If you won the lottery, how would you avoid self-destruction?
 

I think we'd all like to believe that we'd be perfectly fine and make the right decisions if we won, say, £100m, but isn't it that a LOT of lottery winners loose it all in the first couple of years? Some even commit suicide because of all the pressures from family/friends/charities constantly hounding them, making them question their relationships and bringing about misery etc, so it may be harder than we'd imagine.

If I won that kind of coinage, I'd allocate a few million to the closest around me and no-one else (my circle is pretty small as it is), give some to some charities and that would be that. I'd try and keep my winnings a secret as much as possible from the media if that's even possible? I'd get a nice place somewhere in England without splurging on a gold plated mansion on the Bahamas or anything crazy like that, probably allocate myself a couple million to go crazy with to get that inevitable impulse out of me and invest the rest. :shrug: I like to think I'd be logical and smart with it but would unforeseen hurdles **** me up?

Not Go Public.

This might be controversial but I don't think people should be able to win that amount of money, it is just too much and the majority of people would have no idea how to manage it, the interest alone even at 1% would be enough to keep most people comfortable for the rest of their lives.

I always said if I won the lottery I would tell nobody, and if I were handing out sums, I would clear peoples mortgages or buy them a house just to make life easier without taking away the need to work at something

It’s how you are as a person before the win that makes the difference in most cases.
Plus it’s a different mind set of working for you cash and winning it

Cherie buying lt a dolls because he is a big girl

indeed :laugh:

Cherie buy me a dogs house because I’m always in one

Id just self destruct and love every second of it.

Hide it from my husband, quit my job instantly and leave for some microscopic island in the South Pacific :joker:
No but really, we probably would build a house designed by a very talented architect and would do just fine. And stay close with my family and friends.

I know in France they don’t give you the full amount in one piece but in monthly payments. At least for prizes above one million. It kinds of reduce the craziness around it.

i think the best way to handle it is ignore it for 6 months, let your head get used to it and then tweak areas of life you feel you can improve with it

If I won the jackpot on the lottery I'd make a lot of people happy, pay off mortgages etc. My local animal sanctuary would get a big wodge of cash too.

My lovely late husband used to say, if I won the lottery I would still love my wife. But I'd miss her.

not tell a soul, not anyone

its not what it would do to you its what it would do to others if they knew

tell noone, ever

It's something I'd only tell my immediate family (I have a lot of cousins, uncles, etc that I....uh... just hate. Long, complicated, messy stories) and close friends, for starters. I'm not really one for ostentatious displays of wealth so it's not like I'd be trying to keep it a secret whilst driving a Maserati and posting pictures of my new Miami mansion.

I'd just want to sort out housing for my brothers/sister and mum (and nieces)... put together a savings account for my niece's future... maybe buy a holiday home or two abroad somewhere. I wouldn't know what to do with £100m so I'm only really conceiving this from a like... £5 or 10m perspective :laugh:

I think the Lottery have the option to allow winners to remain anonymous, and I think I'd take advantage of that. I wouldn't at all want to be in local papers. And it's not the idea of past friends/distant family coming crawling back and pretending we were ever close or anything, I just... don't think it's something that deserves press attention :laugh:

I’ll never understand why big lottery winners feel the need to go public, it’s completely bizarre to me, I’d keep that **** to myself, I’d help my immediate family, buy myself a nice house, start a business to keep money rolling in and keep myself busy and live my life in peace

If you tell one person

they will tell another

its human nature

yeah I have had this discussion with Mr C, he would be all for telling people, I would be no one

the euro millions lottery is 100 million on friday, don't think thats a life changing sum

Put it in a bank and invest.

After mild spending.

Even if you don’t want to tell people, I suppose it will be known anyway at some point? Imagine not going to your job anymore, buying new stuff or travelling much more. People would think you’re either in the mafia or won the lottery :joker:

There was a TV show in France about big lottery winners, like above 50 millions. There was this woman who did hide it completely from her husband and family for many many years. She told all of them when all the kids finished graduating from university and started working a few years because she wanted them to grow up with the value of money and didn’t want them to be spoilt brats. She gave them money for specific projects and bought her husband a nice car.

Xxx

I don't think I'd tell anyone about it, at least until I got everything in order, and even then I'd swear everyone I'd told to secrecy about it.

I'd probably lock around 90m of it away in a trust and then keep 10m to live off on, and see how I get on. Honestly, I'm not too materialistic so I doubt I'd live above my means. I'd probably buy a decent house, learn how to drive, and get a decent car and just live a life of leisure, since 10m would keep me funded for decades.

I would bring TIBB along for the ride.

Probably continuing to work. I'd probably set up a business or two.

You don’t get to hide it, the press knows that someone in the area won and they will quickly identify who it was, they’ll then basically give you the offer of doing an interview for a nice fluffy piece, or if you refuse, they’ll dig dirt and publish a nasty one.

This is what happened when my friend’s mum won about 15 years ago anyway. Wasn’t even a “huge” jackpot - just over £1 million - but she didn’t want her friends and neighbours to know ... decision was taken out of her hands. And she did eventually lose some friends and had to move somewhere new. She lived on an ex-council estate but had no intention of moving, but got “othered” as soon as people on the street knew she now had money.

Actually friends of friends won the lottery as well around that time and they were told to go public as the press would find out, not sure now as winning is quite common place if that would happen for amounts of a million...