So I just won a stupid amount of money on the lottery. My heart is still racing and i've not told a single person yet because I don't want to be pressured by anybody. I don't know what to do. Google says I should be getting lawyers and financial support and all these other things but I wouldn't know where to begin with that. I'm trying to not freak out and do anything stupid.
What the hell do I do, Veeky Forums?
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How much
4.5
Go down to your bank and ask to speak to a financial adviser. Get them to refer you to whoever deals with big cash windfalls. And remember to donate half of it to the Church.
Million? If so: fugg. Personally have no clue. Better off asking Veeky Forums. Aka businesses and f i n a n c e
1N9EPpC4cCuTBTrdTh32qps17Jmr1cYhY3
send me some BTC to prove it
if I won a bunch of cash, i'd research it and probably take the lump sum. put it into a mutual fund or something and don't give money to any relatives or friends. I wouldn't tell anyone. ever. Later on if people ask where you got money from just say you made some wise investments and flip a coin at them like that cartoon duck.
>I wouldn't tell anyone.
if it's the united states, it has to be reported by law
reddit.com
dont know if its good cause i no nuffin
Thanks, speaking to my bank is my first step. I don't plan on staying with them though if there's a simple way to move that kind of money over, they're kind of jewey. I just asked Veeky Forums because this is the only board I use these days and i'm borderline having a panic attack right now
yeah, it's fucking crazy. You hear about people winning but don't think you ever will. I've literally rechecked the numbers about 90 times now
There's certain family members I want to give something to, but I feel like as much as it is it isn't enough to be giving away huge chunks of and people are going to be so expectant
You can get it anonymously but doing it that way cuts out a sizable chunk of the winnings.
I'm reading through all this stuff, apparently I can keep it private if I want to but that's also really hard. And I can take it all in one payment or have it spread out with interest. I don't fucking know. I'm not going to waste it if I get it in one go, surely it'll generate plenty of its own interest right?
ask around online. I'd say hire a professional but they'll tell you to do whatever is better for them (like they'll want you to have lots of $ on hand for a payment, or they'll want to manage your lump sum, or they'll want to file your taxes and handle other shit).
be smart user. you now have a huge target on your back. i think giving money to relatives is a huuuuuuge mistake. maybe pay off their debts but don't just hand them checks. they'll either want/need more or they'll resent you for not giving more.
To echo what some other people have said, find a financial planner. That person will walk you through how to deal with the taxes, what to expect, and most importantly what to do with it. You don't want it sitting around as plain cash. It's better to have it invested. If the amount is as large as you say, you'll want to have it managed professionally.
The other big thing is what structures you want to create and use to store the money. Trusts and whatnot. You can use these to get more favorable tax rates, to decide intent for the money, and to protect it from stuff like lawsuits.
The big questions you should be asking yourself now before you talk to a financial planner are these:
What do you want to do with the money? How do you want it to augment your life? Do you want to put some aside for potential children? That kind of stuff.
How are you going to deal with the social ramifications of this? Once word gets out, all these people are going to come out of the woodwork to try get a piece of your shit. You're also going to get bombarded with phone calls from shady money managers promising you all kinds of returns for investing with them. Definitely ignore the money managers. As for family and friends, my advice is to avoid a lot of bad situations by reminding them that you are not a bank.
Above all take it slow. You don't know anything really about dealing with this kind of money. Take the time to learn from people who do.
Reading through it, so far it's just reinforcing my plan of keeping this as private as possible
I 100% agree with you about the relatives thing, especially the resentment for not giving more. I have to give my mom something because she supported me an ungodly amount through my troubled youth, and then I feel like I have to give my dad some because I can't just give one parent money. Then I have 2 brothers and a sister, fuck
Thanks for the advice user
You're not wrong that I don't know anything about dealing with this money, i've never been anything remotely close to wealthy
I feel like i'll be content with a nice place to live, I don't crave holidays and cars and I hate gambling
are your siblings succesfull? if they're already financially independent and not struggling, then giving them anything is mostly just a nice gesture. If they're young or struggling... that's such a tough spot. In their mind they'll justify it to themselves that the only moral thing for you to do would be to split it perfectly even with your family members. Anything less than that... you're a selfish prick.
lol. I wouldn't even tell my parents. Just tell them I got a job in europe and go buy a castle.
You could be a count. wear a cape and bang hookers.
oh yea, don't get married
A single payment or yearly payments have different tax implications. This is the kind of thing you want to talk about with a financial planner.
A quick overview is that you get taxed for getting the lottery money, taxed for any interest on it, and taxed to anyone you gift large amounts to.
