harley
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Hi, I am a lottery winner of 8.2million. I was featured in the last episode of "the lottery changed my life" this last week. The lump sum is the best way as of yet. When I had won I talked to many investors and this is what i had learned. Out of 8.2million I recieved 2.3 million. Doesnt matter what you do for annuity or lump sum, the government rakes in the majority. If i invest 2 million and live off 6% interest, using historical data I would have 55 million in the bank still living off 6%. As opposed to have gone through 8.2 million at the 25 year mark. If you dont have the self control to keep to a plan take the annuity otherwise and plan to be broke in 25 years. I was the last 10 min featured with the youngest lottery winner of 19years old. hope this helps.
Congratulations on winning! Very cool. Yes, I always assumed you'd get about a quarter of the total by taking the lump sum and then paying the taxes. Nice to see how that works.
As far as you plans, if you read around this site you'll see that most of us figure a 4% safe withdrawal rate is the most you can do without having a significant chance of running out of money in the long run. And at 19 years old, I would think that even that wouldn't be too safe.
My recommendation would be to take some time, have a blast for a while, but still plan on working. You're very young, and possibly have a spouse and maybe kids in the future. Pick a career you're interested in, and let the winnings grow for a while. You have the option of doing something you love, even if it doesn't pay that well. But although I'm a huge proponent of retirement and leisure, I don't think even I could imagine 60+ years of never working. You didn't win enough to be totally independent (80 million would have done it ). I knew a $10M winner, and he continued working because with 3 kids, college, a big house, a boat, love of travel, etc, he could see that it wouldn't last forever.
But definitely take some time, have some fun, and think about what you want to do with your life. Don't get sucked in to some investment advisor or annuity salesman's scheme. Good luck to you, and stick around. It would be cool to have someone with your situation involved in the conversations.