This article was posted on Fark on Saturday. Comments (some mad at the woman for keeping it to herself, some questioning why she's suddenly revealing all this on some radio show, etc...)

http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=1869196

 

I'd tell my spouse, but I wouldn't tell anyone else. At least, not for a while. I might eventually...but I think it's definitely a mistake to go around hollering about winning a lottery. Money changes people (including the winner) and tears families/friends apart.

Course, for some people, telling their spouse is akin to telling their family, and that sucks...I'm glad I don't have that kind of marital situation. :P

 

Dealing with Lottery Winners everyday, 1.5 million isn't really a lot and can be spent with in 12 - 18 months. From what I've read she's keeping it quiet from her husband for fear that maybe he will go back to drug abuse. If she has any sense she will have set up a couple of trust funds for her kids futures, ie wedding funds etc. I dont agree or disagree with her decision to not tell her family, but admire her for sticking to life as she knew it before the win. Shes kept her feet on the ground.

 

In terms of the woman in that specific article, I have no real pro or con feeling about her decisions either. Sometimes actions that look selfish on the outside aren't selfish at all once you understand a situation better.

But I do agree with some of the posters on that forum thread that it seems a bit odd that she'd be all secretive and then go yak on some radio show. That feels out of character. Makes you wonder if it's all just an internet myth in the making. :)

1.5 million can be invested to give you a pretty big annual return/investments if you do it right...if you blow it by buying one house outright or a small yacht or something, sure, it won't go far at all. But if you know what you're doing + a little luck, 1.5 million (net) is still a lot of money and you could easily retire a few years later. :)

 

Well to be honest I think you'd have to be daft to have it -not- last your life time.

Depends how much you win, but if you win say $2,000,000, you can easily spend $1,000,000 of it on whatever and keep the other half in the bank. At a modest interest rate of 9% per year in a bank account, you're getting a free $90,000. You can live pretty comfortably off that, particularly if you used your 1st million on sensible stuff like a nice, modest house and affordable car and such. And if that wasn't enough, you could work part time and easily make another 15,000-20,000 a year and still have lots of time off to enjoy your wealth.

That's assuming you don't put any of your money into the generally advised types of investments too, like property. Buy a couple of cheap rental houses or two and get yourself another ~20,000 a year and then sell the houses off after a couple of years and you'll probably make a profit on that too.

Then again I'm coming from the perspective of someone who had $7,000 in the bank at 18 while my sister has over $30,000 and she's 24 and works 2 jobs as well as has a hobby selling jewelry on the side and is a full time student. Given the spending habits of the general population (in my last job I was in retail, including financing peoples purchases) and those of my friends, I don't think I'm quite typical, though.



Long one this time: hcigxpdp

 

I've got a standard savings account of 6.50%. Term deposits are around 7-8% at the banks, but you see lots of investment companies offering rates of 9-10% over various terms.

Not as reliable as a bank of course, but then when you've got that kind of money, you get other people to do the research for you, and as you said, you can talk the banks into giving you higher rates. I guess also the problem is what happens when the interest rates drop again.