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If you won the lottery, what would you do BEFORE u come forward?

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Nothing, besides carry a gun with me on the way to the lottery office to turn the ticket in. I'd be too scared that something would happen before I cashed in the ticket to wait or do anything else to prepare.

Once I had the money I would buy a little grass hut on Tahiti and take up sailing.

Also, I've always wanted to start a string of non-profits that employed crews of former inmates, former gang members and others out of work to go around cleaning up graffiti and trash. It would both physically clean up the streets and also pay a living wage to people who wanted an honest job. One of the conditions of employment would be drug testing and complying with the conditions of your probation or parole.
 
1) Consult our lawyers/accountants.

2) Engage a qualified and recommended wealth manager (probably Northern Trust).

3) Delete social media accounts, archive and clear email accounts. Secure house and pets.

4) Buy tickets to London.

5) Collect winnings publicly as required. Have funds wired to financial institution.

6) Immediately leave for airport and bounce around Europe for a few months. Only keep in contact with immediate family and wealth manager.

7) Come back, quietly purchase new residence through an LLC in a secured condo building, and slowly start sifting through friends to weed out the assholes who want money.
 
mmntech said:
The problem with winning the lottery is you find out who your real friends are. Suddenly Uncle Jimmy, who you haven't seen for 20 years, will be calling up his favourite nephew to help pay off his Visa bill. Lord knows that old lady who won will have every child and grand child battling tooth and nail for a slice of that pie. That's why I think lottery winners should have the option to remain anonymous.
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They do in Maryland. Sure, they tax lottery winnings pretty highly, but the anonymity is TOTALLY worth it.

So, buy your tickets in Maryland I guess.
 
First thing I would do is wait and give it time.

I have never EVER made any good decisions during great happiness or sadness.

I would definitely wait until I'm back to normal before making any decisions.
 
1. Hire the best accountant and broker money can buy.

2. Invest most, take out a few million to waste on various toys.

3. Be a billionaire in a decade.
 
I one thing a lot of people miss if even if you claim with a blind trust or such, you can't just immediately quit your job and disappear. Someone will put two and two together. You need to claim with the trust, but continue on as usual for a month or two before telling people you got a new job and quit. That would probably be the hardest thing. You need to just fade away if you don't want to be hassled by everyone you ever met for money.

Of course If I really won I'd probably have a M5 for my drive to the lotto office...
 
IIRC, a blind trust can't claim winnings in California. I'd probably do many of the things previously said. My extended family/group of friends isn't that big at least.
 
I wouldn't hire a financial planner but I would hire a CPA to handle all the tax stuff. Since you already have enough money to retire, no need to get greedy with high risk investments just low risk investments and live off of the interest / dividends accrued.

I would splurge at first with new house (place with low property taxes), exotic car, rolex watch. But after that, it comes down to self control and limit spending.
 
I wouldn't do anything special.. I would just go and claim it then deal with the implications. The only person I would tell is my wife (i.e. no other family). After I had the money in my account I would seek out a CPA.
 
Tell a waitress that she could have half the winnings if I won since I don't have cash to tip. The story would make for a good movie.
 
JEDI said:
If you won the lottery, what would you do BEFORE u come forward?
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Probably renounce my citizenship like that Facebook guy and make an off shore tax haven to stash my cash. I liked traveling on the paved roads and reaping the benefits of the nations infrastructure, I just don't want to pay anything towards the upkeep of it is all.
 
Retain a lawyer, financial adviser and a good personal security (ie: bodyguard) firm.

Half the money goes into investments, half of what's left goes into savings/cd, etc, half of what's left after that goes into regular bank accounts, and the rest into a jar under my desk.

I'll pay off my loans, my parents cars, buy myself a small modest house, and keep going to work till i get tired of it. Probably buy a boat and spend all my time on it.

