It seems that lottery winnings are most problematic. If you just happen to be wealthy people don't usually expect so much of you. Either you earned that money (or at least clocked in hours for it) and people tend to feel like you are entitled to it. Or you have it through your family, in which case you aren't seen as having as much control over your wealth, just that you get the pleasure of using it. But when you win the lottery everyone knows you didn't earn it. It's hard to hide the fact from people you know. And friends and family start putting a lot of pressure on winners to "do right" by them. You're expected to share the love. You'd have to win much more than she did to make that last long. Given her age when she won I imagine she was subject to more social and family pressure than most of us would be.
You know, this is something I've been thinking a lot lately that lends a bit of truth to the old statement, "The rich get richer, the poor stay poor." It's unfortunate, but it seems like those who are already poor just blow through their money and end up in bankruptcy in five years time, but if you give that same amount of money to someone who is at least moderately well-off, they have a much greater potential to wisely spend and invest it, and possibly even turn that sum into an even greater amount. Not really sure where I'm going with that thought process; it's just something that has been milling around in my head lately.
I think if you have a reasonable amount of money to begin with you won't be as tempted to change everything in your life with the added millions. You are more likely to invest it so you can retire early, pay off the debts you already have, do a lot more travel. But the point is that you would probably pace yourself so that you can make it last. But if you have almost nothing to begin with you are more likely to want to get yourself away from poverty as much as possible. And you are also more likely to be surrounded by friends and family who want the same. And people don't realy dream of moving into a modest home in the burbs when it's all out of reach anyway. Instead they think of how they would live it up if they had a few million.
I think this has more to do with people who used to be poor and suddenly comes into money. A similar case would be any professional sports player who grew up in poverty. Hence why 60% of NBA players eventually go broke. It really is sad though, because those money could've bought her a lifetime of happiness(relatively speaking). I mean, even if her family has no business sense, putting the money in a simple bank account offer a mighty good return on just interest.
I agree, reasonable investment would have meant a comfortable supplementary income for life. But I thought the problem with the 60% of NBA players had to do with paying child support for multiple kids, alimony, etc. No matter how much you make, alimony and child support will take a painful chunk.
I've always wondered if there's ever been a study done on this. I hear both sides of the argument where dirt poor people go broke after coming into a lot of money because they didn't have money growing up or know how to take care of it. Then I hear about all the kids who had nothing growing up during the Great Depression being very stingy with their money, living within their means, etc. as adults/elderly. I'm not sure which is correct, if either, even as a generalization.
I think they are both true. But in the first case it is easy money obtained foolishly (statistically, playing the lottery is foolish). In the second case it is money obtained by frugal living and wise investment. Not all poor people are foolish, nor are they all wise. Generally it is the foolish person who would be eligable to win the lottery in the first place.
I'm convinced neither is "correct" as a generalization. My opinion is that, when faced with any form of severe difficulty growing up (i.e. - poverty, addiction within the family, sexual abuse, etc.) you can react one of two ways: you can fight like hell against it, or you can let it consume you and end up emulating it. Addicts usually had family with addiction, sexual abusers were usually sexually abused, etc. Poverty is much the same: people who are poor usually grew up poor. With people who spend their lottery winnings, it may feel like they are fighting poverty by spending, when in fact they are succumbing to poverty by spending more than they truly have.
It probably wouldn't have mattered how much money she won, whether it was 3 million, 30 million or even 100 million. She would've eventually gone broke with all of her family and friends looking for handouts.
I think we have to preference this with 2 things 1. She was 16. I dunno what the hell I would have been like at 16 with 3 mill 2nd 3million is alot of money yea . .. but it does not leave alot of room for error that is if you wanna last a life time Rocket River
LOL, that's exactly what I thought when I read this. How the hell do you go through 400k of blow in only a few years unless you are just railing baby laxative and B12.
