Quote:
Originally Posted by jplinville
I had a neighbor that won $20 million back in the mid 1990's. He took the cash pay out, and moved. He burned through the cash in under 7 years. It's a good thing he didn't sell his old house...he ended up moving back into it, and drives a second hand GM now.
It was sad to see that happen to him, but he had no idea how to handle having that much cash.
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Unless he were a balance sheet millionaire or better before he won that money, then no, he wouldn't - (know or even have a clue as; 'how to handle it.....')
Jack Whittaker from West Virginia, won over $100 Million dollars after taxes, and ended-up with little or none of it in a few short years.
The case study that was noteworthy and interesting, was that Jack Whittaker was a self-made millionaire of about 50 years old, married, and was a sole proprietor company-owning contractor with dozens of employees worth approx. $18 Mil before he won the lottery. There's any number of true life stories available on the Net about the poor guy, and how it changed his life.
Quote:
Originally Posted by barry12345
Perhaps blowing it away is not as common an event today as it once was. Winning big must bring more contact with your siblings especially. Plus every relative you barely new probably makes an appearance.
I am pretty certain that every charity out there gets your number and calls.
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100% of ppl return to their previous lot-in-life. None, or dam near no exceptions. That's not changing - ever.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Angel
I see this comment more often than not. It always begs the question: how should you handle having that much cash ? When I was in school, I was always looking for the class "BUS102 - how to handle a large cash windfall" but never found it 
My thoughts are 3 pronged: I am open to comments.
1) Pay off a house, or buy a reasonable one outright (much homework here...) $500k should get you a liveable house in any part of the country you wish to live.
2) Set aside $3M or more in a stable/secure investment account (A Bank savings account ?), plan to live on the interest of this. (Interest on $3M is $60K/yr or more ? that's enough for the midwest where I live...)
3) If you have any left over, consider one-time gifts to important people or charities in your life.
4) do not buy more machines/toys/hobbies than you have time to commit to. I see these dudes with 10 motorcycles and I feel sorry for them - they'll spend more time deciding/maintaining machines than riding them.
5) Buy some art, a Picasso or a Garfunkel |
It doesn't really matter what the person tries to do - they'll always return to where they were - or at a lesser point financially and otherwise. Make book on it.
