When you are perceived as "earning" your money, such as building a business and becoming wealthy, people tend to leave you alone. But a lottery winner brings out the very worst in friends and family as well as a never ending parade of scam artists. People figure that you did nothing to earn it and so you should be obligated to shell a good portion of it out to others, especially your relatives, who will suddenly come out of the woodwork grasping for their slice of the pie.
They won't want to hear about how you had to pay 55% of it to the taxman and how you have to now hire an army of lawyers and accountants to manage it all. They are only interested in their "lump sum" and guess what, it will never be enough. Give everybody in your family $50,000 and they will soon be muttering what a cheapskate you are. No amount will satisfy them once you start dishing it out.
I almost want to say "no thanks" to being a big lottery winner.
Really, the only proper way to handle such a windfall is to put the winning ticket in a safe place and hire a good lawyer to work out the details of claiming it. Try not to reveal your name to the press if at all possible and keep a very low profile. Might be necessary to "relocate" to a different part of the country and only give your contact info to those people you want to hear from.
All but two state require publicity of winner. Apparently is some states one can get away with claiming the prize as an LLC or partnership (group winners), but a prize this size, the government will make sure the winner pays for the good luck.
I completely agree. The fewer people who know about it the better.
An accountant who won back in the 80s wrote a book about things he should have done, like start a corporation in Nevada.
“People figure that you did nothing to earn it and so you should be obligated to shell a good portion of it out to others,”
Not me. I would go down to the local credit union I use and have always been impressed with. I would deposit it all there and insist that a couple of solid businessmen I know be put on the board.
Then I would enjoy life. No army of accountants and brokers looking to leech on. My 1% or whatever would be fine!
Then I would annoyingly act like I earned it and deserved it, and that my opinion was extremely important on each and every topic. I would frequently discuss how proud I was after I got my first million.
I would tease politicians and act like I was thinking about donating it all, then right at the handshake,,,,id change my mind.
I would learn and enjoy the word no. Played right, a billion dollar ticket could be comedy gold.
I agree. I am not playing. Instead I will put my energy into my creative writing endeavors and hopefully publish one day.