Posted on 04/08/2007 10:34:54 PM PDT by blackbeardsghost
Whittaker bought and decorated an elaborate home for Bragg and her mother that included a perfect recreation of the bottle from the 1960's TV sitcom "I Dream of Jeannie." He also gave Brandi about $2,000 a week and bought her four new cars. Whittaker said while Bragg was only 17 years old at the time, she was very responsible with her money.
"To a young kid cars mean a lot," Whittaker said. "She had four cars and I'm very proud that she had four cars."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Yes the lottery was worth 315 million. If you take the money up front and pay taxes like he did, you get a check for about 104 million. he did contribute 15 million to build two churches.
And this donation was suppose to help him how?
That is something to think about. You are probably right.
“One thing about trailer trash they OWN something however apartment trash are OWNED.”
Unless your house is paid off, the bank owns it and you just rent it from them.
This is his lucky day.
I’m selling Curse offsets.......
If I won, I’d take about five million to play with, the house the cars, the trips, help the relavtives then put the rest away and live off the interest. I would still have an extremely comfortable living, but not enough to get real stupid real fast.
The cultural values of the middle and upper classes are different; in these classes, conspicuous displays of wealth are seen as "trashy" and distasteful by most. Instead, members of these groups tend to equate wealth with the future, and tend to deal with sudden wealth by investing it, either in the form of traditional financial investments or in other future-oriented ways (paying for children's educations in advance, endowing scholarships, sponsoring works of art, philanthropy, etc.)
Class has nothing to do with wealth. People with true class exist in all income groups, displaying their class through their actions and lives rather than by their purchases. People with true class are frugal and restrained in their tastes. This is the M.O. of the classic "millionaire next door" — the wealthy man or woman who drives the same beat-up pickup truck he or she drove before becoming wealthy, the billionaire who wears clothing of fine materials and subtle beauty instead of flashy sportswear festooned with labels, who sports a simple platinum wedding band instead of a tangle of gold-rope chain around his or her neck. Truly high-class people have neither the desire nor the psychological need to show off their wealth; the mark of real class is restraint, frugality, and devotion to duty.
Would I like to be rich? Yes, but I have no desire to be wealthy if to become so means that I have to give up time with my family or church, or to work any harder than I do now. Neither do I play the lottery: I am not willing to risk even one hard-earned dollar on a game of chance in the hope of getting more stuff. I am satisfied with my lot in life. I grew up poor, but thanks be to God I have achieved almost all the dreams I had as a child. All I ever wanted was a happy marriage, a family, and a home of my own, and I have those things. Everything I get outside of those things is laginappe as far as I am concerned. If the Lord sees fot that I should become wealthy, then it will be my duty to use that wealth properly, not waste it on superficial crap. Advice on how to deal with sudden wealth is available; should I ever become suddenly wealthy by other means, I intend to heed that advice, and park my fortune in some safe, no-risk holding place until I can assemble a team of trustworthy finiancial advisers who can help me put my money to work for the betterment of my familiy and community.
hmmm.. all I want is 120K to pay off my house & van... and maybe another 20K for a new truck...
0. TELL NO ONE. Continue daily routine.
1. Confirm that your ticket is the winning ticket.
2. Photocopy ticket.
3. Secure real ticket in bank safe deposit box. Arrange line of credit using ticket as collateral to cover set-up expanses. Continue to live, pay bills out of your current income.
4. Meet with an attorney. Set up a trust to handle all funds. Carefully choose trustees based upon proven wisdom, honesty, and loyalty.
5. Establish a business address, mailbox, e-mail account, and web presence for the trust. Make sure all are separate from your own personal accounts.
6. Inteview and select a management staff of professonals (MBA, CPA, CFP, tax attorney, etc.) to work for trust.
7. Redeem ticket. Park funds in 100% safe investments (Federally-guaranteed securities, etc.) until detailed investment decisions can be made.
8. Invest funds, structuring them to provide you and yours a steady income for life based upon capital gains from investments. Arrange for educations, philanthropic endowments, etc.
9. Retire all outstanding debts. Relocate to remote area with best security and tax advantages. Retain licensed security personnel to protect property and people.
10. All this done well, pick one lifelong dream, and use money to make it real.
If I hit the jackpot, I'd retire all my family's and closest friends' outstanding debts — but I'd do it directly, without giving anyone any cash. I'd also pay off our parish's outstanding debts and build a private Catholic school for the arts along with a small but lovely church and shrine here in Tarrant County. This church and its shrine would be a work of art constructed from the finest materials and built by the most talented artists, craftsmen, and engineers I could find. (The members of the senior class of the art school would be required to spend their senior year working as appentices to these craftsmen in order to graduate.) I'd also endow a free medical and dental clinic, a home for unwed mothers, a depression research chair at a local medical school, and an orphanage, and establish a scholarship at my high school.
And my lifetime dream? I'd buy two tickets to the moon, one for me, one for Mrs. Chan.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
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