For Some, Money Can Be a Curse

Hi Mikey,

A few years ago one of the Phoenix TV stations produced a story on past AZ lottery winners that was very similar to this story. Most of them squandered their winnings, went into debt, and were currently in deep financial trouble. It is a curious phenomenon, but it's difficult for me to feel very sorry for these people. :)
 
I'm not looking for a job, but...

... my personalized "Curse Removal" program will cure you of the burden of dealing with all that dough.

Kindly send me your $50,000 down payment and just $10,000/month until you feel the burden of wealth draining away from your pores! I'll even deposit your winnings, balance your checkbook, and do your tax returns for free! Stay with the program a month, a year, or ten years-- no limits, no obligations! Cancel anytime, with no additional fees!! What a relief!!!

Ironically these people had better odds of saving for ER than they did of winning the lottery.
 
Whether you win the lottery, inherit a fortune, or even manage to accumulate your own wealth, one thing is clear to me: It is easier to make money than it is to learn how to spend it.
 
It is easier to make money than it is to learn how to spend it.
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Seems to me they knew how to spend it. It was in the saving and not-spending parts that they were deficient.

Let me break out the violin for these poor victims.

I almost never play the lottery (maybe once a year). But I've often felt it would be better to win a small jackpot than a big one. With a smaller jackpot you have a better chance of flying under the radar so you have fewer parasites attempting to latch on to you.
 
Seems to me they knew how to spend it.  It was in the saving and not-spending parts that they were deficient.
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Just because they spent their money doesn't mean they knew how to spend it wisely.  Most people don't know how to spend within their means.  These are usually people with no self-control in their lives and not enough intelligence to think about their future.  If they make $100, they are going to spend $100, if they make $1mil, they are going to spend $1mil.

I'm glad they did spend it all because it just puts more money in the economy and I believe that is good for me and the rest of us who want our investments to grow.

Even though many of us here are or will be in the top 10% of wealth in the US, we still look for bargains and are not foolish in how we spend our money.  To get to ER you must not only know how to make your money, but you also have to know how to spend it.
 
 With a smaller jackpot you have a better chance of flying under the radar so you have fewer parasites attempting to latch on to you.
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I used to play the lotto in college anytime the jackpot was over 10M. 1 dollar yielded a few hours of fun what ifs, a temporary escape from the current woes.... anyways part of the fun was not only thinking of how to allocate the money but also devising ways to claim the prize as undetected as possible. What can I say, it's cheap entertainment. :D

Now that I see that its actually possible to earn that 1-3M through savings and investing, the pasttime lost its appeal.
 
I played the lottery once in college. My friend told me that he dreamed that we all won the lottery. So I went down to 7-11 with him and we bought 5 lottery tickets. WE DIDN'T GET A SINGLE NUMBER ON ANY OF THE TICKETS! That was 1997, and that was the first and only time I played the lottery.
 
The lottery, like other gambling, can be harmless
entertainment. I used to buy tickets every week.
It was fun. Have not bought any in years, but we still
go to the casino sometimes. A little self control
is all the protection you need.

John Galt
 
My finite math teacher in high school ruined the fun of lotto for me. One day he decided that we should calculate the probability of winning the lotto. It came up to be a really miniscule number...

Weird thing about youth though: we were forever hopeful. Even after we calculated this miniscule probability of winning a lotto jackpot, we got together and bought a lotto ticket. We didn't win and I was a dollar poorer. That was my last and first lotto.

Jane
 
The last time I played the lottery was when some folks here at work started up a small pool. I was not really that interested in playing in general, but I HAD to get into this pool. I would have kicked myself from here to eternity if a quarter of the company left work for good after winning and left me behind with a larger workload! :)

That $5 was money well spent in terms of peace of mind.
 
I invite all of you to play the lottery, Salaryguru version. It will cost you $1 just like other lotteries. And your odds of winning are almost identical to other lotteries too. Here's how:
1) Take one dollar from your wallet (US or Canadian).
2) Smoothe it out.
3) Take a close look at both the front and the back.
4) Make careful note of the serial number.
5) Send it to me.
6) If you win, I'll let you know.

Or you can play the short version just by following steps 1 and 5. Your odds of winning do not change. :D
 
The first time I played the lottery, I won 57.00. That was in 1986. I'm sure I'm still ahead, I've spent maybe 40.00 of my winnings buying lottery tickets since then.
 
I invite all of you to play the lottery, Salaryguru version.  It will cost you $1 just like other lotteries.  And your odds of winning are almost identical to other lotteries too.  Here's how:  
1) Take one dollar from your wallet (US or Canadian).
2) Smoothe it out.  
3) Take a close look at both the front and the back.
4) Make careful note of the serial number.  
5) Send it to me.  
6) If you win, I'll let you know.


