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njlauren -> RE: give some advise to power ball winner (8/3/2013 12:39:35 PM)
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Other are right, it is always better to take the cash and invest it, while getting payments might help protect yourself from yourself, a lot of people still get fouled up, the run up debt because 'we have the cash to pay for it', and it ends up burying them.
-I agree, find a good investment advisor and lawyer. Be very careful with investment advisors, any jerk can hang out a shingle, and a lot of them are unscrupulous, just ask the people who lost their nest eggs when advisors funneled it to Bernie Madoff. Find one who is certified and has been in business a while, and if he promises you 20% a year returns, run the other way.
-With the cash winnings, set aside some of it as 'now' money, to pay off the house, to renovate it, to buy another one,etc,
-Set aside some as mad money, however you define that to be, probably shouldn't be a lot, but maybe 10,000 to go and play at vegas or something.
-If you think you want to have some money to help people with (charity, friends), have the investment advisor take some share of the winnings, and set up a trust, kind of like an endowment, and use the returns from that to help people. Try not to give away money directly from your winnings, at least after you go through the first wave, an endowment kind of thing allows you to give money away without wiping out your nest egg.
-Decide on the kind of lifestyle you want. Some people immediately think they want the big house and the big car, but one psychologist I know who actually had a patient who hit it big (10 million I think) said that often people feel more comfortable who maintain something of a similar lifestyle that they had, but had the comfort of knowing they wouldn't want for anything. Her patient for example, bought a nice apartment in NYC, but it wasn't crazy, and was able to do things like go to concerts and plays and such easier, but pretty much maintained the same lifestyle, but comfortably so and my friend said that often is the best way to go, because we tend to be most comfortable with what we know.
And yep, as far as friends and family go, it would be great if it could be anonymous, but of course they want to publicize it.
Funniest story was from years ago, I was working in the financial industry in the late 80's, at the time of the crash of 87 (technical, not business)..we had a lot of work to do at night, and had gone out to a local place to grab a beer and sandwiches. A friend of one of the guys there was a trader at one of the wall street firms, and he told the story of a coworker, guy was in his late 50's, kind of steady worker guy, kids were grown, guy never really speculated with his own money, real sedate guy....the Friday before the Monday crash, he put like 18 grand into the Amex market basket index put options, way out of the money, probably paid nothing for them because they were expiring the next week..and by end of day Monday, he had made 9 million dollars......and Tuesday, he showed up to work, and his coworkers asked why, and he said this is what he had done for 30+ years, and he enjoyed doing it.......
I think the biggest one is realizing that even the biggest windfall can melt like Jello under a blowtorch if you aren't careful.
Me, I think if I won it, didn't have to worry about work, retirement, and helping my kid get through college and establishing themselves, plastic surgeons and tattoo and body piercing places would make some nice money, as would certain custom shoe places and such *lol*..(hey, if I have to dream, wtf..my chances of winning lotteries are zero, I repel them,if they gave the prize to the person who bought 100 bucks of quick pick tickets and didn't get any numbers at all, I would be rich *lol*).
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