Powerball Winner

Powerball Winner

Could you handle winning a big lottery drawing?  Because if you feel that you are not up to the challenge you shouldn’t even be buying lottery tickets.  The odds of winning the Powerball Jackpot are 175 million to 1.  I personally feel that I am more likely to be struck by lightning 10 times in my lifetime then to win the Powerball Lottery.

Ever since Lottery started I keep noticing that the winners are usually up in years (sometimes retired), with a comfortable set of living circumstances (nice home, nice car etc.), all of a sudden its looking like I may be getting myself in position to win the Lottery.  So if I win in the near future I will announce it on this blog first. In all seriousness like many people, I’ve pondered what I might do if I won the Lottery.

The one guaranteed definite is that your life will change dramatically.  There is a history of failed winners (oxymoron-winners and failed don’t go well together) who have ended up bankrupt within a few years. If you are not good at managing money the only thing that changes if you win is that you have a larger amount of money to mismanage.  The winner will have friends and relatives coming out of the woodwork.  People that don’t know you will hound you for help for a multitude of things.  You will be required to be organized, cautious, a little indifferent, and calculating.  In the first place your good fortune does not make you responsible of all the needs of the world or even your neighborhood. You will have to remember who was there for you when you use to run out of money, before you ran out of month

The old saying still applies charity begins at home, take care of family and close friends first, but not before hiring professionals to represent your interests.  Financial planner, attorney, food taster (just joking –not).  The most recent winner of the Powerball Lottery a Dominican Republic emigrant surprised me by going public so quickly; he may yet learn to regret the spontaneous action he took.  The first negative that came up was that the he owed $29,000.00 in back child support.  If that’s the worst thing that comes up he will be doing well.

Most of us won’t admit it, but I for one have developed at least the first and second stage of a plan of action just in case we win the Lottery.  First thing is to immediately call for a family reunion, to be held at the top floor of an expensive hotel in downtown Seattle (no reason given for the reunion). The reunion agenda will consist of four items;

1. Welcome and share good news (a second floor may be needed to include both sides of the family)
2. Special workshop on second day of reunion to total everyone’s debt excluding mortgage
3. Booking each family’s (independent) one week vacation (other sharing plan to be developed)
4. Enjoy the rest of the 4 day reunion with a Top 40 entertainer for the young ones and Tom Jones for the more mature family members.

I would spend one day meeting with my wife and our advisors (they will come to us).  The very next step is for my wife and me to disappear for at least 30 days (somewhere in paradise).

After arranging a plan for charitable contributions and establishing college accounts for all the grandchildren and sons and daughters that want to go back to school, the wife and I would live happily for the rest of our life on a budget (hefty but budget just the same).

Have you thought about what you would do? If you are buying lottery tickets, you need to have a plan after all you are not buying the tickets because you are expecting to see the words, “you are not a winner.”  Live a little even if it’s just fantasy until you hit the big one!  The best is yet to come…