Lottery Winner or Lottery Loser?

[mawnansmiff]

Damn so it wasn't me - I still have the ticket in my wallet, Switzerland participates in Euromillions and you can't move away from the fact that every news agent and petrol station was advertising "230mn CHF Jackpot".

I've somewhat of a fascination with lottery winners, though personally I've won less than 50 euros over the years of paying the dumb tax.

I always say to myself that if I won I'd keep very quiet for at least 6 months. Staying in my job, no crazy purchases, certainly nothing big like a flashy car. Certainly I'd make sure those near and dear to me get a nice windfall, ideally without knowing the benefactor because I am sure it'd screw the relationships. Certainly some good donations, setting some aside for my kids - but not a ton and not before they prove themselves by study and work - so they are set and safe for life.

Google "the king of chavs" for a true hero :P

Karam, I was tempted to mention Michael Carroll in my initial post but held back as I suspected no one outside the UK would have heard of him....or his exploits.

How Lotto lout Michael Carroll blew £9.7m on naked waitresses with coke on trays, eight-girl orgies and £2k-a-day on cocaine | The Sun

Regards,

Jay.

 

[Brendan]

Jay, Karam - RE: 'the King of Chavs'
That was a very entertaining read, thank you! ?

I love it when these silly pricks give advice for future winners too ?

 

[jguss]

The divorce rate is considerably higher amongst winners which kind of proves that money doesn’t buy happiness.

You could argue it proves the exact opposite.

 

[jguss]

“Most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich than face the reality of being poor”

Supposedly said by John Dickinson per 1776

 

[karam]

Karam, I was tempted to mention Michael Carroll in my initial post but held back as I suspected no one outside the UK would have heard of him....or his exploits.

How Lotto lout Michael Carroll blew £9.7m on naked waitresses with coke on trays, eight-girl orgies and £2k-a-day on cocaine | The Sun

Regards,

Jay.

I lived in England for 12 years

 

[karam]

Investments are a gamble, of course. Supposedly you can do it in an educated or well-advised way. Sometimes, but not always, this works well.

Depends, index trackers are pretty safe in my opinion. If you see the main indices of non-lalaland countries they have been going up and only up for the last 50 years. Even covid and the global financial crisis hit markets for a couple of years (covid just 3 months), this current downturn could last for a year or two, but it’s a good buyer’s market. Index tracking beats every investor on the planet apart from a handful of people.

 

[AJL67]

That much money you put it in the bank and can live very comfortably without touching the principle. After blowing some on the big stuff.

 

[AJL67]

Karam, I was tempted to mention Michael Carroll in my initial post but held back as I suspected no one outside the UK would have heard of him....or his exploits.

How Lotto lout Michael Carroll blew £9.7m on naked waitresses with coke on trays, eight-girl orgies and £2k-a-day on cocaine | The Sun

Regards,

Jay.

Jesus this guy was just a moron lol

 

[karam]

Jesus this guy was just a moron lol

True, at least he was honest about it :P

 

[sablebrush52]

I buy a couple of tickets every few months when there's an especially high prize. It's more for the entertainment value, for a couple of days, of possibly being wealthy and an opportunity to investigate my priorities by looking at what possibilities I imagine for using the money. Cheaper than a movie ticket or a therapist.

 

[mso489]

I think lotteries have more impact collectively on the people who don't win huge amounts. For some, it is a small dose of hope, a sort of psychological anti-depressant. Life may be hard, but there's this spark of light every so often that keeps 'em going. Then there are the people who really get addicted to gambling and spend their lives over spending on lotteries, horse races, pyramid schemes, almost anything they can bet on. For these, there is gamblers anonymous, to help them break out of the trance.

A greater conundrum are the wealthy folks who crave winning at gaming. It's difficult to see how that works when there's no need for a huge infusion of wealth they already have. It's an adrenaline and/or dominance kick. The Russian novelist Tolstoy had a wealthy family, and he lost the family mansion gambling. It was carted away completely from the family land, which was not part of the betting. Tolstoy spent the rest of his life living in the guest houses and other out buildings that stood arranged around the missing manor house.

 

[Alejo R.]

In principle I do not play games of chance, nor the lottery. That vice has no power over me. Nowhere in the world does formal education teach about money management, consumption, or taxes. If certain concepts were taught to young people at an early age, they would ask very uncomfortable questions for the Status Quo. It is curious that all education focuses on how to earn a living and almost nothing on how to spend and invest the money from your work. Basic concepts such as the interest rate are beyond the comprehension of large groups of the world population. So the basic problem many lottery winners have is that they suddenly find themselves with large amounts of something they don't know how to handle.

 

[Alejo R.]

Most states forbid anonymous winning. There’s only like 6 or 7 that allow it. Reason being, announcing winners keeps faith in the public that it’s not rigged and real people actually win.

This is criminal. The idea of publicizing the identity of someone with a lot of money is to tempt the devil.

 

[karam]

Nowhere in the world does formal education teach about money management, consumption, or taxes. If certain concepts were taught to young people at an early age, they would ask very uncomfortable questions for the Status Quo. It is curious that all education focuses on how to earn a living and almost nothing on how to spend and invest the money from your work. Basic concepts such as the interest rate are beyond the comprehension of large groups of the world population. So the basic problem many lottery winners have is that they suddenly find themselves with large amounts of something they don't know how to handle.

This is so very true. And it’s so simple to give some basics of investing and compound interest that it’s nearly criminal that they don’t. It would truly make the world a better place I feel. I know people who started saving and investing aged 18, that’s a 22 year head start to me which I can’t possibly match at the moment. I have a colleague who has a 3-year old kid, and his wife will soon have a second. He’s already investing on both their behalf.

I buy a couple of tickets every few months when there's an especially high prize. It's more for the entertainment value, for a couple of days, of possibly being wealthy and an opportunity to investigate my priorities by looking at what possibilities I imagine for using the money. Cheaper than a movie ticket or a therapist.

I do EXACTLY the same, even snub the lottery here if the pot is below 50mn, as if a sudden injection of 2-3mn would not be enough for me. And as you said, I usually spend a day or two daydreaming on what I would do. Until the draw, then I see I won…nothing a few weeks or a month back there was a monster draw, 160mn or whatever, I played and got an email I won… Only to see it was 7.5 franks LOL