Is this winning the lottery?

I saw an interesting meme today:

When I read this, I started thinking of all the stories of people who, then they win the lottery, go stark raving NUTS and end up broke (and broken) within two years.

But this. THIS. Live peacefully. Mind your own business. Wear your little outfits. Feed the birds.

Hmmm. I think we won the lottery, without the lottery...

What would you do with a billion bucks?

I've been following (somewhat peripherally) the Mega Millions lottery, featuring the third-largest prize in U.S. history: $1.34 billion (with a "b"). What would you do with a billion bucks?

The winning ticket was sold to a single person, who has been transformed overnight from an anonymous schmuck into one of the nation's wealthiest people. Oof.

The lottery history is scattered with the cast-aside corpses of winners. Sudden wealth, especially if it comes with a "b" in front of it, is frankly a horrifying thought. Why? Because the lottery is the epitome of how money can't buy happiness. Many lottery winners try to "buy" happiness, and it doesn't work.

I remember many years ago, when we lived in Oregon, we heard about a local older couple who won a modest lottery (something on the order of $5 million). In an interview, they seemed like eminently sensible people. They had no plans to move, but they did pay off their mortgage (and beef up the security system around their home). They put legacies aside for their children and grandchildren, set up an account for charitable donations, and let the answering machine handle the spurt of calls from long-lost "relatives." But they didn't let any of it go to their head. The most decadent thing they planned to do, apparently, was to take a two-week vacation. I say, good for them.

But endless others don't have this restraint. Many winners are broke within a few years. Many lose spouses and children – often because of conflict, sometimes because of deaths (murder, drug overdoses, etc.). And of course, friendships are strained by the sudden inequity, and all future friendships must be weighed on whether the interest is genuine or mercenary.

But what about us, the Lewis family? In our case, wealth would be utterly wasted. We have no interest in the latest whiz-bang anything (fashion, electronics, jewelry, cars, whatever), so what would we buy? (A reeeeally nice Jersey cow, perhaps.....)

I quizzed Don on his thoughts about winning the lottery. He said that after putting aside an amount that would make us comfortable (and for us, "comfortable" is pretty durned modest) for the rest of our lives, he would probably give the rest of it away. He would set up charitable foundations for issues dear to his heart. We would probably move – we would probably have to – in which case we'd purchase a similar-sized home on larger acreage. (He always wanted to have a small home at the bottom of a valley next to a creek, and own everything up to forty feet over the tops of the hills. In other words, solitude.)

This is because Don has no envy. "I've thought it through so many times," he says. "And nope, I have no envy. It's just not one of my deadly sins, so more money wouldn't change that."

Envy is pernicious and leads to all kinds of horrible things. A kernel of envy can grow until it drives you mad. Nope, not going there.

Money, especially unearned money, also takes away the motivation to earn a living, which is a cruel thing. It ruins people, it ruins their children, and it ruins their grandchildren. Rather than the need for money, it becomes a love of money ... and we know what the Bible says about that:

"Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." – 1 Timothy 6:9-10

Far better to have "godliness with contentment." Or, as Proverbs 17:1 puts it, "Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife."

That said, there is an indulgence we would probably grant ourselves, should we ever become wealthy. We'd probably rent (not buy; rent) an RV and tour this fair land for a year, seeing the sights (blogging as we go, of course).

Then we would come home, resume our interrupted homesteading activities, and live happily ever after. What more do we need beyond that?

So now it's your turn. What would you do with a billion bucks?

Instant billionaire

I stumbled upon a recent study that noted "Making more money really does make people happier." It starts: "The old saying goes 'money can’t buy happiness,' but a new study finds that's not exactly true. Although previous studies find there's a limit to how much a person's income impacts their happiness, a researcher from the University of Pennsylvania says the sky's the limit when it comes to money's influence over well-being."

Unquestionably a certain level of income will make people happier, as endless millions who have lost their jobs over the last year will attest. But I'd like to think the operative word in this study is "making." But what happens when money isn't "made" but won?

Hard on the heels of this study was the news that a winning Mega Millions ticket was sold in Michigan for a jackpot of – are you ready for this? – $1 billion dollars.

I don't know if the prize has been claimed yet – I'm not following this situation closely enough to care – but instead I've tried to wrap my mind around the concept of becoming an instant billionaire.

Statistically rich people don't purchase lottery tickets, so this sudden windfall has doubtless fallen on some Joe Sixpack-type whose life will never be the same.

Can you imagine being that person? Suddenly everything would change. The relationships you have with friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, community, church – it's all altered. You would be placed in a Fairy Godmother position, able to grant wishes with the flick of a wand. Distant relatives would materialize out of the woodwork. You would have legions of supplicants following you everywhere, wanting their share of fairy dust. If you refuse anyone, you will be branded with every possible curse (greedy, selfish, heartless, etc). And of course, you will have your share of Dr. Evils who want to rob, kidnap, ransom, or murder you for your newfound wealth.

