I have a story about 4 lottery winners, 1 smart, 1 sad, and 2 really dumb.
This couple lived across the street from my parents. I had met them a couple of times, they seemed really nice.
They go to the casino and on the way out the door the wife sticks a coin in the slot machine. Bells, whistles, flashing lights! Security people! They just won $10,000,000. Not bad for a weekend excursion!
They had their own small business and it had been struggling a bit from the debts for its equipment. They paid off all their debts.
They gave some to their son and some to their daughter. They retired and gave their son the business to operate.
So far, so good.
The son hires his "good buddies" at inflated salaries and spends every dime that comes into the business as it comes in. Runs thru his share of the money, runs the business into the ground, AND loses the fully paid-for house he owned before all this mess.
The wife gets the idea that's she's now "a somebody" and starts hanging out with the society folks. She divorces her husband and "invests" her money in projects her society friends recommend to her. They fleeced her good and proper and she ends up destitute. She lost everything because she didn't buy things outright with her money, she bought them all on payments. The daughter buys her mom a house to live in but retains the title because mom still wasn't over the stupids.
The husband is heartbroken that his wife leaves him. He starts drinking. He passes out drunk in the driveway one winter evening and dies of hypothermia. That truly was sad, he was a nice guy and deserved better.
The daughter is the only one who kept her head thru the whole process.
As Jim Rohm said, "If you get a million dollars, you better learn how to be a millionaire or you won't be one for long."
