Who won the lottery?

[taiwan_girl]

@Jolly @LuFins-Dad I agree. I would definitely go hide out in some remote corner of the world for a while.

"Hey, remember me taiwan girl? We were in the first grade together for a week before I moved to a different town. In that week, we were such good friends. Just wanted to call you and see how you were doing!!!" +many more like that. 555

[Aqua Letifer]

@LuFins-Dad said in Who won the lottery?:

@Jolly said in Who won the lottery?:

I've only known one person who won the lottery. Actually, I worked with his sister for years, I just met him a few times.

His win was the Powerball and his lump sum payout was (IIRC) a bump over $14M. He was a successful small businessman in St. Louis and after winning the lottery, he literally had to leave town and hide out with his sister for a few weeks. Everybody wanted a piece of the winnings. Business propositions, charity solicitations, phone calls from people he hadn't seen in years, people knocking on his door day and night, wanting money for something.

I don’t buy tickets, but I’ve had the same conversations we all have about what we would do…

I told my wife that if we ever hit, we would do the following BEFORE ever turning in the ticket —-

1. from our own cash, we would get on the first flight to Europe… Get out of town… Take a 6 week sabbatical…

2. As soon as we settled in at the hotel I would hire a trusted attorney, detective, and money guy. The detective would be hired to investigate me and my wife… I want to find every single possible debt, every single possible claim against me, etc… and settle them. I would also want them to erase my public footprint as much as possible. I would want to be as invisible as possible (which would also likely include a lot of social media stuff disappearing),,,

3. The house would go up for quick sale, I’m not going to quibble on getting every single dime. I just want it sold and quickly. It’s going to be hotel living or renting an apartment in an upscale building with security and a front desk for a bit…

4. New cell numbers, new email addresses, etc… The old ones will stay active, but will be shut down within a few weeks of actually turning in the ticket…

5. The financial guy will be there strictly an advisory position at first. Once I take the money, the idea is to keep this as simple as possible. Take reasonable steps to protect my family. Simple investments that I can easily track and watch myself…

6. Charitable donations and familial and friend obligations will be handled through trusts primarily….

Isn't all that a tad excessive?

[jon-nyc]

@Jolly said in Who won the lottery?:

I've only known one person who won the lottery. Actually, I worked with his sister for years, I just met him a few times.

His win was the Powerball and his lump sum payout was (IIRC) a bump over $14M. He was a successful small businessman in St. Louis and after winning the lottery, he literally had to leave town and hide out with his sister for a few weeks. Everybody wanted a piece of the winnings. Business propositions, charity solicitations, phone calls from people he hadn't seen in years, people knocking on his door day and night, wanting money for something.

My friend, who split the winnings with his girlfriend (now wife), actually hired a PR person to minimize his exposure.

First he tried to avoid the attention at all by selling the ticket to investors. His lawyer said he can’t do that it’s against state law. So then my buddy (a former trader and by then an SVP at Nasdaq) asked if he could securitize the sale so that it would be governed by federal rather than state law. His lawyer said “you might ultimately win that some time around your 80th birthday” (the guy was maybe 60 at the time).

So he went with the PR guy to minimize his exposure. A press event was mandatory, but he was counseled to dress really boring and read from a script in front of a camera - even local news stations avoid showing someone reading off a paper.

Another thing he did was feed the press “he works for a financial services company and she works in a dental office”. Obviously “he runs trading operations at Nasdaq and she is an oral surgeon” would have generated extra stories in its own right.

They were particularly worried about her, she wanted to leave her practice but was required by her partners to give two years notice, I think. They were worried she’d be the target of opportunistic lawsuits.

[George K]

@jon-nyc said in Who won the lottery?:

was required by her partners to give two years notice

Slightly off-topic, but wow. I only had to give 90 days.

Did she continue to work after giving notice? I wouldn't have - statute of limitations and all that.

[jon-nyc]

Im sure I’ve told this story before, but I had dinner with him maybe a year after he won and asked him what about his life was different.

He said “well I still go out to eat every night like before, at pretty much the same restaurants. But now, when they hand me the wine list, instead of starting at the top and reading my way down, I start at the bottom and read up”.

[jon-nyc]

@George-K said in Who won the lottery?:

@jon-nyc said in Who won the lottery?:

was required by her partners to give two years notice

Slightly off-topic, but wow. I only had to give 90 days.

Did she continue to work after giving notice? I wouldn't have - statute of limitations and all that.

I think she finished most of her time if not all of it. She didn’t want to screw these guys as they were friends of decades. They had a lot of overhead they were jointly responsible for. Real estate, employees, equipment leases, etc.

[LuFins Dad]

@Aqua-Letifer said in Who won the lottery?:

@LuFins-Dad said in Who won the lottery?:

@Jolly said in Who won the lottery?:

I've only known one person who won the lottery. Actually, I worked with his sister for years, I just met him a few times.

His win was the Powerball and his lump sum payout was (IIRC) a bump over $14M. He was a successful small businessman in St. Louis and after winning the lottery, he literally had to leave town and hide out with his sister for a few weeks. Everybody wanted a piece of the winnings. Business propositions, charity solicitations, phone calls from people he hadn't seen in years, people knocking on his door day and night, wanting money for something.

