Lottery winner tales: How to spend it too quickly or keep it

[Opti]

www.dailyfinance.com/2013/03/25/lottery-winner-powerball-sharon-tirabassi/?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000401

Tirabassi's experience stands in contrast to that of Sandra Hayes, who pocketed around $6 million when she and a dozen coworkers split a $224 million Powerball jackpot in 2006. (Watch Hayes tell her story in the video below.)

Like Tirabassi, Hayes went on a spending spree -- including a boat, an Escalade and a Mercedes -- but she also paid off her mortgage and student loans, and was leery about handouts to friends and relatives. Today, Hayes lives comfortably but not extravagantly.

"I love a good deal, I'm on a budget, I save my money," she says. "I try not to live above my means." Her warning to the newly rich: "If you're not disciplined, you'll go broke. I don't care how much money you have."

It happened to Sharon Tirabassi, a 35 year-old resident of Hamilton, Ontario. Nine years ago, The Hamilton Spectator reports, Tirabassi cashed a check from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. for $10,569,00.10 (Canadian). Today, after spending almost all her winnings -- "big house, fancy cars, designer clothes, lavish parties exotic trips, handouts to family, loans to friends" -- she's back in the working class: riding the bus, working part-time, living in a rented house.

What remains of her windfall is in trust for her six children; the money will become available when they turn 26.

"The moment I got it, I divided it among my family," Tirabassi told The Spec: $1 million to her parents, and $1.75 million among her four siblings. She was generous with others, too, buying houses and renting them out at low rates, paying people's rent, offering loans for bail and business ventures.

I'm curious what Ymer strategies would be for keeping/preserving their lottery winnings.
Would you have different strategies for $10 mil versus $100 mil, etc. One interesting thing
I read suggested if you had a very big win that you should employ a body guard.

In NJ I think you have to reveal your identity, so I'm thinking if I won big enough I'd probably move and possibly change my name.

[lynnerself]

If it was really really big, I might consider renting a different house for awhile and getting new phone numbers. Trying to hide as much as possible. Most of my family is doing fine, so I don't think they'd come asking.

I have heard that it is possible even in states where you have to reveal your identity to set up a trust and have the trust attorney collect the money.

[Deleted]

It would depend on how much I won.

< $5M Probably add it to the retirement pile.

> $10M Could have a little fun with it. I've always wanted to fund a non-profit foundation to help preserve Open Space ajacent to metro areas.

But since I'm too cheap to buy a ticket, it's not likely to happen.

ETA: I've told the story here before about how one of our former friends won a $35M lottery. He chose the 20 year pay-out. He was already pretty paranoid and strange before he won and he just got worse. He and we share the same atty, a good friend from HS/college. One funny story is how disappointed he was how few people tried to track him down. He only received one Fed Ex and a couple of phone calls. (He kept his old # and address and just got an additiona phone # & house).

[Opti]

Bonny, I like your true story. I think I'd be happy to only have a few people hunt me down.
I think I'd be more comfortable winning in the range of your friend then one of those $100 mil plus jackpots because over 26 payments if I'm mostly throwing the bulk to retirement accounts I'm not going have that much for folks to pilfer or beg for.

The video and one of the other links on the URL were interesting. The person who has managed her win thus far had a former neighbor claim to need three years of back taxes to save her home. She researched it online, found out she lied, and sent her a printout in the mail.

I wonder if the financial strata your friends and family fall in affect whether they'd get weird
when you won money or not.

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

I think the most important thing to do would be to wait before picking up the check.  You need time to think about your priorities, meet with attorney(s) and financial advisors, and get off the original "I'm rich!" high.  I would take time to make a plan-  in writing - for myself.  Then, if at all possible, I would claim the money as anonymously as possible. 

[Otto the Orange]

As a wise man once said- "You can't fix stupid"

[doxieluvr]

I would not really change much about our current lives. 

We would buy a new house. Set up college funds for the kids. Fully fund our retirement. Pay off my car.

We would keep working. We would have to figure out what to do about the mooches related to DH. Maybe giving each of them $50k and having them sign a contract to never come back for more. Or getting dh to agree to change our identity and hide from the permanently. 

[jeffreymo]

I'd focus on the income generating potential and how that amount generated compares with our current standard of living.

