Would you really want to win the lottery?

Triton

Triton

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Okay so there's this joke down in W&C about some guy winning the lottery and it got me to thinking... Would I really want to win the lottery... the answer: No I wouldn't. I'll explain why in a bit... but how about you guys would you want to win the lottery? Really?
 
Only if it meant I could enjoy my life to it's fullest with my family, and a great accountant and lawyer would help keep me happy.

I don't wanna be rich and famous, just rich and infamous.
 
Well, I don't buy lottery tickets so I can't win, but I suppose I wouldn't mind an enormous influx of cash.
 
Yes. Absolutely. No question. The thing that worries me the most all the time is having enough money to support my family. My Mom is getting older and has no money and I worry I don't have enough to help her.
 
There is much more to life than money, just ask a knife maker :)

Oh and heck yeah I would like to win. Buy up about 500 acres of land in the mountains. Houses for the family, horse or three. And a shop the size of the astrodome :)

I would still make knives.
 
Your chances of going bankrupt in the next seven years is about 1-in-5000, about one out of every 5000 American families will go bbankrupt within any seven year period. However, among people who win lotto or other prizes or who receive legal settlements or other lump-sum windfalls in excess of one million dollars. That rate jumps to almost four out of five. Wow!
 
Yes, I'd certainly want to win the lottery. I try every once in a while too.

But I wouldn't blow it on cars or useless crap (although I'd certainly buy a few knives). Depending on how much I won, I'd buy a house (just a regular old house, no mansions), one for my parents, and then set up a machine shop and spend the rest of my life making custom balisongs and autos.

I'd be willing to bet that those who get big lumps of cash, then go bankrupt are the kind that throw parties, buy expensive cars, buy property beyond their needs, then soon find that they run out of money and can't afford the upkeep (insurance, property taxes, etc) when the well runs dry. And I'm sure that there's a few that end up with drug problems to expidite the money loss.
 
Gollnick said:
Your chances of going bankrupt in the next seven years is about 1-in-5000, about one out of every 5000 American families will go bbankrupt within any seven year period. However, among people who win lotto or other prizes or who receive legal settlements or other lump-sum windfalls in excess of one million dollars. That rate jumps to almost four out of five. Wow!
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That's interesting. Something must happen to a person on a psychological level when they receive that much cash all at once. It obviously causes a person to change his/her lifestyle significantly, as well as their outlook on money when they have that much cash. Maybe it's the "I have enough money forever syndrome." Remember ol' MC Hammer? I heard that, at one time he had about forty three million dollars, but gave away and spent so much that he went bankrupt, back in the early nineties.

Still, though I rarely play the lottery, I would think I'd like to have a 43 million dollar windfall. If you just had the sense to put 50% of it away in a safe place before you got generous or started having fun.... ;)
 
I would love to win the lotto. But if I won it I'm sure I would be different than most people that win. I wouldn't go out and start spending it right away. I'm not rich right now, but I'm living as well I want to(if that make since). I would by a bigger house with a bigger yard(for my kids), but not a mansion with huge mancured/landscaped yard. Of course my knife & gun collection would get a lot bigger too :D
 
I hear after ya win the lottery the Feds start to treat the water ya drink and eventually ya just go plum loco I tell ya loco. :D
 
Something must happen to a person on a psychological level when they receive that much cash all at once.
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Not really. There are people who spend a large fraction of their pay on lottery tickets. Those people are idiots. Those people are the ones who most often win the lottery. If they win they don't change at all -- they're still idiots. They might not be idiots in all aspects of their lives but they sure don't know how to handle money....

Other people buy a lottery ticket once in a while just so they can fantasize about winning. They understand a lottery ticket is a bad investment, they understand the only real benefit you're likely to get from it is the opportunity to dream about riches, and they understand they can do that just as well with an investment of $1 every three months as they could by spending half their pay on it. Those people don't often win because they're not the ones who buy most lottery tickets, but they don't waste their money. If those people win they don't change either; they're still smart people and they know how to handle money wisely.
 
Have you guys read about the guy in West Virginia that won like 200 milliion in the largest single ticket winner ever? He keeps getting in trouble in strip clubs, getting robbed, etc. Somebody stole 500,000 that he was keeping in his car :eek: His neice was murdered. Why would a guy with 200 million dollars go to a stip club in WV anyways???????

Also, some guy up North in Vermont won 250K in the lottery. He went out to celebrate, got hammered, passed out in a snowbank and then assaulted the police officer that came to save him from freezing to death. :p
 
With my damn luck, I'd die of a heart-attack on the spot if I were to win a big lottery. Hmmm...Maybe THAT'S why my wife keeps buying lottery tickets.:eek:.
 
I read a good article in Money a few years back on something getting windfalls of cash. The first bit of advice was to sit on it for 3 months or so, so that your spending habbits didn't imediatly change. Don't know if I'd be able to do that. During that time, get a good finacial advisor and start to plan your next movies wisley. I'm the type two gambler, I spend maybe $2 a week, just for the heck of it. If I won, I'd want to stay pretty low profile I don't have much family but my wifes is HUGE. I'd want to take care of my niecies and nephews and tell the rest to go F#@K themselves.
 
As mentioned above, the people who get these large windfalls of money tend to be the people who are least able to manage it. It would be like looking at auto accident rates of teenagers and then looking at the rates after we give them all brand new Corvette Z06's. :eek:

Mark
 
Heck yea ! Truth be told I have worked my rear off for too long and I am burnt !!!!!!!! not to mention back problems sporadically , I would love not to have to work another day in my life :cool:
 
lumpymike1 said:
I read a good article in Money a few years back on something getting windfalls of cash. The first bit of advice was to sit on it for 3 months or so, so that your spending habbits didn't imediatly change. Don't know if I'd be able to do that. During that time, get a good finacial advisor and start to plan your next movies wisley.
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This would be my approach. A good financial advisor would be able to maximize the income from the windfall, and minimize taxes.

I bet most people go belly up because of the tax liability. They start spending crazy, and don't set aside for taxes.

That being said, I would love to be able to replace our income, and work only if I wanted to. Set up a nice house - not a mansion, with a shop out back for hobbies. Be there full time for our children. Travel a bit.
 
Well I gave it a little thought... and decided I wouldn't want it. Here's why:

1) Legal gobbledy gook. - You would have to set up trusts and corporations and get lawyers involved etc. etc.

2) All the long lost relatives you never knew you had would be showing up with hands out. Chances are a few children that you didn't know you had (and probably didn't) would be showing up too and that's got to be a bit of a strain on a marriage.

3) Security would suddendly become an issue. There's a whole class of people out there that think that it might be nice to make a quick buck by stealing your children... or your wife... or both...

4) Assuming nothing external happens to your children what sort of individuals will they turn out to be? There are hundreds of examples of children of rich parents that are worthless paris human hilton beings.

5) What would it do to you? You say you wouldn't change... but is that really true? I doubt it. The temptation is to much.

I like my life now I don't think I want to completely turn it on its head. I've heard Neil Boortz (who's a millionaire several times over already) say if someone offered him a winning lottery ticket he'd tear it up and throw it away. That's from someone who you have to assume knows how to handle large amounts of money. No Thanks.
 
where the winner of "the lottery" gets stoned to death in the town square. If that's the case I'll pass. Seriously, though. I don't want a mansion or a Mercedes Maybach. I just want a condo in neighborhood that doesn't get tagged by thugs twice monthly, a car that doesn't leak when it rains and enough money to buy a book or a CD without thinking "When's the DirecTV bill due?".

Frank
 
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