Young lottery winner discusses investment challenges

Oct 22, 2008, 9:21 pm (22 comments)

After the Big Win

After winning million dollar lottery, Wall Street woes bring troubled times

Includes video report

By Louis Jay

Louis Jay is a sophomore pre-business major at Towson University and the former online editor of The Towerlight.

About a year ago you would have seen me on television promoting the Maryland Lottery, Let Yourself Play. You may have heard the story.

I spilled a Tropicana Coolatta on myself. My grandmother, in her old Jewish wisdom, always said that if you spill something on yourself on a special day (birthdays, weddings, Bar Mitzvah, etc) to buy a lottery ticket because it's lucky.

It was my 19th birthday, so I went to the closest Giant, picked up my scratch-off and won a million dollars.

After Uncle Sam took his cut, I was left with a decent amount of money.

I'm not going to lie; I did pretty well for myself.

Soon after, I was bombarded with calls from investors and financial planners all saying they could invest my money and turn it into more in due time. You have to spend money to make money, but I wasn't going to toss my newfound stash into the hands of just any schlub.

Luckily through my accountant, I found someone trustworthy and had the same vision for investing I did.

At the time I invested my money, the stock market was at an all-time high.

Investors were making money each day as Wall Street continued to profit.

I couldn't wait to jump into the market and see my wealth grow. I knew my diversified portfolio would be able to make money right out of the gate.

Things were going fine for a couple of months as I made a couple grand, but then came the greatest collapse since the Great Depression.

Banks giving out loans they shouldn't have combined with speculation from investors brought about lows we haven't seen in a long time. When the first big loss happened, I didn't think much of it.

The major news networks that revolve around the markets didn't seem too worried about the loss. Since then, most of what we're seeing are lows and nothing but lows.

Every time I see a major low, I can't do much but sigh.

My father calls me every time the stock market is down more than five percent.

At the same time, everyone else I know feels like they have to tell me about the stock market. I would like to personally take the liberty and speak on behalf of anyone who has money in the stock market:

We know!

We watch every time the market ticks downward, waiting for 4:30 p.m. so the pain can finally stop. We are already hurting from all the stuff that's going with the turbulent market feeling helpless and depressed.

Thank you for the market update but we're well aware.

Personally, I'm happy to talk about the market. I enjoy educating people about what's going on with everyone's money.

If people are educated, we can learn from our mistakes and hopefully not commit the same errors again.

But I digress. What is there truly to say about what's happening?

No amount of words or complaining will bring back one cent of my lost money. The truth is, there is nothing much I can do besides have some faith that things will get better.

So I go to class, do my homework, hang out with friends, watch my big television, and go on with life as normal.

If anybody sees me with a sweet drink, feel free to bump into me. Maybe we can both get lucky.

A Look Back: College Student Wins $1 Million Birthday Prize

Maryland Lottery Press Release
August 1, 2007

Louis Jay's birthday didn't begin with anything to celebrate.  Yesterday morning, he spilled his iced coffee drink on his clothes, which made him late for work.  But, the 19-year-old didn't give up.

"Why not buy a ticket?" Louis said that evening.  "It's my birthday."

He stopped to buy a Mega Bucks Jackpot ticket and became a millionaire.

"His Nana always says, 'If something sweet falls on you on your birthday, buy a Lottery ticket," said Louis' mother Sheila.  "He is such a great kid...he always wants to give to charity...I'm so happy for him."

The birthday boy went home, scratched the ticket, and realized that he won the $1 million top prize.

"My dad was outside walking my dog, and I ran out to show him the ticket," said the Eagle Scout.  "I couldn't find him, so I kept screaming his name."

The Towson University sophomore, who works at CIO Solutions, Inc., has big plans.  Louis will pay for his college tuition and help pay for his younger sibling's education.  He also plans to invest some of the money and buy a car.

The winning ticket was bought at Giant #165 on Reisterstown Road in Owings Mills.

Local TV Broadcast:  Student Turns Millionaire With Scratch-Off Ticket

WBAL TV, Baltimore
August 6, 2007

Thanks to Doug for the tip.

The Towerlight, WBAL, Maryland Lottery, Lottery Post Staff

Comments

JAP69's avatarJAP69

Same thing was happening prior to the great depression.

Everyone that had extra money lying around was jumping in for the big kill.

Looks like this time around again will renew the fears of stock market investing.

Editgap

I haven't read this.

But I was wondering what happened to all those big lottery winners who invested there money.

On the other hand I feel sad for those that invested their hard earn money.

LckyLary

- Money has no value unto itself: only what the money can demand which is relative to how much supply there is of the product you want. Money "lost" on Wall St. may have been imaginary to begin with. The loss on a stock really only happens when a stock is sold low. Politicians are just pushing piles of money around but not doing anything to produce more goods. If I won a jackpot anytime soon I'd be buying oil right now.

