I don’t see how a few $MMM could “ruin my life”. Sure, I’d quit my job, though, if ~2% of assets gave me more income than I would from working all day.
I’m already semi-retired and frugal. It’s unlikely a major bump in my net worth at 51 would ruin my life. I would try to keep it a secret though. It wouldn’t be that hard to just pretend I live in hotels from miles and points wizardry anyway.
I’d probably annuitize a portion of it just in case it turns out I’m no different than the others.
The Reddit thread ( https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/24vo34/whats_the_happiest_5word_sentence_you_could_hear/chb38xf/ ) has some stats and examples as to how winning the lottery ruins lives. Significant increases in probability to being a kidnapping or homicide victim, constant harassment from people wanting money, no longer being able to trust people you had previously considered friends, etc. One story is included of a businessman who already had a net worth of 15+ million, won over $114 million after taxes, pledged to live his life the same as before, and still had his life ruined.
I would use a lawyer/trust/shill so that my identity would be kept secret.
It wouldn’t ruin my life as I’m close to FI right now and could be leading a much more extravagant/materialistic life, but that doesn’t have much appeal for me.
I would make sure my immediate family members had an annuity to take care of their basic needs. I would give a lot away to charity. I would outsource the things that I don’t particularly enjoy doing (and probably some of the things I do enjoy).
I would probably do some angel investing to keep things interesting.
Yes, keeping the winnings a secret and annuitizing (real word?) the winnings does seem to be a lot of the crux of the Reddit thread. Would seem to help avoid a lot of the issues that lottery winners suffer.
Seems to me that the two keys here would be keeping anonymity, and setting up a process so that one can manage new temptations and problems in a thoughtful manner.
There are a handful of states that allow you to collect anonymously. In addition to those, there are some states that allow you to pay the lottery winnings to a trust.
Interesting. I wasn’t aware of that. I have heard of people assigning the winnings to a trust and/or a company to preserve their anonymity. A quick Google search didn’t turn up anything definitively on whether or not California allows that.
A recent court case may serve as a precedent to stopping compulsory disclosure of winners’ names. Case was in New Hampshire though:
If I won an 8-9 figure payout, it seems like a pretty straightforward exercise to just go claim the winnings in a state that allows anonymity or claiming via trust.
“Move” to an apartment and get a residential address there, if you have to.
Small potatoes in the face of preserving your privacy.