There is a lot of tragic documentation of what happens to lottery winners for whom sudden wealth becomes the worse thing that ever happened to them. "Seventy percent of people who land a big windfall, lose it within several years," said one financial adviser. "Many are not prepared for such a massive change in lifestyle and they don't set a budget, (but) even millionaires need a budget."

I'm not even referring to squandering all the money; I'm referring to the corrupting influence sudden wealth has on those who aren't prepared for it (Jack Whittaker comes to mind).

People who earn a lot of money are presumably motivated to do so. Whatever their morals, they're at least equipped to handle wealth. But people who win huge sums of money out of the blue are suddenly and abruptly deprived of whatever motivating factors kept them going in life – the motivation to provide for their family, or the satisfaction of building a business, or the joy of working hard to make plans and projects come to fruition. No matter how much we might hate our commute or dislike our job, being suddenly deprived of motivation to earn a living can be a tragic thing.

"A close inspection of how people react to the idea of winning a large sum of money exposes more than a few flaws in our values and the way we think," observes blogger Bruce Wild. "It seems that society has reached the point where it thinks the road to riches is not through the valley of hard work and savings and that we can by-pass the important area known as sacrifice. ... Huge sums of money from lotteries are unmanageable by the average man and often cause adjustment difficulties, resulting in pain and not happiness.  Large jackpots also result in a disconnect in true and associated values causing unrealistic expectations." [Emphasis added.]

So whoever is the poor sap who just became an instant billionaire, my prayers are with you. I hope you can handle it, and that nothing bad happens to you or your family.

Winning the lottery

Have you ever wanted to own this?

Or this?

Yeah, me neither.

I saw an interesting article a few weeks ago entitled Twelve Things Not To Do If You Win the Lottery. These twelve things are:

• Have a stash of illegal substances around the house
• Tell everyone you know
• Automatically decide to take the up-front cash
• Think that you are the smartest person to manage your money and finances
• Let your debts remain in place
• Become the generous high-roller, living the life
• Buy everything for everyone, or even for yourself
• Say to hell with a budget
• Become the business backer for all your friends and family
• Give away the whole enchilada
• Get celebrity and athlete envy
• Think that laws and decency standards no longer apply

Like zillions of other people, Don and I have batted around the idea of what we would do if we won the lottery. (Of course to do that, we'd have to play the lottery.) I'd like to think we've be more sensible than to do any of the twelve things mentioned on that list, but then we've never been put in that position either.

Back when we lived in Oregon, there was an older couple who won a "small" lottery of about $5 million. I actually got the chutzpah to call the wife and ask if I could interview her about what a lottery win was like. She was very kind and, while she declined an in-person interview, she answered a few questions over the phone. I was deeply impressed with how sensible she and her husband were being.

Among other things, they delayed announcing to anyone they had won the lottery until they had entirely upgraded the security on their modest home. They had no plans to move and no plans to buy anything fancy. They were in the process of setting up trust funds for their children and grandchildren in such a way that no one would run wild (especially their grandchildren). In short, they acted calmly and rationally.

So what would Don and I do if we won the lottery?

Besides paying off the mortgage, we might consider moving to a more remote property (though it would be a wretch to leave our wonderful neighbors, so maybe we wouldn't). We would continue to live frugally, though we might replace our worn kitchen linoleum and hideous blue indoor/outdoor carpeting the house came with, and install hardwood floors. We would set up trust funds for the girls and our future grandchildren, while encouraging all parties to live as frugally and self-sustainably as possible. We would set aside a generous portion for charitable purposes.

Of course, this is all hypothetical since, after all, we don't play the lottery.

But in a manner of speaking, we already have won the lottery. So have you. What do I mean?

Well consider: most of us are in reasonably good health, reasonably happy with our families and relationships and friends, reasonably well-off enough that we can afford to live someplace decent, with reasonable amounts of modern conveniences, and have reasonable access to modern medicine when needed. You're only reading this post because you're experiencing a modern miracle (the internet). You're only reading this because you can read (many people can't). You're only reading this because you can see to read. Catch my drift?

These are all lottery wins in the game of life. Beyond that, an astonishing number of "wins" in life are due to making good choices (the premise of my Simplicity Primer book) and living frugally. Almost anyone can make the decision to get out of debt, raise your kids right, become more self-sufficient, etc.

Still, those fantasies about winning the lottery linger. After all, there are few of us who wouldn't agree a little bit more money would be nice.

There are ways to achieve that too. I've heard it said the quickest way to give yourself a pay raise is to spend less money. Daisy at The Organic Prepper has an outstanding post called Personal Austerity: 12 Ways to Radically Cut Your Expenses (well worth reading!). Along these lines, there's an article on the Dave Ramsey website entitled Seven Characteristics of Debt-Free People.

Let's face it, most of us have won the lottery in life, for which we should give praise to God.

Sometimes it helps to keep things in perspective.

Winning the Lottery

I have a new post up over at RegularGuy.com! This column is entitled "Winning the Lottery." Hop on over and take a look.