I don’t buy tickets, but I’ve had the same conversations we all have about what we would do…

I told my wife that if we ever hit, we would do the following BEFORE ever turning in the ticket —-

1. from our own cash, we would get on the first flight to Europe… Get out of town… Take a 6 week sabbatical…

2. As soon as we settled in at the hotel I would hire a trusted attorney, detective, and money guy. The detective would be hired to investigate me and my wife… I want to find every single possible debt, every single possible claim against me, etc… and settle them. I would also want them to erase my public footprint as much as possible. I would want to be as invisible as possible (which would also likely include a lot of social media stuff disappearing),,,

3. The house would go up for quick sale, I’m not going to quibble on getting every single dime. I just want it sold and quickly. It’s going to be hotel living or renting an apartment in an upscale building with security and a front desk for a bit…

4. New cell numbers, new email addresses, etc… The old ones will stay active, but will be shut down within a few weeks of actually turning in the ticket…

5. The financial guy will be there strictly an advisory position at first. Once I take the money, the idea is to keep this as simple as possible. Take reasonable steps to protect my family. Simple investments that I can easily track and watch myself…

6. Charitable donations and familial and friend obligations will be handled through trusts primarily….

Isn't all that a tad excessive?

Not at all. Read @jon-nyc s account. That jibes with what I've read about a lot of lottery winners as well as athletes and such that make it big, and that's nowhere near the type of wealth that this winner is bringing home.

[Horace]

@jon-nyc said in Who won the lottery?:

He said “well I still go out to eat every night like before, at pretty much the same restaurants. But now, when they hand me the wine list, instead of starting at the top and reading my way down, I start at the bottom and read up”.

And in a blind taste test, he wouldn't be able to tell which was the expensive one and which was the cheap one. Yep, that's how that works.

[Aqua Letifer]

@LuFins-Dad said in Who won the lottery?:

@Aqua-Letifer said in Who won the lottery?:

@LuFins-Dad said in Who won the lottery?:

@Jolly said in Who won the lottery?:

I've only known one person who won the lottery. Actually, I worked with his sister for years, I just met him a few times.

His win was the Powerball and his lump sum payout was (IIRC) a bump over $14M. He was a successful small businessman in St. Louis and after winning the lottery, he literally had to leave town and hide out with his sister for a few weeks. Everybody wanted a piece of the winnings. Business propositions, charity solicitations, phone calls from people he hadn't seen in years, people knocking on his door day and night, wanting money for something.

I don’t buy tickets, but I’ve had the same conversations we all have about what we would do…

I told my wife that if we ever hit, we would do the following BEFORE ever turning in the ticket —-

1. from our own cash, we would get on the first flight to Europe… Get out of town… Take a 6 week sabbatical…

2. As soon as we settled in at the hotel I would hire a trusted attorney, detective, and money guy. The detective would be hired to investigate me and my wife… I want to find every single possible debt, every single possible claim against me, etc… and settle them. I would also want them to erase my public footprint as much as possible. I would want to be as invisible as possible (which would also likely include a lot of social media stuff disappearing),,,

3. The house would go up for quick sale, I’m not going to quibble on getting every single dime. I just want it sold and quickly. It’s going to be hotel living or renting an apartment in an upscale building with security and a front desk for a bit…

4. New cell numbers, new email addresses, etc… The old ones will stay active, but will be shut down within a few weeks of actually turning in the ticket…

5. The financial guy will be there strictly an advisory position at first. Once I take the money, the idea is to keep this as simple as possible. Take reasonable steps to protect my family. Simple investments that I can easily track and watch myself…

6. Charitable donations and familial and friend obligations will be handled through trusts primarily….

Isn't all that a tad excessive?

Not at all. Read @jon-nyc s account. That jibes with what I've read about a lot of lottery winners as well as athletes and such that make it big, and that's nowhere near the type of wealth that this winner is bringing home.

jon's friend did about 1/100th of what you suggested, and by his own account, it sounds like he's doing just fine without your half-baked Bourne Identity strategy.

[Ivorythumper]

@Aqua-Letifer said in Who won the lottery?:

@LuFins-Dad said in Who won the lottery?:

@Aqua-Letifer said in Who won the lottery?:

@LuFins-Dad said in Who won the lottery?:

@Jolly said in Who won the lottery?:

I've only known one person who won the lottery. Actually, I worked with his sister for years, I just met him a few times.

His win was the Powerball and his lump sum payout was (IIRC) a bump over $14M. He was a successful small businessman in St. Louis and after winning the lottery, he literally had to leave town and hide out with his sister for a few weeks. Everybody wanted a piece of the winnings. Business propositions, charity solicitations, phone calls from people he hadn't seen in years, people knocking on his door day and night, wanting money for something.

