Why can't lottery winners be smart and live a simple lifestyle?

Reply #16

Brcebrce — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 19:29:07 GMT

Most of the winners were living paycheck to payckeck, don't realize that it is possible to burn through $10 million plus.

Reply #15

noise-gate — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 19:14:42 GMT

..Because having 4 mansions with 8 bedrooms apiece 10 cars is a simple lifestyle to them.

Reply #14

JoshUK — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 17:36:13 GMT

That's crazy.......

Reply #13

music* — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 17:32:54 GMT

I have read that 70% of lottery winners are either broke or in financial difficulties five years after their win.

Reply #12

HoLeeKau — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 16:02:43 GMT

The other is that even if you've got $100 million in the bank you're still living on a fixed income if you spend a significant portion of the annual income. Taxes on interest income and inflation mean that you can't spend $2 million the first year and have the same spending power for 50 years unless interest rates get a lot better than what a safe investment pays today. You half a million example would only be worth 1/4 million after 25 years if we have 3% inflation.

But in 25 years, you... [ More ]

Reply #11

Coin Toss — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 03:50:29 GMT

Why can't lottery winners be smart and live a simple lifestyle?

Greed, ego. Not all, but the ones who go broke.

Reply #10

music* — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 03:39:16 GMT

I also enjoy those shows which you speak of. Especially after a Power Ball run of 1.568 Billion.

Reply #9

lejardin — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 01:24:04 GMT

Ditto, lol, it is my favorite show(s) even tho they are old and all reruns. The people you speak is the ficks , Leroy and his son Jeff from Michigan. They were a disaster waiting to happen. Jeff mentioned the name of the hotel and the camera showed the exact room number of his storage room. They have been the topic of a lot of posts here including yours truly. I was actually embarrassed watching them.

My favorite episode was the Morrisons of New York, a real feel good story. They bought a bea... [ More ]

Reply #8

dumbluck — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 00:39:17 GMT

There probably are plenty of lottery winners who are smart with their money, but part of being smart is keeping a low profile, so we don't hear about them.

Other argument:

The odds of winning a lottery go up the more tickets you buy Buying a lot of tickets is not smart Therefore, a disproportionately large number of dumb people win the lotteries

Reply #7

KY Floyd — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 00:26:37 GMT

people feel rich when they really aren't.

Plenty of people who really were rich have gone broke. I think there are two interrelated problems that trip people up.

One is that they don't realize that being rich doesn't mean you've got unlimited wealth. Bill Gates could lead an extremely lavish lifestyle and still have trouble spending all of his money, but somebody with 25, 50, or even $100 million could blow it fairly quickly if they don't realize that as rich as they are they still have l... [ More ]

Reply #6

hearsetrax — Sat, 16 Jan 2016 23:01:24 GMT

its called too many decades spent working and looking at the world like this and not enough time working and trying to find this syndrome

Reply #5

Murgatroyd — Sat, 16 Jan 2016 23:01:18 GMT

What so many people fail to realize is that a million dollars isn't a lot of money in the long term. If you have a full-time job that pays more than minimum wage, but doesn't pay particularly well, you'll make about a million dollars over the course of your career.

This is the same trap that catches so many pro athletes. A non-superstar may make half a million per year, but the average pro sports career is less than five years, so total earnings are only a couple million dollars - not a lot m... [ More ]

Reply #4

JoshUK — Sat, 16 Jan 2016 21:33:14 GMT

Oh wow, thanks for the update!

I love that show, my favorite episode is than father son who won the $1m and the son ends up buying a bunch of useless crap and storing it in that motel, he even had one of those inflatable rubber aliens haha.

I guess they're broke too now, his son bled him dry...

Reply #3

lejardin — Sat, 16 Jan 2016 21:24:08 GMT

Ironically, her story IS on The Lottery Changed My Life right now on TLC's show. This is the episode where her and the fiance are looking at jets and HIS 2.2 million dollar Bugatti as a wedding gift. She just got out of a Rolls Royce saying she WILL buy that car she just test drove.

BUT.....she was profiled on 20/20 and it was said she just filed bankruptcy on January 6, 2015. No clue what she has left as far as cars. Dont know if she bought the rolls or if the fiance got his Bugatti. On that... [ More ]

Reply #2

JoshUK — Sat, 16 Jan 2016 21:18:48 GMT

This reminds me of that women from 'The Lottery Changed my Life'

She won something like 10 million and bought a huge house, a bunch of cars, a really expensive car for her new boyfriend who she met after she won......

I suspect that she will end up broke sooner or later.... assuming she hasn't blown it already

Reply #1

HoLeeKau — Sat, 16 Jan 2016 21:14:06 GMT

They don't even have to live a simple lifestyle. If you win enough that you can invest even just 20 million after taxes, you could live an opulent lifestyle. That should yield more than half a mil after taxes, probably more, without even touching the original 20 million investment. Seriously, who can't live extremely well on half a mil a year???

I think the problem is that people feel rich when they really aren't. In today's world to be rich enough not to have any budget limitations, you have... [ More ]

Why can't lottery winners be smart and live a simple lifestyle?

LiveInGreenBay — Sat, 16 Jan 2016 20:41:37 GMT

So many stories about lottery winners going crazy and blowing everything. I'd like to think if I won a huge amount I'd be smarter with the money.