Do you think winning the lottery will ruin your life?

Do you think winning the lottery will ruin your life?

  • Yes

    Votes: 16 8.7%

  • No

    Votes: 168 91.3%
  • Total voters
    184
This is a yes and no question depending on person to person...some people have great financial management skills and will probably be better off with the money. Some people will quit their job, they will go out and be extravagant, buy fast cars and the start to spiral out of control....die in car crash....start doing drugs....losing friends due to the wealth going to the head...and then when they are broke...no job and no friends....I know the afrikaans saying "Erf geld is swerf geld". Obviously these are the 2 extremes and there are people that go in between and don't end up as bad. I would say I would do ok....split the winnings up into a investment portion, I would keep my job and the other portion of money is for my toys, life improvement and sharing with family or friends if it is a really large amount.
 
If you act irresponsibly then yes. Quiting your job and buying all you family and friends cool stuff certainly will make your wealth short lived, resulting in the depressing feeling of failure. Most people who come from impoverished backgrounds may not have the necessary skills to correctly manage the sudden increase of net worth.
But thinking your expenditure through properly can even increase your wealth, giving you the foot in the door to success.

Personally the first thing I would do is limit my access to the winnings by placing it in a 32 day account or something similar. This would allow for the initial shock and excitement of winning to subside and you can then think clearly on what you want to spend/invest it in.
 
Definitely depends on the person, I know people that have come into alot of money and just went the wrong way.
 
I think you guys are right in the sense that the average Joe Would loose touch with that social interaction and goal setting, etc.
So, yes it probably would...
 
Ruin my life, you kidding?

It would certainly not ruin my life. It would, however, permit me to cut back on my expenses and spend more time with my family.
 
It will do me and my expensive hobbies very good !
First one to ask me for money will be banned for life from my life.
 
this is a discussion a few frends and i have been having for a few months now. we are yet to come to a conclusion.
We do feel that it could ruin your life if you dont dont spend it wisely. a few of my frends does have a lot of money and they party a lot. in some instances to much. so i do feel that it can. however that in mind, No it would not ruin my life as i have set plans for for my life and this will allow me to reach my plans. in life one only need a few things to ve able to have a life worth living.
a wife whom loves you (she must be with you before you win)
a debt free life
the hous od your dreams
and the ability to help others.
 
No. I will become debtless (and stay debtless). I will still be working, for myself. I will add some property to my portfolio and manage it myself - marketing, repair and maintenance, buy and sell etc. (Because now I have some capital). I will research a way of working smarter with property and not work harder. That I will then offer as a service.
 
Firstly if we put aside differences between people's characters and personas, I would really like to believe that going to bed an average Joe and waking up a millionaire could really rattle your life a bit. We work everyday to earn a living and to see ourselves progress and grow in our fields. We do this tirelessly because mainly, with bettering our lives and upskilling we earn more money to live a comfortable life. Now with all the money at your disposal, one might not see the need to work at all and possibly just living their lives lavishly and travelling. I've heard a lot of people say if they caught the lottery they'd probably venture into businesses and invest 60% of the capital but not often do we hear of a lottery winner who used his winnings to work at being wealthy
 
Depends how you use it. Money is surely just a tool in the end.
More money will give you more choices so I agree with the folks that say it depends on the individual - who you are and how you think.
I also don't know if we can predict how we would respond. How often do we plan to do one thing in a situation only to do (read choose!) to act totally differently when that situation presents itself and becomes 'real'?
 
I think it's age related. A young person will blow the lot and an older - or more mature person will - er - blow a bit but hopefully look after the rest.
 
Winning the lottery ends up bankrupting people. It's something like 70% of lottery winners end up broke 5 years later.

My ultimate fantasy plan for spending the money wisely:
1. Don't quit your job if you are employed.
2. Don't tell anyone, including your family. Especially your family.
1. Pay the tax man, if you don't and you loose the money you're in the pooh.
2. Pay off all your current debt.
3. Give some of it to charity, this teaches you "easy come, easy go" and that it's not really yours. You didn't earn it.
4. Invest 50% of the remaining money in a medium risk, high growth investment that beats inflation. At the very least. Or buy wealth creating investments like property and rent it out. Do some research. Think of this as your extended retirement plan.
5. Use the other 50% to upgrade your life, but do it slowly, don't buy the most expensive car or house. Travel and see the world.
6. If you're going to help family or friends be prudent and do it anonymously.

But given that I'm more likely to be hit by lightning 10 times than win the lottery this is just a fantasy... However, we all need a contingency plan, you know just in case. :D
 
I personally know someone that won a small amount, just under R1mil and it most definitely ruined his life due to lack of impulse control, a gold digger girlfriend, and no financial IQ. He had a good run for 3 months though
 
There is an inherent selection bias in lottery jackpot winners that explains the statistics. They are, by definition, people that waste money on things like the lottery. The fact that they happened to win doesn't change the fact that it is an inherently irrational activity that favours the mathematically challenged. If you were to give R100m to the average, educated, middle class, non-lottery player, then no, chances are it wouldn't ruin their lives and they'd be reasonably responsible with it. Give R100m to an uneducated, near indigent individual that would sooner spend their money on a lottery ticket than their child's education and the results are predictable.
 
OCP said:
I am very willing to prove it won't ruin my life if someone wants to give me a few million :)
Click to expand...

Of course, this only becomes significant if there are enough instances of this happening. In the interests of good science, I'll take part in this experiment too. :D
 
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