Nairn lottery win? (And help for lottery winners.)
There’s been plenty of coverage this month about the fact that someone in the “Inverness and Nairn area” has scooped £3.6 million on the National Lottery, but has yet to claim.
The headline that this could be “life-changing” is sure true. However, winning money is a rose with many thorns, and the sudden change to extreme wealth can be very unsettling.
My parents and grandad were once part of a pools syndicate that won the jackpot in the mid-1990′s and my recommendation is that if you do win the lottery, don’t tell anyone about it. Seriously.
Some people will expect you to reward their friendship or family ties with the money. Because you won it, rather than earned it, it’s not assumed to be yours to keep entirely – merely yours to manage and hand out. My Grandad’s brothers actually disowned him for a while for not sharing with them, despite them otherwise having normal friendly relations.
Instead, you can’t hide the fact you’ve come into money, so just tell them a family friend from way died and apparently you’ll get a share of her estate, which could be worth a couple of hundred grand once probate is settled. Someone who was like an auntie to you when you were younger, who married an investment banker but was widowed a while back, and who lived in a detached cottage in Somerset, should do the trick. The fact that legal process is involved means you have a cash gift up front from the will, but everything else is going to take months – perhaps as long as a year – to sort out. That should keep the opportunists from knocking on your door with their hands out from day one. 
Of course, it remains true entirely that money does not buy you happiness – it buys you opportunity. But money also flows through your hands like water when you stop realising its everyday value. So another point if you come into money is to be thrifty with it – consider what you would like to spend it on, but do budget what you have. Seriously, it is easy to burn through thousands of pounds, hundreds of thousands of pounds, through lots of expensive treats over a couple of years. Treat yourself, but limiting yourself sensibly means you can enjoy the money longer.
Also, while many people may dream of not working if they win big, the reality is that a sudden jump from being busy to having no work commitments can be a big shock, and result in you feeling restless and bored. Think about the sterotype of what happens when people retire. So consider working part time, just to keep you on your toes, and find interesting activities and hobbies – perhaps things you fancied once but might take a little money to do – and engage yourself. My parents never stopped working, but by working part-time, worked when they wanted to, and without feeling the normal pressures.
Anyway, hope that helps someone here sometime.
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So…
Your worth a couple of bob then?
Any chance of a sub
Lol! My parents soon burned through their winnings, not least after their divorce.