It took years for Raymond Hazell to build up a nest egg for playing the lottery.

He put aside $10 - $15 from each paycheck to build a fund that he would use to play the lottery when he retired.

And it paid off. Hazell purchased the winning ticket in the “$4,000,000 Gold Bullion” game at Hopkinton Wine & Spirits, which gave him $1 million in prize money.

The happily retired 69-year-old chose the cash option on his prize, and received a one-time payment of $650,000 before taxes.

And here's why he kept the win a secret from his wife.

Hazell didn't tell anyone about his good fortune until after he received the check in his hands.

Because after claiming his prize, his plan was to greet his wife Elizabeth with a dozen red roses and a bottle of fine champagne along with his grand prize winning check.

“I bought the ticket on Monday, scratched it, and I just couldn’t believe it,” a beaming Ray Hazell told the Boston Herald.

“I decided right away I wasn’t going to tell my wife — I said, I’m going to surprise her."

"It wasn’t hard for me to keep the secret but my wife said afterward, ‘How did you do it?’”

Raymond chalked up his life-changing win to his unusual approach to retirement.

He spent more than 20 years putting aside $10 to $15 from every paycheck so he could play the lottery into his twilight years.

“I just kept putting it away, putting it away, and when I retired five years ago I was able to keep playing,” said Hazell, who spent 27 years working in the Newton assessors’ department.

Raymond intends to use his winnings to pay off the mortgage on their summer home and to make home renovations.

READ MORE: Boston Herald