I think most of us, at least once, have thought about how cool it would be to win the lottery. We've also had either some discussions with our friends, family or just thought to ourselves what we would do with the money if we actually hit the jackpot. Some of us probably would buy everything we have dreamed about, others would travel the world, invest or use this money to make more money.
So every one of us would spend it (probably) differently. But it’s always interesting to know how the actual lottery winners have spent their money and how that jackpot actually changed them or their life, no? Well, look no further - one Reddit user started a thread online asking folks to share stories about people that they know who won the lottery and how it changed them. And let’s just say - there are quite different outcomes.
More info: Reddit
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A guy I went to high school with won the lottery in his early thirties. He bought the low-income housing block he grew up in and his mother still lived in, completely renovated it, and kept it low income housing.
I don’t know what else he did with the money, but he changed a lot of families’ lives for the better with that one purchase.
He bought a house, got sober, and invested a bunch of time into hobbies. He went from being a good guy to a great guy. Super proud of him.
This is the outcome I would like to see, if I had that kinda cash I'd just be doing everything I enjoy doing.
My friend won just under $30 million, and dropped out of college to learn to manage her money herself, then finished off her degree online and moved from the East Coast to the West Coast to start her dream career. She invested most of her winnings, works a 9-5 job she loves, and got married and has a couple of kids now. Her personality didn’t change at all, she’s goofy as hell with her friends, and an absolute sweetheart.
My grandparents took our entire family on a cruise, and then paid for all of the grandkids college educations and first cars 🥺 they bought a new house and cars, but took the payment over years option and rode that MF out- traveled all over the world.
Guy I worked with asked what would I do if I won a lot of lottery money, I said tell noone, see a financial planner, do what makes me happy.
Later he brought a nice 4wd and left and a while later I heard he was just fishing in Queensland.
Tell noone.
My parents won the Readers Digest sweepstakes. (Yes, people really win those; no, they didn’t have to buy anything.)
It paid out $5 million over 30 years, or roughly $170K per year. So not “buy a private island” money, but more than my parents had ever seen.
They retired early, bought a modest house in their hometown near their family, and started doing the things they’d always wanted to do. They traveled the world, ate at good restaurants, drank nice wine. When grandkids came along, they could afford to visit four or five times a year.
The money was an unqualified blessing for them and I’m so happy they got to enjoy it.
OMG People did actually win Readers Digest Sweepstakes. I was always getting those in the mail. Thought it was basically a scam
I knew a guy who quit his job as a factory worker and went back to college to get a doctorate in music performance and composition. Played a mean jazz bass. Happiest guy I ever met.
I worked with a lady who was two cubicles down from me. She would buy the lottery religiously and one Friday our boss said to her, “I laugh you win the $55million and come in on Monday and quit.” Well…. She sure did. She was the first solo winner in my city and she quit Monday morning… she and her husband didn’t change much. They just remodelled their home and continue to live simple lives. Both are retired. She was 42 when she won. This was about 10years ago now.
Girl that was jumping from one s****y job to another. Did win not a massive amount but enough to be able to study 2-3 years without having to work. Was able to land a good job and nice paycheck thanks to her studies, so basically changed her life for better.
Sadly, if you have to work a s****y job or two to get through College / University just to be able to live or survive it will obviously affect your grades ; this is patently obvious if you look at the differing levels of educational achievement of poorer vs richer students in the USA and UK. HOWEVER, in countries where further education is merit based and either subsidised or free, these differentials are still there but not massively biased towards the richer sections of society. There are, of course, exceptions but for the most part this holds true. Education should be a stepping stone for everyone, not just the privileged few (I will state now that over my long and strange life, I have met many real thickos who have benefitted massively by being born into a rich family but are utterly useless human beings and, on the other side of the coin, I have also met and worked with many, many astonishingly clever, resilient and resourceful people who should have been much more successful !
My friend's aunt won about 800k (which can be a generational-change sum if managed correctly), she gave her immediate family 1k each (about 15 persons), paid her and her husbands student loans in full, all of her debt and house mortgage and decided to invest the rest, she still works at a school as a head teacher and my friend tells me that her mentality is something like "what easy comes, easy goes" so she doesn't spend the money lavishly.