- The "Let Yourself Play!" slogan in the Maryland Lottery is one of the coolest ever.. but the MD Lottery website is a royal headache to copy winning drawings from because it's written in backward order vs. most other sites, the Pick 3 and Pick 4 are intertwined with the Bonus Match 5, and there's no way to programatically download the data. I play there on the way to or from WV.

ThatScaryChick's avatarThatScaryChick

I wonder how much he has left. Hopefully he didn't put much of it into the stock market.

KY Floyd's avatarKY Floyd

He's 20 years old. I think it's a safe bet that he wasn't planning on cashing it in any time soon, and in that case the current value is meaningless.  If he just waits, the market will bounce back and his investment will be a very good chunk of a comfortable retirement.

sixstringernc

"We watch every time the market ticks downward, waiting for 4:30 p.m. sothe pain can finally stop. We are already hurting from all the stuffthat's going with the turbulent market feeling helpless and depressed."

Is it just me, or does anyone else find this kind of sad, that you can win 10 to 15 times more money that you can earn in a year in one fell swoop, and now you end up talking about hurting and being in pain, feeling helpless and depressed?

If I lacked the context, I might think the quote came from a lottery loser (!)...

There has to be a better way to handle a windfall.

grengrad's avatargrengrad

It is sad, because instead of him going out and blowing it, he did the "right thing" and invested it, and is getting punished for it.

Hopefully, he keeps his long-term mindset and rides out this temporary crash in the market.

If his portfolio is diversified, then he should have a very nice some of money by the time he reaches retirement age.

foragoodcause's avatarforagoodcause

I don't like scratch off ticket because you don't get your money right away,every year he will receive a check  of about $60.000.

JackpotWanna's avatarJackpotWanna

Why? Why?

 

Just enjoy it.  Eat good foods and drink fine wines.  Buy a few nice clothes.  Do some traveling. Move into a better rental apt.  Put $25,000 into different banks no matter how low the interest is.  That is my plan for a $1 Million. 

hennybogan's avatarhennybogan

Most Americans, like the ones who have responded above, have become a bunch of

unthinking bleeding hearts. Here you are pouring your hearts out for a twenty year old

who has lost some money THAT HE WON due to the stock market crash. What about the

untold MILLIONS OF AMERICANS WHO HAVE WORKED MOST OF THEIR LIVES PLACING

AS MUCH OF THEIR INCOME AS POSSIBLE INTO A RETIREMENT PLAN, NEARING RETIREMENT OR

TAKING IT ONLY TO SEE IT GO FROM SEVERAL MILLION DOLLARS TO SEVERAL THOUSAND DOLLARS, AND HAVE TO RETURN TO THE WORK FORCE.

Most of you people are pathetic!! Get a life.

sixstringernc

Quote: Originally posted by hennybogan on Oct 26, 2008

Most Americans, like the ones who have responded above, have become a bunch of

unthinking bleeding hearts. Here you are pouring your hearts out for a twenty year old

who has lost some money THAT HE WON due to the stock market crash. What about the

untold MILLIONS OF AMERICANS WHO HAVE WORKED MOST OF THEIR LIVES PLACING

AS MUCH OF THEIR INCOME AS POSSIBLE INTO A RETIREMENT PLAN, NEARING RETIREMENT OR

TAKING IT ONLY TO SEE IT GO FROM SEVERAL MILLION DOLLARS TO SEVERAL THOUSAND DOLLARS, AND HAVE TO RETURN TO THE WORK FORCE.

Most of you people are pathetic!! Get a life.

Somebody took their angry pills today.  Hmmm....

Stack47

Quote: Originally posted by ThatScaryChick on Oct 23, 2008

I wonder how much he has left. Hopefully he didn't put much of it into the stock market.

Depends if he got a check for $1 million. If it's paid out over 20 years, even if he lost the entire first year's payment it would be only 5%. And I'm pretty sure most of the investors would be happy if the only lost 5% in the last 3 weeks.

neverwins

i see this has sparked a few interesting comments! 

Firstly I do tend to agree that maybe giving sympathy to someone who won a million dollars and lost some of it in the stock market is probably being a little too sympathetic, purely for the fact that I would love to have been him! He's won more and probably has more than I ever will! So good on him!

It is a shame that he's tried to be smart with his money and it's backfired, but the stock market is never a guarantee, you take a risk by putting it in there, plus as others have said, I'm sure he wasn't planning to take it out next month, so it'll bounce back and he'll be happy!

I can imagine though how annoying it must be when people have to continually remind you of how much money you're losing as if you don't already know!

AmandaBanana

KY Floyd's avatarKY Floyd

Quote: Originally posted by sixstringernc on Oct 26, 2008

Somebody took their angry pills today.  Hmmm....

He must have taken his stupid pills, too. Not one of the previous posts could be fairly described as pouring their hearts out.

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