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I won over $55M in the lottery, but didn’t tell my friends or family

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61–70 of 262 posts

Re: I won over $55M in the lottery, but didn’t tell my friends or family

#61

Not that much, but I did make a ton of money in crypto. Similar thing: bought a house, also bought myself a nice car. I didn't tell any of my friends, but did mistakenly tell one of my parents, who then felt it necessary to share this information with the rest of my family. If you make a bunch of money: I would highly recommend not telling people. The will treat you differently (not in a good way).

What was your experience? How did they treat you differently once they found out?

Re: I won over $55M in the lottery, but didn’t tell my friends or family

#62
post #14

Classic Reddit thread: https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/24vzgl/you_just_... > Congratulations! You just won millions of dollars in the lottery! That's great. > Now you're fucked. > No really. > You are. > You're fucked. This guy did exactly the right thing.

It's such a low bar to pass. The guy in the article is 67, makes 1MM+ in interest a year, and won't even consider telling his friends or family? Or donating a penny of it? Is there not room for a middle ground here? What about: "Hey, I made a million bucks in the lottery/stocks/crypto. I heard you're having a tough time, take this -- you don't owe me anything. Wishing you well, -Dave."

No no, see, once you actually have money you stop caring about other people and just want to protect what you have. "Got mine, fuck you" and all that. At least, that's how it seems from all the advice that gets thrown around about people who suddenly come in to wealth. Weirdly no one gives advice related to the documented ways that people tend to change when they suddenly have much more money than the people around them.

Re: I won over $55M in the lottery, but didn’t tell my friends or family

#63

Not that much, but I did make a ton of money in crypto. Similar thing: bought a house, also bought myself a nice car. I didn't tell any of my friends, but did mistakenly tell one of my parents, who then felt it necessary to share this information with the rest of my family. If you make a bunch of money: I would highly recommend not telling people. The will treat you differently (not in a good way).

What if they are struggling with money issues and you want to help them? Or what if they are struggling with money issues in silence and you don't know about it? Also... what if they find out about it later and you never told them? Wouldn't they think that you are a selfish doosh?

You just help them without saying you got $55M.

As the GP mentioned, people, even family members will start treating you differently (nicer if you start giving them your money, worse if you don't). That's IMO a valid excuse why you didn't want to tell.

Re: I won over $55M in the lottery, but didn’t tell my friends or family

#64
post #14

Classic Reddit thread: https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/24vzgl/you_just_... > Congratulations! You just won millions of dollars in the lottery! That's great. > Now you're fucked. > No really. > You are. > You're fucked. This guy did exactly the right thing.

It's such a low bar to pass. The guy in the article is 67, makes 1MM+ in interest a year, and won't even consider telling his friends or family? Or donating a penny of it? Is there not room for a middle ground here? What about: "Hey, I made a million bucks in the lottery/stocks/crypto. I heard you're having a tough time, take this -- you don't owe me anything. Wishing you well, -Dave."

How much do you donate annually? 10 Million people donating 100$ per year is substantially more than he could ever donate.

Re: I won over $55M in the lottery, but didn’t tell my friends or family

#65
post #5

I made ~50 million in crypto. By far the most satisfying part was buying a house each for my friends and family. Having a paid off house is really a massive stress reducer for most people which imho gives you the 90% of the financial freedom of being super wealthy.

Sweet username.

Re: I won over $55M in the lottery, but didn’t tell my friends or family

#66

Not that much, but I did make a ton of money in crypto. Similar thing: bought a house, also bought myself a nice car. I didn't tell any of my friends, but did mistakenly tell one of my parents, who then felt it necessary to share this information with the rest of my family. If you make a bunch of money: I would highly recommend not telling people. The will treat you differently (not in a good way).

What if they are struggling with money issues and you want to help them? Or what if they are struggling with money issues in silence and you don't know about it? Also... what if they find out about it later and you never told them? Wouldn't they think that you are a selfish doosh?

What if their money issues are their own doing (they live way above their means)? If you give them money, you're an enabler.

Re: I won over $55M in the lottery, but didn’t tell my friends or family

#67

Not that much, but I did make a ton of money in crypto. Similar thing: bought a house, also bought myself a nice car. I didn't tell any of my friends, but did mistakenly tell one of my parents, who then felt it necessary to share this information with the rest of my family. If you make a bunch of money: I would highly recommend not telling people. The will treat you differently (not in a good way).

I don't think you need to win the lottery to be in this situation. Imagine having a cushy job in a FAANG company, where your base salary is probably more than what your parents make combined. It is in my case.

I made the mistake of telling them (roughly) what I earn and it definitely has changed the way they interact with me. I get remarks about my 'wealth' and that I can easily drop $10K on something frivolous. I get other remarks that compare their hard job to my 'easy' job that has catering and long lunch breaks. No one asks how my mental state is. No one asks whether I take my work home with me at the end of the day. No one asks how many hours I put in. All they see is a family member that will drop a ton of cash on a nice vacation or a larger house.

Word of advice: don't tell your family how much you make either.

Re: I won over $55M in the lottery, but didn’t tell my friends or family

#68

What is the point of writing a letter like this to a money advice column? His only question is, "Was I wrong in not telling anyone about my winnings?" Surely by 67 you should understand that wrong is the eye of the beholder. Only you can answer whether you did right or wrong, although I will say that sending a letter to an advice column is a signal that you are not completely satisfied with your decision. Honestly th…

    What is the point of writing a letter like this to 
    a money advice column?
You're right: there's no point in writing a letter like this.

But also: did somebody actually write this letter?

This is pure speculation but I'm about 99.99% certain that 99.99% of letters to advice columns are wholly fabricated by those who write the columns... right?

Re: I won over $55M in the lottery, but didn’t tell my friends or family

#69
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It probably depends where you are in life, how much money, your relationship to family, how comfortable they are, etc. Certainly seemed like the right call in this case. On the other hand, if your family is comfortable, this happens to you when you're 35 and want to retire and travel the world at least for a while, it's probably hard to deny that you had some sort of real financial windfall.

Say you became a consultant.

"I'm an outside consultant to beach resorts and other interesting places."

Re: I won over $55M in the lottery, but didn’t tell my friends or family

#70

Probably a fake. I visit MarketWatch a couple of times a week and they always feature on the front page a letter of someone in a unusual financial situation who has taken, or is planning, questionable decisions about their money. The ghost writer behind this is quite good, I have to admit.

This reads/feels like an AITA thread on reddit. I used to enjoy the MarketWatch questions until I reached a tipping point where I believed they were all fake. Sigh.
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