Last time I bought a ticket, I couldn't stop thnking about how many tickets I would buy the net week. I saw right away where that was headed.

He was pissed that I didn't split it with him, because he had once told me that if he ever hit the lottery he'd split it with me.

I had paid for his plane ticket over from Australia, we were hosting him at my brother's house, and I was paying for all the groceries to feed us and all of our other expenses.

Winning those things is nice, but they can affect your relationships and may not be such a good thing after all. Even if it's only a little prize. I can't even imagine the horrors of winning the big one.

First, you have friends and relatives coming out of the woodwork, all of whom are convinced that you have to share your new wealth.

If you don't go broke giving it away, you probably aren't any better than Trump at keeping it. The new Mercedes, summer house, sure-fire investments your Uncle Tony comes up with and other things you'll go into hock for will piss away whatever you have left over from your relatives.

Now it would take a lot of losing to waste $200 million or so, and the truth is I would have no idea what to do with that amount of cash dropping into my lap, but most of the stories were about much lesser amounts.

I'd give it away to favorite charities and create a foundation to distribute the rest.

For myself, I'd take very little. A bit to help friends and family, maybe a new car, though I can afford that anyway. Maybe move from my apartment to a modest house, though I'm not sure I'd even want to do that.

It's all academic, anyway, as I don't buy the tickets.

I read about a couple who were drug addicts to begin with. They just blew their winnings on lots and lots of drugs and ended up ODing.

Back in the last decade there were two large powerball jackpots back to back, about 8 or ten weeks apart, both over the $250 mil mark. The first was won in Ohio and the second won in Louisiana. The Ohio winners didn't come forward for weeks. And weeks. AND WEEKS.

They finally came forward, if memory serves, about a week or so before it was won again by the guy in LA.

The Ohio winners sent their attorney to collect under the name of an obscure trust.

The Louisiana winner was a young man who appeared on Good Morning America THE NEXT FUCKING DAY!

Of the two, who do you think will be broke first?

The key is preparation. You need to line up the proper people to help you manage the money. You need to take the time to set up the trusts, the accounts, the LLC's or Sub chapter "S" corps....whatever is appropriate for your state and situation, and you need the proper legal and financial advice to do so. All of the above requires sit down meetings and signing documents, all of which takes time. LOTS of time. Rushing right to the state capital and having your picture taken with the giant check as soon as you can is fucking stupid, and the only people that do that are fucking stupid or ill informed.

I had the opportunity the work as a stock broker during the recent big crash and I learned a HELL of a lot as to what to do and how to proceed when one comes into a sudden windfall like an inheritance or a big gambling win.

This is the sequence of events I would take if I were to win such a large sum;

The biggest thing is to stay as anonymous as possible.

1) DON'T TELL ANYONE! Tell ONLY the person closest to you that can keep their mouth shut! Don't tell your mom if she is likely to call Aunt Betty who will call everyone, etc. There is plenty of time to tell everyone else and to give them the money you want to give them.
2) Get the photos and documents and send off for your passport, if you don't already have one.
3) Make an appointment with an attorney who's specialty is dealing with High Net Worth clients.
4) Make an appointment with a Financial Advisor at a major brick and mortar brokerage firm. At the bare minimum you need to set up an account to receive the funds via wire transfer, which is pretty much what the Lottery folks will suggest. Also, the broker and the lawyer will need to work together to set up the various trusts, college funds, charitable trusts, etc., all of which are accounts, which means sitting and signing documents for several hours at least.
5) Throw your cell phone AWAY. Ideally, go to another area code, rent one of those mailboxes from The UPS store or wherever, go to the nearest cell phone retailer for a new unit and have your new phone billed through that address. Only give that new number to your attorney, your broker and the one or two family members you tell.
6) Unless you already live in a gated community or in the country, you are going to HAVE to move. The idea that you can stay safe and sane living in the house you are currently in is a fantasy.
7) If at all possible, depending on the state you win in, send your attorney to collect and stand in for the photo OP. Have him collect in the name of the trust or LLC, NOT in your name. Again, stay as anonymous as possible. If you were to win in a state the requires you to divulge your name and home town, protest as vigorously as possible but if that fails, appear in disguise at the very least.
8) As soon as the money settles into the receiving account, transfer a million or so into your checking account/debit card account and GET THE FUCK OUT OF DODGE! Leave. Take the cell phone that only 3 or 4 people know of and get the fuck outta town! Fly first class wherever you want to go. Take the world cruise you have always dreamed about. Rent a Houseboat on a big lake and get lost....something...anything....just drop off the face of the earth for at least 6 months.
8) When you get back it's time to get down to brass tacks. Start looking for the new place to live. Decide how you're going to spend your time. Split the money among the trusts and various accounts. Throw a party at a resort in Maui and fly everyone in first class...or whatever.

