"Do what you can to make somebody else's day a little bit brighter."
By Kate Northrop
A year after winning almost $1 million (US$731,905) in the Australian TattsLotto, one particular Aussie went on a selfless crusade to give it all away.
Thanks to a superstition, Peter Charleton, 47, of Yarra Ranges bought a TattsLotto lottery ticket in August 2020 that turned out to be the winner of a prize worth $896,511.13 (US$656,160.98). A year later, he's already given away most of the prize.
Back in 2020, the father had accidentally left his late uncle's favorite pocketknife on top of his car. He arrived home an hour later to discover that the knife had survived the entire trip, still sitting on the roof of the vehicle. In light of the miraculous luck, he took to social media to announce that he would be buying a few Lotto tickets.
Charleton bought three Quick Pick lottery tickets for a TattsLotto drawing. A few days later, he checked his numbers on the Lottery's mobile app. The first and second ticket he bought — no prize, but upon checking the third ticket, he was met with something he had never seen before.
"I scanned the third one, and it came up with something that I wasn't familiar with because it said 'you are a big winner' or a 'major winner' or something," he said in an interview with My Big Story.
Despite the confirmation that he had won nearly $1 million, he deleted the app, redownloaded it, and checked his numbers again. Sure enough, he was about to have hundreds of thousands of dollars come his way soon.
"It was a really good feeling," Charleton recalled.
During the tense 17 days he waited for the money to land in his bank account, he only revealed the win to his immediate family. However, he admitted that he had no desire to spend the money on himself and instead decided to take care of his family, friends, and the people in his community.
"I don't feel comfortable keeping all this money to myself, and so I didn't," he revealed. He said that he doesn't understand how multi-billionaires can continue to build on their wealth.
His first order of business was to take care of the bare necessities for himself, such as paying off his mortgage and buying a second-hand car. Then, he went on to help out family members and friends in need. After everyone close to him was taken care of, Charleton started showing up to local businesses, such as cafes, restaurants, and grocery stores, to pay for customers' food, sometimes putting down anywhere between $500 and $1,000 while saying "do with it as you please."
"I felt more comfortable knowing that I'd given it all away and done a few things for myself," the generous winner remarked. "I was messaging people on Facebook asking, 'Can I have your bank details? I want to send you some money...' I didn't tell the wider community that I'd won Lotto."
Charleton quipped that, since many people are growing accustomed to scammers approaching potential victims on social media asking for personal information, at times it was actually difficult to give the money away to random strangers who were immediately skeptical of his intentions.
A magazine featured Charleton in an article that was set to release about a month after his win, but he made it his goal to give all the winnings away before people realized he had won the lottery.
"My mission was to get rid of it all before people realized I'd won it," he explained.
All of this was made possible thanks to Charleton's superstitious reason for buying the winning lottery ticket in the first place.
Charleton had a close relationship with his late uncle, Charlie, for whom he cared for full-time when he was sick with chronic lung disease. The two had always played the lottery together, and his uncle was positive that they would win it one day.
Charlie passed away just two weeks before Charleton bought the winning ticket, prompted by the miracle he had witnessed with his uncle's pocketknife.
"Maybe, just maybe, Uncle Charlie pulled some strings on his way out," Charleton said thoughtfully.
Even prior to winning the huge prize, the winner was constantly looking for the next moment to make someone else's day brighter. He ran a small business that provided inflatable jumping castles for free at children's parties, purely motivated by seeing families happy. He also did gardening work for a woman struggling with depression.
"There's such a pleasure in being kind and being able to help people, and if you're in a position where you've got the money to do it, I think you're mad if you don't," Charleton remarked. "Do what you can to make somebody else's day a little bit brighter."
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Not buying this story at all. No one would fall for that give me your banking information so he could deposit money into it scam. He gave away a few thousand dollars and is acting like he gave 95% of it away to prevent people from hounding him for money. It is the oldest lottery winner trick in the book to ward off the leeches.
Gee, aren't you a shining light in a dark world.
Personally, I think he is a tremendous human being. He found happiness for himself being kind to others.
" My MISSION was to get rid of it all before people realized l'd won it."
That is the most screwed up " mission statement " l have heard so far this year.
Hope he put enough aside for a face transplant
..So you all for taking a page out of the David Lee Edward's playbook?
* David, who managed to blow his entire fortune of millions in 5 years- Great!
I think there is a difference between Edward and the Aussie. Edward just blew the money. The Aussie helped other people and bettered other people's lives. A noble thing to do.
If I won the PB or MM, I like to think I would help others after taking care of my kids, but frankly talk is cheap and who knows how any one person (me included) would really react winning money like that.
* The forum is opinion based, so l gave my opinion, l am not knocking anyone else's opinion, but let's step back for a minute here. This guy plays, he wins, he deletes an app, then re installs it to make sure he is the winner. Then, in he's own words- makes it his mission to get RID of it all. That's A** backwards thinking.
* Edward's also had a mission, to make his wealth grow, but as you well know, he to " got rid of it." Sure it's comparing Apples to Oranges- but l focused on " Getting rid of it all" rcb. Let's hope we don't read of Peter being spotted standing in a soup kitchen line down the road.
