go through their winnings in short order. A lot of people spend much of their time thinking about what they would do if they had money. When they get some, they think it will last a lot longer than it does. If you've never really had any money, you've never had the chance to learn how to manage it

things like private planes will easily use up a lot of money.

and then there are the scammers who target them with business deals promising huge returns if they just g8ve them x amount.

(Small community) and it appears that folks not only do not understand how to manage money, but they feel that they have long been deprived of having everything they “want”, without any knowledge of what they “need”.

There is little vision for their future and understanding of their limitations.

Maybe someone who is in constant pain and dependent on opioids as the result of an injury and a botched surgery, and who is likely suffering from untreated depression, would likely make better decisions but for the combination of . . . constant pain, opioids, and untreated depression weighing on her mental state.

will make a person buggier than a shithouse rat.

I know this from experience.

Plus, the medications can fuck with your head enough to help you make stupid decisions, in some cases.

The fact that she had been responsible enough to become the Senior Nurse in an operating room is more telling than anything else, and her career was surely worth a hell of a lot more than five figures even if the five was $99,999.

If it's not costing you money, what's the difference?

It's their business. Not yours.

"I make a lot of poor financial decisions. None of them matter, in the long term. I will never not be poor, so what does it matter if I don’t pay a thing and a half this week instead of just one thing? It’s not like the sacrifice will result in improved circumstances; the thing holding me back isn’t that I blow five bucks at Wendy’s. It’s that now that I have proven that I am a Poor Person that is all that I am or ever will be. It is not worth it to me to live a bleak life devoid of small pleasures so that one day I can make a single large purchase. I will never have large pleasures to hold on to. There’s a certain pull to live what bits of life you can while there’s money in your pocket, because no matter how responsible you are you will be broke in three days anyway. When you never have enough money it ceases to have meaning. I imagine having a lot of it is the same thing."

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-tirado/why-poor-peoples-bad-decisions-make-perfect-sense_b_4326233.html

Not an exact analogy but close.(The article at the link is must-read) Over 75% of Americans cannot handle a $400 emergency without difficulty. To expect fiscal constraint after a lump sum grant is unreasonable.