For example, $5M at 3% could generate $150k/year.  That's more than our annual salary, so technically we could live better than we do now on our salaries. 

Add a zero to that jackpot, and we shouldn't have a problem living a much, much different life on the $1.5M the total could hopefully produce on an annual basis.

[Deleted]

Lotteries are a tax on the poor.  I refuse to engage in thinking about what I'd do if I won because I've never bought a lottery ticket in my life and don't intend to. 

I know what it's like to accumulate a lottery-winner-sized (but way less than $10 million) amount of money, the hard way, day by day, dollar by dollar, with a few market crashes along the way.  DH and I joke about squandering it on fancy sports cars and expensive watches but it took too long to get where we are and we're careful about our splurges. 

Easy come, easy go, I guess.

[mrsdutt]

I would set up trusts for our children which could be accessed at 40.

I don't need financial advisors so I would manage the money on my own.  I would stay in my home and maybe get a desk for the office.  I would keep the vehicle I have, but perhaps buy a property on the ocean, which is right down the road.  Then rent it out.

I would donate to the local food pantry and the one in NY where I lived for 32 years.  Perhaps build garages for the elderly in NY.  I'd like that.

I can fulfill my bucket list now, but would make it a priority.

I'm not a person who travels well, so no go there.  No boats or gadgets either.  I'm easily amused and don't think I would want to change too much of what I do or who I am.

With that said, I really have to remember to buy the dang ticket one of these days!

[HoneyBBQ]

5M - I'd retire earlier but not that much earlier. We'd keep working. Pay off our brand new enormous mortgage maybe, but just add the rest to retirement.

10M+ - we could both quit. I'd take my daughter around the world & homeschool her on the road. Spend time in awesome places. 

[swamp]

May 1, 2013 9:50:04 GMT -5 @athena53 said:

Lotteries are a tax on the poor.  I refuse to engage in thinking about what I'd do if I won because I've never bought a lottery ticket in my life and don't intend to. 

I know what it's like to accumulate a lottery-winner-sized (but way less than $10 million) amount of money, the hard way, day by day, dollar by dollar, with a few market crashes along the way.  DH and I joke about squandering it on fancy sports cars and expensive watches but it took too long to get where we are and we're careful about our splurges. 

Easy come, easy go, I guess.

REally?  you've never even bought 1 for shits and giggles?   I don't ever plan on winning, but when the jackpot gets to be about $300 million, I'll buy one just because. 

[Deleted]

May 1, 2013 10:58:15 GMT -5 swamp said:

Really?  you've never even bought 1 for shits and giggles?   I don't ever plan on winning, but when the jackpot gets to be about $300 million, I'll buy one just because. 

Nope- never have, never will. I want no part of it (except for any reduction in my taxes because of the revenue from the poor dolts who buy lottery tickets).

Let me briefly indulge in my "if-I-won-$100-million" fantasy. My picture would be all over the Internet and the local papers. People would come out of the woodwork with sob stories and can't-fail business opportunities. I'd hear from relatives I never knew I had. Because somewhere in there you've agreed to let them use your name and likeness in publicity, my story and the accompanying picture of me holding a giant fake check and grinning would fuel the futile dreams of people who ought to be doing smarter things with their money than buying lottery tickets. And then I'd have to go into hiding.

I'll take my current finances and my real job any day.

[swamp]

May 1, 2013 11:04:55 GMT -5 @athena53 said:

May 1, 2013 10:58:15 GMT -5 swamp said:

Really?  you've never even bought 1 for shits and giggles?   I don't ever plan on winning, but when the jackpot gets to be about $300 million, I'll buy one just because. 

Nope- never have, never will. I want no part of it (except for any reduction in my taxes because of the revenue from the poor dolts who buy lottery tickets).

Let me briefly indulge in my "if-I-won-$100-million" fantasy. My picture would be all over the Internet and the local papers. People would come out of the woodwork with sob stories and can't-fail business opportunities. I'd hear from relatives I never knew I had. Because somewhere in there you've agreed to let them use your name and likeness in publicity, my story and the accompanying picture of me holding a giant fake check and grinning would fuel the futile dreams of people who ought to be doing smarter things with their money than buying lottery tickets. And then I'd have to go into hiding.

That's a risk I'm willing to take. [img]http://images.proboards.com/new/wink.png[/img]