Posted on 04/08/2007 6:25:41 AM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
On Christmas morning in 2002, Jack Whittaker woke up to perhaps the biggest gift imaginable. Whittaker had won the Powerball lottery jackpot -- a whopping $315 million.
"I got sick at my stomach, and I just was [at] a loss for words and advice," Whittaker said. "You know, I was really searching for advice, and it's, like, Christmas Day."
It was a made-for-TV Christmas story, and Whittaker's hardworking family became celebrities overnight. Whittaker's wife, Jewel, and their granddaughter Brandi Bragg would appear on no fewer than eight television shows. But as Whittaker celebrated his good fortune, he had no way of knowing that he was embarking on a journey that would lead to tragedy and the loss of everything he held dear.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.aol.com ...
It is true, once you have money everyone asks you for some of it and that is the bad side of it. If I had money I would give some away for noble causes like building churches, etc... but if someone wants me to buy them a hummer forget it!
What people forget is that having that kind of money is a big responsibility. The money isn’t the problem, it’s how a person deals with it.
No sour grapes here, just pure facts and oh-by-the-way I do NOT throw my money into lottery tickets.
Whittaker hasn’t exactly been Mr Responsibility if he’s the guy I’m thinking of.
Bingo (NPI).
When the NFL councils new players, they tell them “if you wouldn’t buy a car for somebody now, don’t buy a car for them after you get your NFL salary.” It may sound cold, but it’s good advice.
In the town I grew up in, a pleasant family lived in town. The father was a professor, and the mother stayed home. The Mother would organize bake sales for schools and so forth. At one point, they were talking with us and said they planned to send their kids to boarding school starting their freshman year because they didn’t like the local school system.
Later, I asked my mother how that family could afford to send their two kids to boarding school for four years on a professor’s salary. “The mother’s dad is a billionaire.” my mother told me. “But please don’t tell anyone.”
That family was very happy.
The End.
What’s hard is that if your start saying yes to requests for money, then everybody wants a piece and you’re suddenly deluged by an avalanche of requests. And, you’re an a-hole (in a lot of people’s eyes) if you say ‘no’. They love you as long as you’re giving, but people will turn on you in a big hurry.
Relatively speaking, the houses, cars, and other goodies are cheap. Even the alcohol and drugs are relatively cheap if you decide to go that way. What’s expensive is the people that claim to be your friends who are only there to slowly bleed you dry of money. Anna Nicole, a whole slew of other celebrities, and other lottery winners have found that out the hard way.
When you get that kind of money, you don’t instantly have all your problems solved. You just trade them in for different problems.
Bingo (NPI).
You bet, it would take forever to lose $315 million, even if you played 6 cards at a time.
It’s very difficult to manage money like that when you didn’t earn it. You tend not to appreciate it as much.
Still, I’d love to try. So I pay my “Stupid Tax” every week on Powerball.
Mark
Pathetic.
Yup. And the article mentions a briefcase with $2,000 being stolen out of his car. I heard it was more like $200,000.
This story has “white trash” written all over it.
It’s also OK to drink it away if you do it through a straw.
I can see that, I really can. You have to be prepared for the parade of cousins and in-laws who want their cars or houses paid off, and will curse you and guilt-trip you every way they can when you say no. There will be extended family and in-laws that you'll probably just have to cut loose, sorry to say.
As for Mr. Whittaker, he's a friggin' loser for blaming all his problems on his money instead of admitting to poor planning and avoidance of responsibility. People who don't have $50 to their name have drug problems, too. It's sad that his granddaughter didn't have the self-esteem or coping skills to stay away from the crackheads that saw an easy opportunity and latched onto her. I guess she never learned that there are people that only like you as long as you're buying and supporting their bad habits, and they're not the people that you want to like you or hang out with you. Class isn't something you buy. Whittaker has millions of dollars and he's still a lowlife.
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