Or you can play the short version just by following steps 1 and 5.  Your odds of winning do not change.   :D
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Saleryguru I am still trying to smooth out the loonie as per step 2 but am having a difficult time. I guess I'll just have to put it in the kitty with the others :)


The price of many lottery tickets in Canada is now $2.00 and I seldom buy except in the pool at work.

My Aunt and Uncle won $850,000 a few years ago. don't know what they did with it. Most if it is still under a mattress somewhere. They have four of six kids fighting over it and it gets ugly. I think they spent $60.00 a week on lottery for about ten years before they won. (they could afford it and it was entertainment.)



Bruce
 
Why would anybody be surprised that the vast majority (the REAL vast majority, not the vast majority often quoted by GWB) of lottery `winners' end up worse off financially than they were before they played?

Playing any lottery in the first place demonstrates an inate inability to handle money.
 
Bruce 1,
And they have good reason to fight over it. How many parents discriminate over money distribution?. "My poor (read idiot) (son/daughter) is still trying to find himself/herself" while having 3 kids by 3 different fathers kor mothers.
Then there's the ever popular"They didn't have a draft when he spent 6 years to finish school." It's not his fault you got drafted.
Or, "The Lord will call me home if you don't send me a million dollars!" Televangelists and churches, philanthropic organizations.....all of lthem get lined up with their hands out when Mom and Dad get old and start dealing with their own imortality.
And my personal all time favorite is the "loving child who wisks the ailing parent from their home and at the parent's sickest moments convinces them to close the estate account accessible to all the adult kids in an emergency and have one opened with accessibility only for dad and dear sister. Have seen hundreds of thousands stolen this way.
Parents should divide and distribute their estates BEFORE they are dead. And in the absence of having done that there should be serious, non negotiable distribution legal schedules that take into account whether the surviving spouse is no,1, no.2, or no.3. what they brought to the marriage,whether the kids are responsible, etc.
Parents drastically change over the course of their lifetimes. The parent who ridiculed you for spending so much money on a prom dress you bought for yourself now drinks dollar a bottle ("Tap water tastes so bad...")
And believe me there are those who willl marry their own LTC insurance. And spend whatever it takes to keep it.
I think the biggest mistake a parent can make is having a child grow up in relative poverty and having first spouse live that way all the way to the grave then the survivor deciding that it's all theirs and all the previous attiudes were wrong and now they just want to live a little. Translation: I don't want to be cheap any more with myself but I don't want to be generous with my kids, either.
 
And whoever was Anna Nicole Smith's husband....what a doddering old fool!!!!
And we all thought prostitution was illegal most places.
$474M from a $1.6B estate? that is an excellent example of what I was talking about previously.
Was her presence and her services worth more than a million dollars a day!!??
And we are wasting the Supreme Court's time on this kind of junk.
 
Gpax7 said:
And whoever was Anna Nicole Smith's husband....what a doddering old fool!!!!
And we all thought prostitution was illegal most places.
$474M from a $1.6B estate? that is an excellent example of what I was talking about previously.
Was her presence and her services worth more than a million dollars a day!!??
And we are wasting the Supreme Court's time on this kind of junk.
Click to expand...

Well not really. Even though her case is before the Supreme Court it is a case concerning jurisdiction. What trumps when a federal bankruptcy court makes a decision different from a state probate court. Not very sexy, but an important jurisdiction case.
 
Was her presence and her services worth more than a million dollars a day!!??
Click to expand...

only dear, departed J. Howard can say...  ;)

Conversely, when you look at the guy's sour-puss son, is there anything to make you think his precious existence is worth all $1.6 billion:confused:  :-\
 
I dont hold anything against anna nicole.

Her granddaughter when i'm 90 and a billionaire? I might have something to hold against her... ;)

The old guy wanted to impress everyone with his young wife, and feel a little younger himself before he passed. He was willing to compensate for the pleasure. Nobody got hurt. The son got more money than any other 50 people will every see pass through their hands in their lifetimes. Other than that, it probably wasnt anyone elses business.
 
Martha,
That gets into the whole states' rights issue. and whether the United States as a whole should be more powerful than the individual states.
Didn't one of the amendments to the Constitution specifically limit the rights of the federal gov't to those specifically granted in the Constitution?
 
No, I dont think so. As a prospective 90 year old billionaire, I will probably find nothing unfortunate about it.

My son might be a bit peeved to receive half of his inheritance, but maybe there'll be a great-great-granddaughter around for him to make time with when he's 90.
 
Hey, if I live to be 90 and have a $billion and am capable of enjoying that kind of company, what the H-E-double-hockey-stick else am I going to spend money on? Charity begins at home. ;)
 
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