Money does strange things to people. It is almost a sure bet that someone who you dearly love and trust and care about will turn on you like a bad tomato. You have to be prepared. You can't save the whole world, and as has been said, people/relatives/long lost buddies will come out of the woodwork , hand extended, looking for money. You have to learn to say NO!

3 out of 5 big money lottery winners declare bankruptcy within 5 years. This is due to poor planning, greed and simply being stupid.

Don't be one of those people.

In my case, pushing 70 with no wife or kids, my needs are simple and I don't care if I go broke. I do care that the money gets pissed away wisely, though.

Top of the list would be building an architecturally significant home for my final years. And on enough land to leave it as a park to the town or county. A quarter share in a cheap jet might help with any traveling I do. Or might not.

Setting up foundations for research, charity, arts and such would be a natural, and I hear merging mine with some bigger ones for management efficiency works well.

And messing round in local politics with that kind of money would be great fun.

Years ago, when the first $2 mill a year lottery for 20 years happened, Barron's went around to a dozen or so financial gurus and asked them how they would advise the 20-something winner. All but one came up with the usual advice, with investments, tax avoidance, and whatever else. The last guy said simply "Pay the taxes the first year and go hang out on a beach somewhere with the million or so left. Think about how you want to spend the rest of your life." Well, the next week every one else wanted to hang him-- how dare he tell someone it's OK to pay taxes and not maximize what was already more money than he ever dreamed of!

Myself, I thought it was sound advice.

Unless one already has lots of money to begin with and/or the financial infrastructure to support a windfall (like an existing business that's successful), it's very difficult for an individual to handle more than a couple hundred thousand windfall all at once. Time becomes a winner's enemy.

1. Most people will go through a couple - five hundred thousand within a year, between paying off outstanding debt, spending money on friends and relatives, and a few big ticket "necessities" (replacement or repair of residence, appliances, business capital purchases, vehicles). Anything under $500K is manageable. The taxes get taken out up front, so you can budget what is left, and not have to worry a big carry over into the next year.
Surveys find that with most windfalls <$500K that aren't inheritance, on average, 30% goes to taxes up front, 30% on major long-term improvements (home and business upgrades, money-market and stock investments) and the remaining 40% on debt payment, education, and "fun" money (vacations, cars, gifts to friends and relatives, shopping splurges).
It's when you have a big carry over into the next year that there's a problem - if you're not used to it.
People who start businesses off a windfall fail at a 90% or so rate. People who have an existing failing business still typically fail even after they pump a windfall into the business, because there's usually an underlying weakness in the business that is not addressed by simply putting more money into it.
And the biggest financial trap when dealing with a windfall is that people forget that they have to pay taxes every year, including on accrued interest if they just have it sitting around - that's why wealthy people have always hired others handle and disburse their money for them rather than just leave it to a bank and an online broker as someone who didn't start out rich will do.

So that last guy was right. It takes time to figure out what you want to do with a lot of money, and every successful person I know was able to figure out through trial and error how they needed to handle larger and larger amounts of money as they accrued it over time. So paying all your taxes to reduce your tax liability for that year, then paying off all your outstanding debts while you take the time to decide how to handle the rest of the money so it can still sustain you and any heirs without getting eaten up by taxes, fees, or scammers is the best advice I can think of.

Windfalls are usually not enough to sustain a extravagant style of living for more than a year; even if you think that $30 million is a lot of money, at least half of that will end up being eaten up by taxes and fees within five years if you don't already have the financial trust structure necessary for millionaires to keep their millions secure. And you always have to remember - a winning windfall is a one-time event. That amount of money never keeps coming in, no matter how wisely you think you've invested it.

Haele

Take a five-gallon bucket and fill it with sand--all the way to the top. Then pick out one grain of sand from it. ONLY one. That's your chance of winning it.

Keep the money for something useful and realistic.

is completely harmless fun. It allows one to dream and consider the question "What would I do if.....?"

While the picture you draw of the chances of winning is likely accurate, it is beside the point. There is no harm in spending a few bucks just for the fun of thinking of the possibilities.

Lousy math skills would be paying into a lottery where they don't pay anything back. Oh wait. That's taxes. (Yes, there's an indirect benefit, but not a cash payback until much later in one's life, not three days after paying into it.)

You can't lose if you don't play.

Who hasn't spent more than 2 bucks on a silly dream?

You have to spend several times that for a movie, and similar feelings that only last a few hours

when they get way up there.

So, maybe 10-20 bucks a year. A lot less than many spend at Starbucks.

(And much less fattening.)

there are several levels of chances. You may even win the one where you get your money back

not nearly enough to break even, but since I don't play that much it's kinda cool.