[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by psyang

A pretty thorough description of what to do (and what not to do) if you win the lottery. It's broken into 3 parts - read the first 3 comments.

I do think a lot of the bad outcomes for people winning lotteries is due to the demographics of people who play the lottery heavily - tending towards the poor, uneducated, and undisciplined.

Having said that, I honestly would rather win $500k than $10 mil. With the former, I'd just stash it away to ensure a comfortable and early retirement, with maybe a few nice vacations thrown in. I would hate having to deal with the stresses of portioning out a $10 mil win to family, the attention the higher sum would garner, the hassles the kids would get at school, the safety and security issues, and the people coming out of the woodwork to beg money.

I like where I live and my social network. I wouldn't want to abandon it, even if it meant having millions of dollars of play money in a dream home on Vancouver Island. That much money would be very socially isolating.