Watch out! You are a lottery
winner
Winning the lottery and looking forward to a trouble-free life
of luxury is something all of us would welcome for 2007, but for
some winners, sadly the lottery did not bring them the happiness
they dreamed of.
In the UK Michael Carroll from Norfolk, who won £9.7m on
the National Lottery in 2002 has been ordered to attend anger-management
courses. That’s what the judge hearing the case where Carroll
was accused of abusing train passengers last November ordered, plus
a two-year supervised community order.
Sadly, just before Christmas 2006, Ralph Stebbins from Michigan
USA, aged only 43 died of a heart attack. He and his wife had won
£62 million in February 2005 on the USA’s Mega Millions
lottery, and had used the money to buy a farm and look after family
members. Luckily they had taken the lump sum option of their original
£104m win, rather than spreading it over 26 years with annual
payments. And now there is news that Rene Sena, a 54 year old shop
keeper from Rio de Janeiro who won $24million a year ago in the
National Lottery, has been shot dead in a mugging near his shop.
He was killed by motorbike robbers who stole a sackful of money
he was carrying.
But in Portsmouth Sharon Hall thanks her lucky stars every day
that she won the National Lottery. Her win of £1million in
May 2004 came just as she had been diagnosed as diabetic and amid
fears she would have to give up her high-ranking Master of Arms
job with the Navy, and lose their service house. The win secured
her and her family’s future and allows her to stay at home
and be a mum.
Interestingly The Sunday Times (7/1/07) had a big magazine article
discussing just how much you have to win/earn to live the ‘Millionaire
Lifestyle’ and it isn’t £1m, it’s a lot
more. Nowadays, when Camelot advisors meet with Lottery millionaires
their first job is to point out that a £1m win does not mean
a lifetime of luxury unless you are very prudent. They cite Billy
Gore, a cab driver who won £1.1m and promptly gave away his
cab, paid for an all-expenses holiday for14 people and bought his
daughter a car, before sense prevailed and he realised all his money
could be gone in a year. With proper investment a £1m win
will give you £50,000 a year after tax, a nice amount to live
on, but not the champagne-guzzling millionaire style you might have
imagined. £1m can buy you a house, or a good investment portfolio,
but not both and certainly not the Ferrari you’d always fancied.
Apparently if you win £2.2m or more then you can relax, but
not if you want a house in Central London (look at a starting price
of £2m, plus staff costs!).
So, if you were wondering what the official definition of a millionaire,
in the UK in 2007 is? Well about 376,000 people can call themselves
just that as they have £1m in cash (or assets like property,
that could be converted to cash). But as the Sunday Times says,
they might not actually feel rich.
- 8/01/07
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