I worked in retail with a woman who won just over $1 mil in the US in 1998. She got laid off from her job as a checker the very next day. The HR lady said she had never seen someone so happy being laid off, and this was about 20 days before Christmas. She became a stay at home mom and her husband, who was working at 7-11 and absolutely loved to talk to people, took his dream job - selling cars. I saw him about 8 years age and he said they still lived in the same house and he was still selling cars for the same dealership.
I know a guy that won $1 million. It ended up being way less than that because of taxes. I didn't know him before he won but he was older, like late 50s, but he didn't stop working. Still a fabricator and the nicest guy. Apparently he didn't buy anything big, still lives in his small house and drives a beater. Couldn't have had a nicer guy win it honestly
Once I bought one of those $3 bingo cards and won $20. I cashed it in at the convenience store and the guy was so excited because, in his words, "I've never seen anyone win so much money on these before."
That was the last day I bought a bingo card.
Went to school with a guy whose parents won about $1m. This was in the early 90’s.
His dad just paid off the house, sent his kids to private school and kept working.
Last I heard, they’re now retired but still in that house. I’d like to think if I won a lot of money, that I’d do something similar.
So many people don't understand the difference between a large amount of money and a life altering amount of money. You can't really retire on a million dollars, while anything between 3-5 million will give you a life time of median income. It really takes 10 million plus to make you wealthy enough to not work and make more than you can reasonably spend.
Years ago one of my roommates won one of those $5k/week for life scratch offs.
She then moved out and my life got better because she was a terrible roommates.
She was already retired, so she gave like 100K to each of her children, gifted 10K to each of her nieces /nephews, bought a nicer apartment for herself and her husband, and mostly leads the same life as before. She still has the same friends, and she still has coffee with her sisters every weekday.
But now she takes her grandkids on trips, pays for their cool extracurriculars / summer activities (surf school, SCUBA diving, whatever) and, now and then, she buys something nice for her close ones or for herself.
Basically, she didn't change. She was always generous and kind, and she still is. Now she can splurge on things that are important to her, so she does. And she still has many family members who love her, as well as a lot of the money she won, so we know she'll be able to support herself in her old age.
He didn’t change at all. It was a moderately big win, he took his dream holiday and gave the rest away to family.
One Christmas when I was 24 my mother who lived out of town came to visit. I took her and my grandmother to an Indian gaming casino for Christmas Eve / Christmas. I had just closed on my first house, very much a fixer upper. My mom gave me $300 and said “go double up”. I ended up winning over 9k that night. I hit three separate jackpots in the high limit room. It’s like I could do no wrong. There was one machine I was eyeing, but I didn’t want to press my luck. The very next morning I watched a guy hit the button twice and he won $4200.
I had to borrow 1500 from my dad for closing costs on the house. I had a 6 month payment plan all figured out - I paid him back immediately. I also had to pay for an oil tank decommission in my backyard. I spent the remaining on all new appliances, which was GREAT. The first night I spent in my new house, the refrigerator sounded like it ran on gas. Thump thump thump thump alllll night long. Super thankful for that lil financial boost to this day.
My friend's aunt and uncle won Cash 4 Life. Less than a year after winning, their house was hit by a tornado. They rebuilt, much larger than the original build. They didn't change, but their home did.
My best friends father won 1000 a week for life scratch off. Moved his family out of a horrible two bedroom apartment in NYC and he moved them down to Florida. Was able to pay for his children to do all the extra curricular activities they wanted to.
A friend’s mom won in like 1989. This was before you could take the lump sum. After taxes her payout was $37,000/yr for 25 years. She quit her job, thinking she’d be rich, but didn’t realize she was making less than her job paid, and ended up going back to work a few years later because of insurance etc.
Well, the biggest Powerball winner in Australia (over $100 million) just kept going to her nursing job because she said she likes nursing. Not surprisingly, she made use of the option to remain anonymous. Apart from saying she bought new place to move into, no plans to do anything particularly flashy and especially not financially irresponsible.
Jackpot next Thursday has hit $150 million for the first time. Going by past history, it'll likely go to 1-4 winning tickets.
They bought a big house, went on loads of vacations, years later had to sell the house and downsize. In the end spent every last penny
My folks won it in 2015 and now every problem they think they can just throw money at it. I became a widower they're reaction was to throw money at it. No wonder i have no contact with them.
My neighbor won the lottery, and the next day, they replaced their front door with one of those grand castle gates. I mean, seriously, I had to use a drawbridge just to borrow some sugar. They're still nice, humble people though
She divorced her husband, a baggage handler for American Airlines if I recall, and married a rich flashy Cuban guy.
