eavega
Lieutenant
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2008
- Messages
- 1,377
Re: If you won the lottery.....
I have heard an observation on this very same subject that I agree with totally. The reason that lottery winners (and perhaps professional athletes, and anyone else who comes into a huge sum of money suddenly) very often come to bad ends is that they are not mentally prepared to handle wealth the way, say, an entrepreneur or a business person is. A millionaire who has earned his millions through business risk or other such means has a notion of the value that wealth represents, mostly because they see the wealth grow over time. They realize that there is a progression of risk, effort, and reward that added up to their wealth in the end. Even friends of mine who came into their wealth through inheritance more often than not have a sense of the value of that wealth and (if their parents did a proper job of imparting the lesson of the value of wealth) strive to maintain or grow that wealth. A lottery winner goes from (probably) not wealthy one day to wealthy the next. They have an idea of what they would do if they were wealthy, but probably no notion of how to manage that wealth. It is easy to say "well, I'll put x amount away and live off of the interest", or "I'll donate x amount to charity y", until you are faced with the reality and pressures of having that kind of money. As with anything else in life, mental preparation is key to success.
For the record I never play the lottery. There are too many priorities for my money ahead of spending even a dollar a week on the miniscule chance that I will win. I do thank all of the regular lottery players, though. They have put both my girls through a quality Pre-K program, and will hopefully pay for their college education in about 12 years. To all those lottery players, "Dream Big"
-Rgds
I have heard an observation on this very same subject that I agree with totally. The reason that lottery winners (and perhaps professional athletes, and anyone else who comes into a huge sum of money suddenly) very often come to bad ends is that they are not mentally prepared to handle wealth the way, say, an entrepreneur or a business person is. A millionaire who has earned his millions through business risk or other such means has a notion of the value that wealth represents, mostly because they see the wealth grow over time. They realize that there is a progression of risk, effort, and reward that added up to their wealth in the end. Even friends of mine who came into their wealth through inheritance more often than not have a sense of the value of that wealth and (if their parents did a proper job of imparting the lesson of the value of wealth) strive to maintain or grow that wealth. A lottery winner goes from (probably) not wealthy one day to wealthy the next. They have an idea of what they would do if they were wealthy, but probably no notion of how to manage that wealth. It is easy to say "well, I'll put x amount away and live off of the interest", or "I'll donate x amount to charity y", until you are faced with the reality and pressures of having that kind of money. As with anything else in life, mental preparation is key to success.
For the record I never play the lottery. There are too many priorities for my money ahead of spending even a dollar a week on the miniscule chance that I will win. I do thank all of the regular lottery players, though. They have put both my girls through a quality Pre-K program, and will hopefully pay for their college education in about 12 years. To all those lottery players, "Dream Big"
-Rgds