And then I'll wake up. 🙁
 
I'm not sure why everyone thinks it would be such a big deal. There are plenty of multi-millionaires out there, and they don't seem to have a problem living life. I think this is all sour grapes - a mentality of it would be so difficult to manage life I am happier where I am. I am sure people would come asking for money. I already have close friends and family and wouldn't expect that to change. I am smart enough to know that my uncle who I don't know and hasn't called me in years is looking for money and nothing more. I don't anticipate being robbed, or children being taken captive, or anything of the sort and I'm not sure why you do. Are there documented cases of this happening?
 
Prior to collecting my winnings probably just freak the hell out about winning (I never win anything)!

Once collected:

Pay off all my bills
Pay off all my mom's bills and her house
Setup education only trust fund for each kid
Setup trust for my kids that they can have once much older (they should have to work for a living just like I do)
Donate a lot to our church, cancer research etc (several mill across the board to charity)
Purchase land and build fields & and indoor facility for my local soccer organization
Give 1 mill to each immediate family member to do whatever they want (i.e. sister, wife's brother, mom, etc etc)

I would then work on properly investing the money to live off of. I am not sure I would move but I would certainly fix up the house I currently live in to do all the things I have always wanted to do to it but could never afford.
 
Apple Of Sodom said:
I'm not sure why everyone thinks it would be such a big deal. There are plenty of multi-millionaires out there, and they don't seem to have a problem living life. I think this is all sour grapes - a mentality of it would be so difficult to manage life I am happier where I am. I am sure people would come asking for money. I already have close friends and family and wouldn't expect that to change. I am smart enough to know that my uncle who I don't know and hasn't called me in years is looking for money and nothing more. I don't anticipate being robbed, or children being taken captive, or anything of the sort and I'm not sure why you do. Are there documented cases of this happening?
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I think the hassle of being called by every charity known to man, every relative, scammers, etc is reasonably well documented. The difference between a lotto winner and someone who is rich the old fashioned way is the lotto winner isn't savvy. They're much more likely to do stupid and irrational things. Its why many lotto winners end up broke again in just a few years.
 
Apple Of Sodom said:
I'm not sure why everyone thinks it would be such a big deal. There are plenty of multi-millionaires out there, and they don't seem to have a problem living life. I think this is all sour grapes - a mentality of it would be so difficult to manage life I am happier where I am. I am sure people would come asking for money. I already have close friends and family and wouldn't expect that to change. I am smart enough to know that my uncle who I don't know and hasn't called me in years is looking for money and nothing more. I don't anticipate being robbed, or children being taken captive, or anything of the sort and I'm not sure why you do. Are there documented cases of this happening?
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recently a guy won a million on a scratcher and was poisoned.
 
jaedaliu said:
recently a guy won a million on a scratcher and was poisoned.
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For a mere $450K after taxes? It sounds like he didn't surround himself with upstanding people to begin with. I didn't win the lottery but certainly have more assets than that and I don't worry about being poisoned or anything else. I think this would have happened to him regardless of where the money came from.

Simple: live your life as if you may one day win the lottery - only surround yourself by people you can trust and remember that someone who thinks money can do anything will do anything for money.
 
Apple Of Sodom said:
I'm not sure why everyone thinks it would be such a big deal. There are plenty of multi-millionaires out there, and they don't seem to have a problem living life. I think this is all sour grapes - a mentality of it would be so difficult to manage life I am happier where I am. I am sure people would come asking for money. I already have close friends and family and wouldn't expect that to change. I am smart enough to know that my uncle who I don't know and hasn't called me in years is looking for money and nothing more. I don't anticipate being robbed, or children being taken captive, or anything of the sort and I'm not sure why you do. Are there documented cases of this happening?
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clips
NBC article
 
Midwayman said:
I think the hassle of being called by every charity known to man, every relative, scammers, etc is reasonably well documented. The difference between a lotto winner and someone who is rich the old fashioned way is the lotto winner isn't savvy. They're much more likely to do stupid and irrational things. Its why many lotto winners end up broke again in just a few years.
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Also, the rags-to-riches stories don't happen overnight, so people (and their friends) have more time to adjust to the new wealth. Their friend circles probably slowly change as the freeloaders stop getting invited to events. It's much harder to hang out with someone one week and then stop inviting them to anything ever again once you win the lottery.
 
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