But she did split the prize with her first husband.
The father in law of a close colleague won in the area of 250,000 euros on the Irish Lottery many years ago. He did the classics of fancy car, big house and gave a lot to his family. Two years later he was dead from alcohol poisoning having spent most of that time in the pub with all of his new found “friends”.
Won two million dollars and paid off their debt plus made a few large purchases. Friends, relatives, churches, and charities found out and asked for loans and hand outs. Eventually, the money ran out and they ended up stealing a bit from a some organization they were the treasurer of because they wanted to chase that high again. I can't remember if they did jail time or just did community service but they had to sell some things and ended up only slightly better off than they were before winning the lottery.
the town I used to live in has a lottery every year where they give away a house.
this guy won it in 1996 who would become the neighbour of the place I was renting a few years ago. at this time, the house was worth about $400K.
this guy was old and in poor health. he was married but his wife was wealthy and had her own entire house in a nicer area of town. when his health got so bad that he couldn't live alone, he gifted lottery prize house to my landlord who was his neighbour. he also gifted my landlord the entire contents of the fully furnished house. he just didn't have the energy to deal with selling everything so he said if you can deal with it, it's yours.
me and the landlord went through the house for fun, opening boxes and checking it out. of interest we found 5 rifles hidden behind a false wall, some gold jewelry, a machete, an 80s police scanner, nice home gym equipment, gold panning gear and more.
I got to keep the machete and some gold.
turns out his wife didn't want him home alone with those guns so she had been pushing for him to get out of there and leave it all behind.
I don't know if he's still alive or what. but my former landlord is a lucky guy.
A workmate won the lottery, quit the job and spend most of his time traveling around the world. He is now broke and in depression
Note: this post originally had 41 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
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Steve, a friend of my cousin won a large amount on the UK lottery. Steve and Anna, (pregnant fiancee) had been due to marry fairly soon. They decided to cancel their plans, and use the lottery winnings to create their dream wedding. The newspapers got hold of the story, and reported that Steve had won all this money, and ditched his fiancee. I met Steve and Anna, a few years later, at my cousin's wedding. Their advice was, 'Tell no one, apart from a financial advisor. Then listen to what they have to say!'
I won the lottery once. I had promised my mom that if I ever won, she would get 10% Sure enough I won and ran to my moms house (we lived close to each other) and told her before slapping £1 on the table. She looked at me and said "So... you won a tenner. Go get a big bag of chips and we will eat them in the garden" I cracked her up by fake sulking and saying "People said don't tell anyone you won the lottery. They will get you to spend it on themselves" She kept the £1 in an envelope with 10% written on it
I love all these stories about people who managed their money well and just lived normal but better lives. They say that one of the best things you can do to help impoverished people is just to give them money. People think that the poor will waste money, but they generally don't, and they are the ones who know best what they need. More charities should focus on giving out cash to the poor around the world, and the US needs to get universal basic income.
the smart thing is the 'tell no one' part. I mean sure, tell your spouse, but beyond that keep it quiet. If you own a home, don't buy a new one, jut renovate. Pay off debts, invest, go on a nice vacation or two. Keep the job unless it sucks, for the insurance.
I'd 100% buy a new house just to get rid of the arsehole neighbors. Nothing too flashy but definitely detached and possibly with some land (couple of acres would be fine). Then rent this house cheap to a bagpipe instructor or a death metal drummer
Load More Replies... My ex's sister won a life changing amount of money but honestly she and her family were so humble and down to earth. They didn't tell anyone and you would never have known. Her parents life long dream was to own a unit at the beach but they wouldn't let her buy them one. Instead she paid off the mortgage on the family home - leaving them with enough money to buy the unit themselves. She paid off her siblings study debts and purchased a modest home for herself and husband and they had a small intimate wedding at a local beach. The rest was quietly squirrelled away and they continued living their normal lives. Last I heard she was still happily married, same house, two kids in a good private school, she was still working part time and living a modest kind of life.
If I ever win big then you’ll see me investing sums that’ll payout a chunk of money each year to my local animal sanctuaries, the local food bank, the local support teams who care for the vulnerable in my town, the money will work for those who have helped me or my friends. Yep I’ll buy a house but I can’t look after a small flat so why would I saddle myself with a palace? I’d look after family and friends and I’ve also promised my mate that he’ll win my knackered Honda ‘cause I won’t need it anymore 😀 I may also set up a donkey and duck sanctuary ‘cause I do love donkeys and ducks.
