Pineapple Express: Someone Is Wrong on the Internet?
- Thread starter Snarf Zagyg
- Start date
Old Fezziwig
this is a low-flying panic attack
This advice from Reddit has always stuck with me about winning the lottery. I'm sure there are other plans that would work, but it seemed broadly reasonable as a starting point.
Scribe
Legend
I'd give most away, and move to a very low pop area of Canada, or one of the Nordic countries, get set up as off grid as possible.
trappedslider
Legend
"Normal is an illusion. What is normal to the spider is chaos to the fly." - Morticia Addams
I think a lot of it is solid, especially harping on how YOU are your own worst enemy in these situations. However, my personal plan differs somewhat. Some notes:
1) You should definitely have your plan in place before claiming your windfall. And if you can, claim it privately/anonymously.
2) DO hire a money manager of some kind. Fees may seem to be a neverending suck, but they help you avoid investment pitfalls.
3) Don’t quit your day job, or at least, don’t stop working. You need to have something productive to DO. Idle hands & minds tend to think more about how to spend the money.
4) Don’t give any $$$ to any friends or family. Set up a trust with an independent administrator who has clear disbursement instructions. Anyone comes to you asking for money, send them to the trust administrator.
5) Depending on your state, set up a HEW (Health, Education, Welfare) or HEMS (Health, Education, Maintenance, Support) trust for the benefit of you & your family. It protects the assets within it from claims by anyone who isn’t providing you with goods or services related to those categories; most lawsuits can’t override their terms. This is because the assets within can ONLY be used for goods & services related to those categories.
6) DO set some money aside to just have fun with. A psychological quirk was discovered when numerous state lottery agencies were trying to figure out why so many winners went bankrupt, so quickly. While some people simply blew through their windfalls by indulging every whim, the subgroup of those who didn’t spend ANY money enjoying themselves experienced much higher levels of dissatisfaction, depression and other negative consequences than others within the class of winners.
To clarify, even though a lot of the formal studies looked only at lotteries and similar prizes, I didn’t limit myself to them because all large windfalls have similarities. You’ll see similar anecdotes & statistics among people who win big lawsuits or make it big in some form of entertainment or sport.
Examples just down the street from me involve members of the Cowboys. Before he got his act together, WR Michael Irvin’s paternity suit disclosed he only had a few thousand dollars in the bank. He was spending virtually his entire salary on houses, cars, jewelry, and clothes. Other players in that organization were literally living game check to game check. They’d cash them without investing anything.
When I pass, the horizon of my life will resemble the Appalachians. But even I gotta say that's one heck of a hill to die on.
When I die, it will be on
Ryujin
Legend
Mound of Dead Bards Miniature - Zombie Orpheus Entertainment
www.zombieorpheus.com
A lot of states now preserve anonymity for lottery winners because of many of the examples that post raised.
Yeah, that’s the one bit of advice I didn’t agree with from the original post. Learn to recognize a good money manager. They are doing work that you wouldn’t want to do.
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