With the single payment, you get taxed on the lump sum and then again on any interest made.
With the annuity (for how it's usually done), you get taxed on the amounts you receive, but you don't get taxed on investment income since the lottery is the one doing the investing and they generally don't pay income tax. However, the lottery invests the annuity in government bonds, which have a very low rate of return.
You may also have the option to take the lump sum then purchase the annuity through a private company that can invest it at a higher rate of return.
Also factoring into this are the taxes for your particular state and how those taxes may evolve over time. This stuff gets real hairy. That's why it's best to get professional advice from a financial planner.
I guess some clarification can't hurt even though my head is a mess right now and I don't know if posting this here could potentially be a bad idea
It's £, not $, so more than 4.5 for most of you guys. I come from a lower middle class family and they're struggling in the sense that pretty much all their earnings go on rent and bills. I'd feel pretty shitty about having millions and letting them live like that
>borderline having a panic attack right now
Relax dude.
>I don't plan on staying with them though if there's a simple way to move that kind of money over, they're kind of jewey
There's nothing wrong with just putting it into a vanilla 1% saving account and transferring out the 45K of interest each year of extra disposable income.
Invest most of it. Keep living a normal life.
Most people blow it. Don't blow it.
>oh yea, don't get married
Depending on the laws where he lives, if he puts the money into a trust before marriage it's treated as a separate asset.
dont ask biz that guy is trolling you
it is 99% invest in cryptocurrencies.
Put some of that money in a trustfund where you get a certain amount every year so you dont go full fucking retard and blow it all. Start from there.
Send me some in paypal just so I can buy lotto tickets
better help me pay my rent this month
>wahh, I need money to live, wahh
Fuck off, beggar. I'm trying to get gambling money here.
[email protected] btw
How'd you happen to win £4.5mil recently when the Lotto and the Euromillions jackpots have been rolling over for a few weeks now?
Also, UK laws are different to the US. You don't have to pay tax on winnings and you don't lose a chuck if you remain private
>chuck
meant to be chunk
Lump sum is better because you will have a large sum of money to reinvest in. Even if you stipend yourself like 100k a year over N years, you are losing money on the opportunity cost of not having a large lump sum to reinvest in real estate, portfolios, businesses etc.
Big sums of cash are usually a curse, here's why:
> buy all the things you always dreamed of.
Without the hard work involved in aqcuiring them, you will not be able to properly enjoy them. They will feel old and like a burden pretty quickly (think of christmas presents), and you would wish you never got them in the first place, only now you are tied to them.
> blow it all on a hedonistic lifestyle (travel, sex, drugs)
You will attract the wrong people and fall in a deep depression. Just think of musicians etc.
> Invest and live off dividends
What do you do in your freetime? Eventually you will be tempted
Personally, I would buy a small property in a place I'd like to live in, keep some as an emergency fund, then donate the rest to a cause I support, ie charity, orphan's home, church.
Try to get it put into an account with interest. Play it safe for now.
>donate
If you're throwing it into a savings account, it's better not to take the lump sum due to inflation.
Cuck.
>freetime
BROWSE Veeky Forums
WATCH MOE ANIME
PLAY MMOS
(I'd also lift and program)
>there actually exist people who are so fucking cucked they think like this
Buy an underground mansion below a shitty looking house.
Lots of secret entrances and shit. Just outside the city. Make a lab below the ground. Get V.R and build one of these...
*pic related*
Amass an army of robots and become a tech priest/ techno lord
Then break spacetime using science.
Just call an Attorney ASAP. There's a bunch of guys that specialize in exactly this kinda thing. Don't tell anyone, and DO NOT speak to any journalists or anyone, word will eventually get out, so you want to have a plan as soon as you can. Don't panic though, congrats
>No volcano lair.
>areyoueventrying.mp3
I was under the assumption he didn't have enough for a volcano layer...
What is your star sign btw just curious?....
Commence construction of the Citidel of Veeky Forums
This.
DO THIS OP.
WE CAN MEME THE ADEPTUS MECHANICUS INTO EXISTANCE
1. help some of your friends and yourself
2. maybe invest some of it into your city
3. fuck it do something crazy
Im going to assume you aren't trolling.
Tell your mother or father or close blood relative about it, let them in on the amount and maybe even put the money in their hands as a sign of good will and trust.
Regular well adjusted people win the lottery and spend it all within a few years because of drugs and other poorly thought out decisions.
There is a high chance that you'll lose a lot of that money in the next few years, you should seek out someone who can ground you into sensible choices, even a spouse isn't a good decision but old nurturing family members will want to look after you if they're worthwhile.