If you win the lottery, first thing to do is close all online social media and email accounts. Get a new cellphone with a new number but don't cancel the old one, just in case. Then hire a reputable tax attorney and financial advisor and have both of them at all meetings. After your ducks are in a row, then claim the prize.
Our neighbour won about $800,000 (no lottery taxes here in Canada, so it was ALL his) about 15 years ago. He was living in a basement apartment at the time. For about a month, there was a new delivery truck outside his door almost every day. Replaced every stick of furniture he owned, bought himself a new truck, bought his new girlfriend a fancier truck, and eventually bought the building he lived in and went in on a condo with his brother. After about five years, the girlfriend and her truck were long gone, the condo went bust, and he died from a heart attack.
Steve, a friend of my cousin won a large amount on the UK lottery. Steve and Anna, (pregnant fiancee) had been due to marry fairly soon. They decided to cancel their plans, and use the lottery winnings to create their dream wedding. The newspapers got hold of the story, and reported that Steve had won all this money, and ditched his fiancee. I met Steve and Anna, a few years later, at my cousin's wedding. Their advice was, 'Tell no one, apart from a financial advisor. Then listen to what they have to say!'
I won the lottery once. I had promised my mom that if I ever won, she would get 10% Sure enough I won and ran to my moms house (we lived close to each other) and told her before slapping £1 on the table. She looked at me and said "So... you won a tenner. Go get a big bag of chips and we will eat them in the garden" I cracked her up by fake sulking and saying "People said don't tell anyone you won the lottery. They will get you to spend it on themselves" She kept the £1 in an envelope with 10% written on it
I love all these stories about people who managed their money well and just lived normal but better lives. They say that one of the best things you can do to help impoverished people is just to give them money. People think that the poor will waste money, but they generally don't, and they are the ones who know best what they need. More charities should focus on giving out cash to the poor around the world, and the US needs to get universal basic income.
the smart thing is the 'tell no one' part. I mean sure, tell your spouse, but beyond that keep it quiet. If you own a home, don't buy a new one, jut renovate. Pay off debts, invest, go on a nice vacation or two. Keep the job unless it sucks, for the insurance.
I'd 100% buy a new house just to get rid of the arsehole neighbors. Nothing too flashy but definitely detached and possibly with some land (couple of acres would be fine). Then rent this house cheap to a bagpipe instructor or a death metal drummer
Load More Replies... My ex's sister won a life changing amount of money but honestly she and her family were so humble and down to earth. They didn't tell anyone and you would never have known. Her parents life long dream was to own a unit at the beach but they wouldn't let her buy them one. Instead she paid off the mortgage on the family home - leaving them with enough money to buy the unit themselves. She paid off her siblings study debts and purchased a modest home for herself and husband and they had a small intimate wedding at a local beach. The rest was quietly squirrelled away and they continued living their normal lives. Last I heard she was still happily married, same house, two kids in a good private school, she was still working part time and living a modest kind of life.
If I ever win big then you’ll see me investing sums that’ll payout a chunk of money each year to my local animal sanctuaries, the local food bank, the local support teams who care for the vulnerable in my town, the money will work for those who have helped me or my friends. Yep I’ll buy a house but I can’t look after a small flat so why would I saddle myself with a palace? I’d look after family and friends and I’ve also promised my mate that he’ll win my knackered Honda ‘cause I won’t need it anymore 😀 I may also set up a donkey and duck sanctuary ‘cause I do love donkeys and ducks.
If you win the lottery, first thing to do is close all online social media and email accounts. Get a new cellphone with a new number but don't cancel the old one, just in case. Then hire a reputable tax attorney and financial advisor and have both of them at all meetings. After your ducks are in a row, then claim the prize.
Our neighbour won about $800,000 (no lottery taxes here in Canada, so it was ALL his) about 15 years ago. He was living in a basement apartment at the time. For about a month, there was a new delivery truck outside his door almost every day. Replaced every stick of furniture he owned, bought himself a new truck, bought his new girlfriend a fancier truck, and eventually bought the building he lived in and went in on a condo with his brother. After about five years, the girlfriend and her truck were long gone, the condo went bust, and he died from a heart attack.