I don’t buy tickets, but I’ve had the same conversations we all have about what we would do…

I told my wife that if we ever hit, we would do the following BEFORE ever turning in the ticket —-

1. from our own cash, we would get on the first flight to Europe… Get out of town… Take a 6 week sabbatical…

2. As soon as we settled in at the hotel I would hire a trusted attorney, detective, and money guy. The detective would be hired to investigate me and my wife… I want to find every single possible debt, every single possible claim against me, etc… and settle them. I would also want them to erase my public footprint as much as possible. I would want to be as invisible as possible (which would also likely include a lot of social media stuff disappearing),,,

3. The house would go up for quick sale, I’m not going to quibble on getting every single dime. I just want it sold and quickly. It’s going to be hotel living or renting an apartment in an upscale building with security and a front desk for a bit…

4. New cell numbers, new email addresses, etc… The old ones will stay active, but will be shut down within a few weeks of actually turning in the ticket…

5. The financial guy will be there strictly an advisory position at first. Once I take the money, the idea is to keep this as simple as possible. Take reasonable steps to protect my family. Simple investments that I can easily track and watch myself…

6. Charitable donations and familial and friend obligations will be handled through trusts primarily….

Isn't all that a tad excessive?

Not at all. Read @jon-nyc s account. That jibes with what I've read about a lot of lottery winners as well as athletes and such that make it big, and that's nowhere near the type of wealth that this winner is bringing home.

jon's friend did about 1/100th of what you suggested, and by his own account, it sounds like he's doing just fine without your half-baked Bourne Identity strategy.

Dude, it's an opportunity to totally reinvent yourself. It's FU money to everything and everyone in your past that you want to forget or don't want to keep dragging around.

That said, we are products of all the myriad of choices we've made, and experiences and relationships that we've had, so we probably can't totally put the past behind us.

Still, prepping for this in advance makes sense, because you never know...

[Doctor Phibes]

I suspect the main difference in my life if I won a gazillion dollars is that EVERYBODY WOULD LAUGH AT MY FREAKING JOKES!

[taiwan_girl]

Not the same lottery as reference above, but the below guy won the largest prize ever. After single cash payout and taxes, he got USD$629MM

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/09/13/edwin-castro-powerball-winner-buys-third-home-los-angeles/70846125007/

QUOTE
Castro purchased a $25.5 million home a month after claiming his prize on a Hollywood Hills hillside, living close to Ariana Grande, Dakota Johnson and Jimmy Kimmel.

He also purchased a $4 million Japanese-inspired house in Altadena, CA, his hometown. It's just a short drive from the Mobil gas station where he bought his winning Powerball ticket.

Earlier this month, Castro bought his third house for $47 million from celebrity realtor Mauricio Umansky. The home boasts seven bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, a koi pond and a vast infinity pool. The property offers a panoramic view of the entire city of Los Angeles.

[LuFins Dad]

Idiot

[Doctor Phibes]

@LuFins-Dad said in Who won the lottery?:

Idiot

What are the odds? Whenever I'm queueing behind people buying a ton of tickets, they always seem like the smartest people in the room.

[LuFins Dad]

I do like what they do in the UK for Lottery winners. You told us about that, right? @Doctor-Phibes

[Mik]

@Horace said in Who won the lottery?:

@jon-nyc said in Who won the lottery?:

He said “well I still go out to eat every night like before, at pretty much the same restaurants. But now, when they hand me the wine list, instead of starting at the top and reading my way down, I start at the bottom and read up”.

And in a blind taste test, he wouldn't be able to tell which was the expensive one and which was the cheap one. Yep, that's how that works.

Au contraire, mon frere. I could tell the difference. But then I have a well educated palate.

[jon-nyc]

@Mik said in Who won the lottery?:

@Horace said in Who won the lottery?:

@jon-nyc said in Who won the lottery?:

He said “well I still go out to eat every night like before, at pretty much the same restaurants. But now, when they hand me the wine list, instead of starting at the top and reading my way down, I start at the bottom and read up”.

And in a blind taste test, he wouldn't be able to tell which was the expensive one and which was the cheap one. Yep, that's how that works.

Au contraire, mon frere. I could tell the difference. But then I have a well educated palate.

Funny, same guy, well before the lottery win (he was a former trader turned Nasdaq exec in his mid 50s then, so very comfortable) said this to me once:

"Next time someone tells you they can't tell the difference between a $20 bottle of wine and a $200 bottle of wine, ask them when was the last time they had a $200 bottle of wine."

[Mik]

About three months ago. But I’ve had most of the world’s finest wines at on time or another. There’s a marked difference.

Now, that is not to say price = quality. I had a Pinot Noir tonight that I paid $12 for ( at a discount) that could stand up to most $50 bottlings. But the wines that achieve a great reputation usually deserve it.

[Mik]

All that said, the world is absolutely awash in very high quality $10-$20 wines. More so than I have seen over the 45 years I’ve been interested.

[jon-nyc]

The comment wasn't directed at you, it is meant for people who say they can't tell the difference.

I drink pretty inexpensive wine, except once a year at my Vegas gathering. The old work buddies I go with invariably defer on the wine selection to the oenophiles in the group. That results in many of us drinking $400 wine who would be happy with $40 (there are no $20 wines post restaurant markup).

That trip is coming up three weeks from now.