FUCK THIS GUY GO FULL 007 SECRET AGENT AND BUY SECRET SHIT. NEVER TELL A SOUL TILL' THE TIME IS RIGHT AND YOUR TREMENDOUS AUTISM IS NEEDED AND PRETEND TO BE A POORFAG UNTIL YOU FIND SOMEONE THAT LOVES YOU FOR YOU
REEEEEEEEEEEE
I don't see how that is mutually exclusive with my advice.
If the family member doesn't tell anyone else either then it's entirely possible to hold the money safe away until it's appropriate to let your wife know the both of you are actually set for life.
Yo with that much money just live in a nice upper-middle class house for the rest of your life never "having" to work ever again by investing and shit to get enough money every year to keep you up. Maybe find cool new hobbies to take up time or enroll in college classes for fun, no pressure for job afterwards either just a bonus if you like it desu.
Lotto winnings are fairly small in Australia.
I genuinely believe I'd have the willpower to put the vast majority into a managed fund and not make any obvious changes to my way of life. Let it accumulate until I have a plausible way to say I earned the money, not won it.
I'd probably try and pay my parents mortgage, but only if I could find a way to do it without anyone knowing I won money.
I think if you could pull that off for a year you'd be in the clear, and the immense feeling of security and satisfaction would prevent any of the lottery winner horror stories that you hear about.
If this is genuine, here is what you should do if you want things to end out positive:
>Put the vast majority into an investment that penalises you for pulling it out (e.g. term deposit) for a minimum of 1 year.
>Whatever you don't put in the term deposit should be minimal, not enough to spend lavishly and let people know you won the lottery, maybe just enough to rent a better house or buy a slightly better car, etc.. Nothing extravagant
>After that year, do meticulous research and reassess your options
I think you'd improve the odds of things ending up good if you can delay the impulse and prevent people knowing. You'll have a sense of security and self confidence and can use that to move forward constructively.
Not much good can come from people knowing, even your closest friends and relatives. The key point, is that you can't actually improve their lives by giving them a lump sum of money, you'll probably make things worse in the long run, so don't.
If I won the lottery I think I would dump 80% of it into my savings and then use the rest to buy a cheap house in my hometown or close by. I would probably give some to my immediate family and try to help them out with any financial problems they might have (my father wants to move to Washington, I know my brother is moving from one apartment to another one).
I would probably invest some of it into bitcoins and maybe oil (I haven't done any financial research so its probably a dumb idea. I would also probably just be a NEET and chill at home playing vidya games. Maybe eventually pay some chick to bear my child, and then have that child be the sole beneficiary of my saved monies.
What OP should do is find out what is most important to him. Even without investing 4.5 million is enough to retire at any age and still live comfy. As others have mentioned, lots of people are going to come out of the woodwork so that might be concerning. As a shut-in NEET I imagine that wouldn't be an issue unless people try to physically break into your house. As for family, I imagine they won't hound you for money constantly unless they're scummy, and unless its large sums of cash it shouldn't make a sizable dent anyways (I could see some of my family asking for money, but not for like 25% of it or something).
>I don't know what to do.
Remember this OP. Take it to heart. Don't stop repeating it. Lost of people who win lottos squander it cause they don't know what to do but think it doesn't matter anymore cause they're rich. So long as you keep humility and keep that thought (I don't know what to do) in mind every time you think about spending your money you'll be ok.
mrmoneymustache.com
I suggest you read this article. Put aside enough money that you can live off the interest comfortably for the rest of your life. Put it in a trust fund if you don't trust yourself not to withdraw more than the interest. If you do it right, you're set for life. Invest in yourself. Go back to college. Travel the world. Give to charities and loved ones.
Give me some of it and I help you out
Generally, the time-value of money rule says to take it all in one lump sum. But I'm not sure how that would work with taxes. I recommend getting a financial advisor to help you talk over different ideas and move your money into secure accounts.
OP back again
Thanks for all the replies, I read all of them
I've had a crazy past 24 hours. I have a financial adviser now and have begun the process of claiming. I've also been assured that unless I choose otherwise my privacy is guaranteed, so i'm going to be super careful about that.
I'm still in a massive state of shock and feel like this isn't real life to be honest. I had a dream last night that it was all a dream and woke up sick with disappointment until I realized it wasn't.
I've decided how much i'll be giving to my family, it'll be one payment to each of them to do with as they will and that'll be all they get. I'm having confidentially agreements printed for them to sign too.
I'd like to do something for Veeky Forums out of this, but I have no idea what. I won't be donating to people or anything because even though i'm sure some of you deserve it it's a messy and risky business. The only thing i've treated myself to up to now is some expensive beers. It's funny because my account has a laughably small amount of money in until everything clears.