* Careful Jeff, you don't want to agree with me under any circumstances, the natives become restless. It's saber rattling, but l thought l would give you a heads up.
* Thread softly..
off topic: The Powerball is $432 million and no one is talking about it. How big does the jackpot have to be for people to get excited?
Imagine taking someone you would like to impress out on a date and they turn out to have "very, very" expensive tastes. And you are sitting there hoping you have enough to pay for everything and all of a sudden this guy shows up at the restaurant and hands you a thousand bucks and says "do with it as you please". Unexpected money is always the best money.
IMHO it is called lottery fatigued. Now $457 million. I still remember when one of the big guys, think Powerball got sky high for the first time...I'm talking about astronomically high. There were over 600 replies on LP about it and the fever kept up until it was won!
That's OK, let them beat on their drums or go swinging through the trees.
On a side note I think music*, Marty, from Fresno is no longer with us. Last post in November and had sent him a few PM with no reply. Miss talking with him, he Navy and me Army.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/storythreads/2021-06-01/billionaires-are-giving-away-their-money-here-s-where-it-s-going
https://listverse.com/2013/12/24/10-refreshing-stories-rich-people-who-gave-their-fortunes-away/
Greedy people are first in line to ask for more but last in line to make the effort required to earn the rewards. Instead of adopting the view that everyone benefits as the pie gets larger, they view the pie as a constant — there’s only so much to go around. They feel they deserve a larger piece, even at someone else’s expense, and they’re going to take it.
"Yes, most narcissists are relatively stingy and protective over their money. They don’t willingly hand over what they have. However, this greed extends beyond self-preservation. Because narcissists lack empathy for others, they don’t necessarily understand the benefits of sharing their resources. To them, the world may already feel like a cruel and unfair place, but it’s not their job to help anyone else. Likewise, they feel highly driven by competition. The narcissist constantly compares themselves to others, even if it seems like they only focus on their accomplishments. As a result, the notion of “giving something away” may feel threatening. They don’t want to face any possible chance that someone else could take advantage of them. "
"The Cerebral Narcissist and Money Cerebral narcissists value coming across as wise and intellectually superior over everyone else. They like being in the center of attention, but they tend to be pretentious about their skills and preferences. Cerebral narcissists may pretend that money doesn’t matter to them. They might even seem to detest wealthy people or high-earning professions. Often, this is due to their own jealousy. But instead of recognizing this feeling, they just tend to put other people down. Reading Suggestions: 15 Narcissist Hoovering Examples How to Respond to the Narcissist Fake Apology? What is Gaslighting in Narcissism? Cerebral narcissists can also be highly critical about how other people spend their money. For instance, they may criticize someone for buying a nice home or fancy car. That’s because they might perceive these purchases as vain or silly."
Alexander Burgemeester
While the messaging Falsebook for peoples bank accounts wasn't too bright, the intentions were noble.
His trying to help others is very admirable. As we know today, $896K doesn't go very far.
Being debt free and satisfied with what you have is rewarding in itself. Peter is just one of those people that has a desire to give as opposed willingness to take. It is his life/money and he has to live with the choices he makes.
"There's such a pleasure in being kind and being able to help people, and if you're in a position where you've got the money to do it, I think you're mad if you don't," Charleton remarked. "Do what you can to make somebody else's day a little bit brighter."
Good for you Peter
The buying frenzy starts at 400M. But Todd is slow to put up a Top 25 until there's a juicy headline he can tag to it. I suspect a jackpot of half a billion before it becomes a hot topic on the forums.
What works for an Aussie wouldn't work here in the United States.
https://www.lotterypost.com/news/335154
Looks like the ole PB moved into the #24 position for annuity value and #20 on the cash value.
MM Hasn't cracked the top 25 for annuity....BUT.. is #21 on the list behind this new PB run....
Not too shabby
"Todd is slow to put up a Top 25 until there's a juicy headline"
I suppose a bump partway through the drawing cycle is usually newsworthy, and a headline that writes itself, but I'd figure it's the size of the jackpot that really matters. A current jackpot pushing an older one off of the top 25 list seems like a good time to write the headline if it hasn't been written already. When simultaneous jackpots in both of the big games have pushed the old 24 and 25 spots off of the list I'd figure the headline is overdue. Big jackpots are more common now, but even if they both hadn't made it into one of the top 25 lists I'd also think that when both of them made it past $400 million at the same time it's still newsworthy.
We all know that when the winners make announce their choices the annuity values won't matter, but PB is now #20 on that list. On the list with the amounts that really count PB is #18 and MM is #22.
Still not buying it. He had a whole different attitude playing,winning, the way he checked the numbers, his response that he didn't know what big winner or grand prize or something meant. His waiting 17 days for the money anxiously. For what to start giving it away. Either he is mental and I would be on board with that assessment or he is deflecting to avoid leeches. He did not win that much to give it away or even be concerned about someone trying to get it. I'm leaning toward mental issues actually. But this one is bizarre because of the small amount of the hit. The second hand car really did it. I hope it was a recent model.