Posted on 01/12/2016 5:28:04 AM PST by lowbridge
Nearly 70% of lottery winners end up broke within seven years. Even worse, several winners have died tragically or witnessed those close to them suffer.
Edward Ugel, author of the book "Money for Nothing: One Man's Journey Through the Dark Side of Lottery Millions," told the Daily Beast of the thousands of lottery winners he's known, few were happy and only a small number lived happily ever after.
"You would be blown away to see how many winners wish they'd never won," Ugel said.
One of those unlucky winners was Abraham Shakespeare. Just weeks before Shakespeare was killed, he told his mother he wished he never won.
Shakespeare hit big for $30 million in 2006, causing friends and family to hound him for money.
He befriended Dorice (Dee Dee) Moore who tricked Shakespeare into believing she was trying to protect him from the greedy people around him.
Moore convinced the lottery winner to transfer his assets to her before he went missing in 2009. In 2012, she was sentenced to mandatory life without parole for his murder by a judge who called her "cold, calculating and cruel."
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
He was soon left with nothing after dishing out cash on parties, cocaine, hookers and cars."
Reminds me of a line from the WC Fields movie The Bank Dick when Fields asks the bartender (played by Shemp Howard):
Fields: "Was I in here last night, and did I spend a $20 bill?"
Shemp: "Yeah."
Fields: "Oh boy, what a load that is off my mind... I thought I'd lost it!"
I’ll still give it a shot.........
These people don’t look at money properly. Money is merely a tool and how it is used is how effective that tool is. Unless you win the powerball, most lottery wins just allow a step up from your current situation. Almost no amount of money will last forever.
I suspect many winners had lives that were train-wrecks in the first place.
Inherited wealth comes in many forms. Almost all are corrupting and disabling.
Perhaps the only inheritance that is truly beneficent is “divine grace.”
Except for divine grace, we generally cherish only gifts that we earn
People that are bad at handling money don’t suddenly become good at it just because they come into bunch of it. The same idiotic habits continue, just on a larger scale.
Money, like guns, lays in wait for the opportunity to kill you. Evil money...
Pretty much as well. In psychology, it is taught that people seek normalcy, meaning what they are familiar with. If you artificially change their situation, they will unknowingly seek to return to what they once knew.
After reading the stories...it wasn’t the lottery’s fault. Handing millions to people of low character has a very predictable result.
People who don’t know how to handle money before they win the lottery don’t know how to handle money after they win the lottery. Duh.
People who routinely play the lottery are demonstrating that they can’t handle money.
If you win the big one, you set up a foundation and pay yourself from the foundation. You don’t carry $50k around in a briefcase to impress people.
I can’t spend a Billion dollars. But I certainly would enjoy giving most of it away. And yes, I am serious.
The money would not relieve life’s stress and anxiety, it would only change it. But I would embrace the change for sure. I could get a window fixed on my house. I have some plumbing work that is over due and my truck has over 221K miles on it. Part of my front walk and driveway needs to be replaced. I could afford to get that done. The spring on my garage door broke yesterday. I need to get some drywall repaired in my garage too. This pesky job thing every day creates scheduling challenges for my charity work and child involvement. That would change. I’d like to buy my elderly neighbor (WWII Vet) a new handicap van for him and his wife. I’d get the damn street light fixed at the corner of our neighborhood. There is some landscaping in my yard and a couple of neighbors that needs to be done.
I’d also upgrade the stone in my wife’s wedding ring. I’d set my family up and do a plan for future stipen to my children. I’d set up some endowments. I’d tip no less than $100 when dining out. We’d give the rest away (discreetly). There are a couple of people that I would love to just pay off their house anonomously (good people).
Fantasy over.... back to work.
Not so much a curse but an inability to deal with it. I’ve always said there are 4 people I will consult with before I pick up my winnings: my parents, my pastor, my attorney, and a trusted financial advisor.
No extravagant lifestyle and no one in my circle who wasn’t there before
With very slight modification you’ve said it for me.
I don’t know what the rules are for various lotteries, but I now some of the require you to do publicity to collect. I think people would be much better off if they could remain anonymous.
Wisdom.
You are a great person.
“The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill” by Robert Service lists a variety of ways a man can die. Among those are “...battle, murder, or sudden wealth, by pestilence, hooch or lead-”.
IIRC, there are 6 states that allow anonymous collection of winnings.
-——there is 300 million people in the USA! What if $1 million was distributed to each American?????? That would
still leave a nice bundle. Would poverty disappear???
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.