing the impact of existing dollars going elsewhere than in adding scads of new dollars into the mix for education.

[kmf563]

The only thing not good about this story is the fact that everyone expects her to be responsible with this money. So what if she spent it all!! It wasn't her working income, it wasn't tax money, and it wasn't borrowed!! She got extra money, had a GREAT time it sounds like, and nobody was hurt. Pfsh. You can't take it with you, might as well have fun with it. It didn't ruin her, she's no worse than she was when she started. And her boobs look great. lol.

[Midtowner]

Money fights are now the #1 cause of divorce today. Bankruptcies are at all time highs. Coincidence?

79.8% of statistics are completely made up.

Since "money fights" is not a legal ground for divorce and since no state that I know of gives exit interviews to divorcees seeking to divine the reason for the separation and assign statistical value to the reason for that divorce, I'm going to go ahead and conclude that you just made that up or relied on someone else who made it up.

[metro]

Okay, I'll concede it was a strong statement, but there are numerous surveys and articles from reputable sources out there that make this claim, most citing over 50% of divorces cite "money problems", however the legal reason may be "irreconcilable differences" or something else of that nature.

Why money is the leading cause of divorce | Jet | Find Articles at BNET

[Midtowner]

Money problems are a symptom. Symptoms are only an overt manifestation of an underlying disease. I've seen a *lot* of divorces. I wouldn't attribute a single one of them to being solely about money.

[SoonerDave]

Money problems are a symptom. Symptoms are only an overt manifestation of an underlying disease. I've seen a *lot* of divorces. I wouldn't attribute a single one of them to being solely about money.

I'll go you one better, MT...I'd be amazed if ANYONE could find just one marriage that truly ended exclusively because of "money fights."

For Oklahoma, the lottery has put some $$ in education coffers, but not the amount its advocates were promising (which were ludicrously oversold as I recall). The amount added is a very small % of the DoE's annual budget, if I recall correctly. I don't have the precise numbers at hand.

As far as "responsible" or "educated" people go WRT lottery winnings, I think most lottery participants are those with generally lesser funds to begin with, as those who are more "educated" about the odds and generally have a better sense of money management realize the ludicrously bad odds simply opt not to play, or play with vanishingly small frequency.

In my life, I've bought *one* lottery ticket - 25 years ago, in Dallas...purely for fun...for $1....picked four of seven numbers right on some scratch-off game, and won $25. I realized I was infinitely ahead of 99% of the people who ever played the lottery, and thus quit while I was ahead

[so1rfan]

That kind of money has ruined a lot of lives. I truly feel sorry for those who win in the hundreds of millions. I think it would be horrible in a lot of ways. Not saying I would turn it down, but I have never bought a ticket either.

Tell you what, I'll be a willing guinea pig.

I read a book about the lottery lump sum purchase business. Now a days most lottery winners can do a lump sum payout up front. It used to be all lotteries were paid as a yearly annuity and companies would pay a lump sum to buy winners future payments at a greatly reduced rate.

The main reason lottery winners go broke was because of family members would expect the winner to take care of them. A $5 million winner would get a check for $150K a year (after taxes) for 20 years. But twenty people would all try to live off that. Then the extravagant spending would come everytime they got a check and next thing they knew they were out of money in a matter of months.

One thing the book said about the lottery is most times the lottery will be tied to education. So you hear how schools just recieved $25million dollars from the lottery. That sounds great until you realize that it was not $25 million EXTRA dollars from the lottery. States use the lottery to pay for education, not increase pay for education.

[SoonerDave]

The main reason lottery winners go broke was because of family members would expect the winner to take care of them. A $5 million winner would get a check for $150K a year (after taxes) for 20 years. But twenty people would all try to live off that. Then the extravagant spending would come everytime they got a check and next thing they knew they were out of money in a matter of months.

Yup...and I'd be willing to bet the folks who have won large sums, but opted for a) privacy and b) lump sums, probably still have a good chunk of that dough working for them.

We've often tossed around the idea of what you'd do with a huge lottery jackpot, and it was almost always a no-brainer - take whatever lump sum was available, pay off any outstanding debts, and stick the rest in the bank and see how well you can live off the interest....that's a little trickier right now because interest rates are so low, but the broader point was never to touch the core $$, just let the money do the work for you...but there are tons of people who race to spend every nickel of it as fast as they possibly can.....and they do.

[Edmond_Outsider]

A financial windfall is a crisis event right up there with losing a spouse. It doesn't matter if it is a lottery, inheritance or a sudden professional success which brings unexpected financial gain, few people are ever prepared for the changes which come next.

I wouldn't mind having a shot at it though. I'm sure I'd do it the right way.

[kevinpate]

I likewise wouldn't object to the opportunity to find out how well, or if, I would behave.
I'd definitely spend some of it right away, no doubt in my mind, but not toward silliness.

[RedDirt717]

She's cute.

[Bunty]

It just goes to show you that a little patience and planning can take you a long way in life. Living like there is no tomorrow will screw you over every time.

Well, so they can actually do it, people, especially starting out young, need to be forced to put money away for retirement, rather than expect them to be disciplined enough to do it on their own. This is easily doable by working for a company that does this for you with a small sum taken out from every paycheck. It's pretty foolish not to take advantage of it, especially if the company will match what you put in, up to a certain amount. If the young person's employer doesn't do this then get with an investment company that will make deductions from a bank account.

If I had gotten with an employer who offered this in my early 20s, rather than my early 30s, then my retirement fund would be noticeably bigger now. Saving up for retirement and how to do it is one of the best pieces of advice you can pass on to a young person. Social Security may not still be there or if so, considerably reduced.

[gmwise]

1st-get a attorney-get a financial advisor-get the needed support around you,keep your anonymity...get a limit liability corporation--have the LLC claim it.
take a income of 10 to 15% of the yearly payout, or 1 to 2 percent of a lumpsum payout. investing the rest. spend some of the money, like a few thousand, oh yeah and MOVE AWAY...lol
But even then its the personality/nature of the person who wins...
If the person is a spender its going to be a difficult course, if they're responsible spenders/savers its going to be a happy ending.
With the support and advice you got around you, you will have a safety net.

[kevinpate]

> 1st-get a attorney

2nd - invite Warren Buffet to lunch

[buckt]

> 1st-get a attorney

2nd - invite Warren Buffet to lunch

And buy Warren Buffet's lunch...

[PennyQuilts]

I liked the suggestion about moving away... No forwarding address. For some families, spring for an identity change.

[kevinpate]

For some families, spring for 1st class tickets to send them on an exquisite trip would be appropriate.

For others, making those tickets one way would be doubly exquisite. Think about it, yer loaded now! Why should you have to give up yer friends just cause yer family's less than stellar.
8^)

[gmwise]

lol..
I never said it should be family,who you should move away from.