Which lottery?
Tell no-one. No-one. And if you think you might like to tell someone, just wait a week or two and think about it.......and then tell no-one.
No-one.
If I won a couple of million I'd stash it away and live a relatively modest lifestyle. If I won anything over 20 million the temptation to immediately buy a Lamborghini and indulge in all the luxuries you'd never experience as a poorfag would be pretty strong though. Buy a big house, a few luxury cars and travel the world.
In Australia, the govt guarantees bank deposits, but only up to 250k per account. Not sure what the regs are in your country, but it is something to consider.
Safest bet is prolly buying a few investment properties and renting them out. Can't really go wrong with real estate if you buy in the right areas.
The housing bubble is about to pop in Australia. I wouldn't touch any property in Sydney or Melbourne with a 10 foot pole, they're overpriced by about 300% and already having trouble finding buyers, even the Chinese and getting the fuck out
>I've had a crazy past 24 hours
>I've decided how much i'll be giving to my family
Whoah, nelly. You have thought about for 24 fucking hours and made a decision?! Jesus, m8, think about it for 24 weeks or 24 months. Do. not. make. any. decisions. now.
Agree completely. I would avoid those cities too.
>mfw I've already thought about exactly what I'd do if I ever won the lottery and would be good to go as soon as I got the money
Isn't imagining what you'd do with the winnings the entire point of the lottery? You buy a ticket then dream in unhealthy detail about how you'd spend the rest of your life. It's a bit strange to think about people who buy a ticket and havn't considered at all how'd they spend the money if they won
Exactly. Despite the absurd odds, I have given considerable thought to what I will do when (if) I win. And the number one rule is tell nobody, and I mean nobody.
>And the number one rule is tell nobody, and I mean nobody.
I think that only applies if you have bad judgement of character and surround yourself by dicks. There are plenty of people I would be very comfortable informing and know for a fact they wouldn't try to dick me over for money in any way.
Utterly pathetic.
kek. You sound young. Very young. Live and learn, champ.
I'm 32 mate.
>He doesn't have trustworthy friends
Feel sorry for you.
I'm 50. And I say again, tell no-one. You have no idea how your "friends" will react in this situation, because you have not been in this situation. So you learn from others. And the lesson from others is.....tell no-one.
The majority of lottery winners are unsurprisingly poor hicks with bad judgement. It's not surprising they get shucked out of their winnings within a few years. I'm an intelligent person who surrounds myself with other intelligent people of good character. I wouldn't go phoning up everyone I know as soon as I won, but once I had the money properly invested and allocated I would have no issue informing the people I know. If you're so worried about people around you turning into money crazed ghouls if you ever had a windfall you need to surround yourself with better people.
Don't tell ANYONE. if you get the urge to then dramatically lower the number you won, that way if they ask for, say, 10%, they'll be getting a tiny fraction of your winnings if you even gave it to them out of empathy/guilt/whatever.
You're a young hopeful idiot. Trust no one.
investopedia.com
bogleheads.org
Here is some required reading for you. Investopedia has all kinds of information about investing, trading and personal finance. Bogleheads is all about a hands off investing approach emphasizing index funds. You should start by reading about stocks, bonds, real estate, index funds, reits and asset allocation.
Some classic Veeky Forums advice from a time when the board was only about 60% filled with crypto threads.
I don't really know if op should take this too seriously.
I mean, it's good to have a general knowledge of the stock market, but it isn't like op, after reading some books, will gamble his money with the knowledge that he gained as a hobby.
I advise op to go to a financial planner like other anons have said. Even the choice “A single payment or yearly payments for a certain interval” isn't obvious since you have to consider how taxes will change during the years, how the interest rate will change, the available investments with a similar risk and so on.
>I've decided how much i'll be giving to my family, it'll be one payment to each of them to do with as they will and that'll be all they get.
Whatever you do, don't do this. I dont give a shit if they are you family, they are people too and as with all people, they get greedy and suspicious of what you have. Seriously, just don't. It's your money and everyone else can fuck off, you don't owe anything to anyone (except your debt, pay your debt). If you truly want to give them something, buy them a gift and that's it but whatever you do don't give them straight up money.
Ask your bank first.
Do something à bit crazy, like a good travel.
Live of dividends and avoid buying things that are expensive in the long run, like a huge house, a boat, or whatever
Pick up a passion you thought you couldnt afford/had time for (drawing, woodcarving, cosplay, whatever) to keep you busy and WORKING if you quit your dayjob, without the pressure