Written by Matt Saraceno
At 10:59 p.m. Eastern Time this past Wednesday evening, three winners were announced for the largest Powerball drawing in the lottery’s 24-year history. Though the $1.5 billion jackpot certainly trumps past drawings, the amounts to be awarded to the individual winners are not the largest ever. In 2013, an 84 year-old Florida woman won a $590 million jackpot with an end payout of $370 million. This time around, only one winner has come forward so far: a couple from Munford, Tenn. who expect to collect around $327 million upon receiving the complete lump sum payout.
The conspicuous absence of the other two winners’ announcements (one ticket being sold in Florida and one in California) combined with the couple’s decision to appear on the Today Show before officially claiming the winning ticket led some lottery experts to worry for the winners’ privacy and well-being. Generally, attorneys recommend that winners stay out of the limelight long enough to hire a financial planner, give lengthy consideration to how they want to spend or save their money, and ultimately develop a fiscal plan.
This recommendation encourages not only that the winnings be enjoyed responsibly, but also that the anonymity of the winners is protected. The two issues are quite intertwined, as premature exposure to the press can render winners vulnerable to emotional battery by others who feel entitled to ask for monetary favors. Having a plan also aids in the transition period—it can be very difficult to adapt to having much more money than one ever expected to acquire.
An inevitable mental paradigm shift must occur in order to facilitate this transition. Susan Bradley, who founded a firm that trains financial advisors to serve high-powered clients, told the LA Times that it takes roughly two months to prepare a lottery winner to psychologically handle their new financial situation.
The most potent issue for Bradley is how to “normalize their life. … [Winning] affects their health, their family, their sense of purpose and esteem.” Her understanding of the universal difficulties that lottery winners often encounter serves as an important reminder about the importance of deliberate thought and action in our own lives.
Even if we’re not winning the lottery, all of us experience millions of external events throughout the course of our lives that affect the same facets of life that Bradley mentions being affected for lottery winners, and it’s up to us to respond thoughtfully.