Money makes people happy. That’s 100% understandable as in our current worlds it’s hard to live without money, or if the amount you have is very small. We have to pay for our shelter, food, transportation, learning, and even rest.
That’s why you’re probably extremely happy to know you won the lottery. Congratulations! Even if your win is not a huge several million jackpots, it’s nice to know you have more money in your pocket now. You’re dreaming about partying when you have it on your hands, right?
Not so quickly. You must know that getting a lottery win is not only sunshine and rainbows as some of us think. Before claiming your prize and after receiving it, you should know the exact steps of what you need to do. Otherwise, you’ll just lose your money all at once.
Right After You Won
There are 5 main steps you’ll have to follow right after you got informed that you won. Follow closely.
1. Find the Best Professionals to Help You
After you finally realize how lucky you are, the best way to deal with all the following point is to get yourself a powerful group of people:
- a lawyer – they will deal with everything you do with your money from now on, including getting your check, contacting the lottery, the bank and so on;
- an accountant – they will basically count your money and analyze what you’re spending it on;
- a financial advisor – it will be hard to concentrate on life with a big amount of money, so they will help you set your schedule up and consult you on spending.
2. Take All the Money and Protect the Ticket
You shouldn’t turn the ticket in right after you won. First of all, make several copies of your ticket and secure one of those in the bank. The other ones should be given to your new team, where they will decide everything about taxes and payments and then get the check for you.
There will be two choices for you when you win: take the whole amount or get annual payments. Taking the whole amount is a lot better as you can invest it, and it doesn’t require so many payments and taxes.
3. Stay Humble
We all know that you’d love to scream about the fact that you’re rich from the rooftops of the building, but it’s best to stay composed and never announce anything to other than closest family members. You will be risking your life otherwise because it’s possible that some would love to rob you or even kidnap you. Also, say no to those who want your money for opening a business.
4. Watch Over Your Privacy
When your name goes public, you will hear a lot from other people you don’t even know. They can be media or charity organizations, and maybe your distant relatives that you’ve never met before. It’s important to protect your privacy:
- change your number to an unlisted one;
- set up a new P.O. box;
- create new social media accounts and only open them to your closest friends;
- change your e-mail;
- make sure that you receive your money anonymously.
5. Communicate With a Bank
Your team should help you with this part, but it’s still important to know that you should contact the private management of the bank to get your money secured there. Coming to the cashier with your million is never the best choice. Neither is keeping those at home.
After You’re Done With Preparations
You will be able to act more freely about your sum when you’re done with preparations. Now you can truly learn what to do with lottery win.
1. Invest Your Prize
That’s not as important to do; you can simply keep the money to yourself. But, investing even a part of your prize into anything can increase your bank account balance and make the money last longer. So, in case you’re scared of spending everything too soon, invest the money.
2. Donate to Charity
Are you feeling generous? Open your own charity fund or donate to different charities you prefer. Of course, it’s amazing you have so much money now and you’re not struggling. But, there are a lot of people who struggle even more than you did before you won.
Have a meeting with your team and decide on the amount you’ll be able to donate without draining yourself of money and wealth too much.
3. Watch Your Budget
It’s important not to spend a lot of money right away, even if you’ll have a lot of urges for that. First of all, it will be too obvious you got a lot of money if you start buying cars and golden jewelry. Secondly, the lottery win won’t last as much as you think. It’s better to live the same way you did before.
4. Share With Your Family
Obviously, you won’t let your family starve while you’re living your best life. Share with those you trust and know they need it, pay for your children’s school or university, give a present to your significant other, help your parents with their house getting repaired. Yet, learn to say no to others.
5. Pay Back to Those You Borrowed From
Being in debt is never good, so pay your debts off. Be it a university loan or just some money you borrowed from your friends, stay out of debt even if it requires everything you had won. Life can present you to amazing difficulties, and no luxury life will help you with them when you already lost what you got.
6. Continue Working
As soon as someone wins the lottery, they imagine their life without any worries, resting somewhere in an expensive mansion and sipping on the cocktail. No work, no bothers from the boss and so on… Incredible, right? Yet, it’s not true. While you get an incredible sum of money, it doesn’t mean you’ll get to live your life to the fullest. You’ll still need to have a job and to live in your house. It only adds some extra money you can spend on food, your hobby, family, and future. Sometimes you’ll be able to have amazing days off on an island but you shouldn’t get used to going there every week or even living there.
7. Don’t Drain Yourself
Money is not only relieving; it’s also draining and stressful. So, don’t forget to care about your own health. No amount of money will bring your health back, and no doctor can save you from scary deceases you brought upon yourself. So:
- drink enough water every day;
- eat healthy food, include more vegetables into your routine, don’t get stuck on takeout and junk food;
- try relaxing more, take up yoga or meditation;
- buy more expensive vitamins and supplements.
As you can see, you have a lot to do with your lottery win when you get it. And it might not be as easy as to just grab the money you want and ride into the sunset. A lot of people would want to steal it, or ask for help and invade your privacy. You have to be mindful, careful and everything will work out!
