This $30 million lottery winner reveals his surprising lifestyle
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Sandeep Singh (left) was also a $30 Million Mega Millions winner, but this article isn't about him. The identity of this article's winner still remains a mystery.
It's not often that we get to peek inside a major lottery winner's life.
But in a revealing Reddit post which is about what to do if you win the lottery, a real-life multi-millionaire Mega Millions jackpot winner talked about life after his win.
Here's a selection of the more interesting questions he got from readers - and his answers, chosen from over 900 posts.
This is the post that started it all: "I won a $30 million lottery jackpot and have spent the last 5 years traveling the world. AMA (ask me anything)."
How much did you actually get?
A little under $20 million.
What did you do when you found out you won?
Made photocopies of the ticket and contacted a lawyer.
Just wondering... what did it feel like when you saw the numbers?
I went to the lottery's website after finding the ticket and realized that I had won. I freaked out ran up to my apartment's door and locked all the locks. It was completely irrational.
How did you manage to stay anonymous, if you did, doesn't the lottery always publish the winner's name? Did you get a legal name change and then collect your money?
Set up a blind trust, have a tax lawyer collect your winnings for the trust, and the lottery simply publishes that a trust collected the totals. People found out when I told a few friends out of excitement.
What was the first thing you bought?
My first ‘lottery’ purchase was a safe.
What was the most ridiculous thing you bought?
T-rex animatronic head used in Jurassic Park. It cost me $90K and sits right behind my sofa.
How much did you give to others (charity, family etc)?
I gave my parents and sister $1M each, donated another million to a scholarship fund. Paid off the debt of lifelong friends (total cost was about $200K).
What was the first thing you did?
Accidentally threw (the ticket) away. I was cleaning out pockets to do my laundry, came across the ticket, and tossed it. It wasn't until a few hours later that curiosity got the better of me and I googled the winning numbers. After I saw that I had won I called my boss and quit without giving a reason.
What did you do the day you found out or the day after?
Googled stories about people who had won and squandered the money. Looked for patterns and promised myself not to do that myself. I then made photocopies of the ticket and called a lawyer.
Do you have a plan?
Not until I've seen every country at least once. Right now I'm leaning towards moving to Thailand for a few years.
What do you plan on investing in?
Most of it was put into a trust which is managed by a company that has provided me with advice and invests it for me.
How badly do people pester you for handouts (for business, charity etc)?
When it first happened I was deluged by people I hadn't seen in years asking me for help, telling me their SOB stories, and wanting to start a business. I bought into a lot of it at first but you quickly become hardened and learn to say no. I haven't been asked for money in a few years now, largely because I've been traveling. First place I went was Hawaii. It was a place I had always wanted to visit when I was in college but could never afford. After that I started going to beaches that looked cool in airplane magazines. I highly recommend it.
How do you plan on living the rest of your life?
My first decision was to do nothing. But nothing gets boring fast.
Assuming you didn’t win the lottery, do you think you would be happier or sadder then you are now?
I was happy, just stressed. I'm less stressed now.
What’s it feel like knowing that you don’t have to work for the rest of your life?
Pretty good, but it subsides each time I have to sit through a meeting with my accountant because listening to money talk is boring.
What are you going to do with all the money after you die?
Donate it, mostly.
Has the massive amount of people begging for money made it harder to make new friends? (Are you more jaded now)
Yes.
What do you think is an income to meet your upgraded means? As in, when should a regular joe feel like they're living the lifestyle of a lottery winner, in terms of annual income?
Once you remove a lot of the fixed costs that drain a paycheck, you'd need to make little under $100K to enjoy my current life. I don't have a mortgage, car note, college bills, etc to worry about.
What are the class division like among the very rich? I'm talking about millionaires vs billionaires, or new money/old money.
Unless you are in the upper echelons of old money then rich people basically act like everyone else. Talking about money is considered to be a sign of new money and a faux pas. Most clubs are exclusive in the sense that the buy in price is pretty steep, but the rest of the dues are fairly affordable. I haven't really had a chance to mingle with too many of them outside of dating, I still spend most of my time with family and close friends.
How much of the $20M do you have today?
Very little since most of it is invested. I've spent a little over $4M so far, most of that was giving money to family/charity though. I've spent less than $200K over the last 3 years.
Exactly how did it change your life? Details, please!
Cons first: It immediately thrust me into the limelight when people found out. Gossip spreads faster than you can imagine. I had strangers ringing my apartment doorbell 2 weeks into it asking for money. I've become a lot less trusting of people as a result.
Pros: It has also alleviated a lot of the smaller stresses in my life, has given me the opportunity to put my money where my mouth is many times, and has allowed me to travel whenever I want. I don't have a lot of the worries other people have either, most of my time is consumed trying to figure out what to do with my free time.
