A few years ago my grandson and I were talking about something that wasn't working - and which I thought it would. To emphasize the point I foolishly said I would bet $1 million if it did work.

Unfortunately for me, it did work. He won, and was very happy about it too.

I promised I would send him a check for the money.

Now, I had put myself in an awkward position. On the one hand I wanted to fulfill my obligations. But on the other hand I didn't want to lose a million dollars :-)

So I wrote the check and postdated it to the year 2050. Then I posted it off to him.

I got a phone call a couple of days later from a very delighted young boy. Not only was he pleased with getting such a large sum of money, but he had taken the check to school and his school friends insisted that he bank it straight away.

I carefully pointed out that it would be nearly half a century before he could cash the check... that I was very sorry that I couldn't afford it right at the moment. He knew this already, and it became quite a joke between us over the next few years. And now, age 15, he still jokes about it.

The interesting lesson that I hope was passed on to my grandson was about fulfilling obligations. I had made a promise, and I followed up on it. So now he could expect that I would follow through on whatever I said... no matter how extreme.

However, there was a real problem of integrity with the amount, as I certainly didn't intend to give that million to him.

I didn't think hard enough.

So when you win lotto, take time to figure out how you intend to give your money away - to who, and how you will do it.

Don’t commit yourself to a large sum of money without thinking as I did.

Take time to digest your win. Most financial experts recommend you put the money into an interest-bearing account for 6 months while you wait for the excitement to die down and for reason to take over.

It's all part of getting your financial life fixed up permanently and for the better - so you can avoid throwing away the biggest opportunity you'll ever have in your lifetime.

--- Ken, I ordered your program about 3 months ago, I've played the lottery for over 15 years, mostly Quick Picks. I ordered your system and didn't use it, until last week, for the first time, mostly because I thought the system would not work. Last week, I put it to the test, the Florida Lotto had rolled-over to 50 million, we didn't win anything, one of the players in our pool told me to run the numbers again for the next game, the lottery was at 60 Million, I decided to play Quick Picks instead, what a foolish idea. My friend, who I left the copy of your system at her house, who also helped me calculate the numbers in your system, called me ... screaming I had 5 numbers in the system that paid $5,000.00. I informed her that I didn't play the numbers, even though I had planned to play them for myself, instead, I left the numbers in my office. I just wanted to let you know, I am convinced your system works, I am positive I will be writing you again with good news. Charles Tampa, Florida ---

PS. Quite a few people write a million dollar check to themselves as motivation. They put it up on the wall and work towards achieving that amount by the date they have entered on it. See my earlier posts to see how you can set and achieve your own goals like this.