The lottery seems to have become the new American dream. After all, making money the old-fashioned way from hard work and a little bit of luck might just be too difficult for most people to fathom these days. The reality is that most people never get a dime out of the lottery, while many do from hard work and planning for the future. Still, the thought of becoming filthy rich overnight by raw luck and with just a few bucks sure sounds a lot more fun than decades of challenges and toil.

Many lottery players will be playing for a chance to win Friday night’s (June 10, 2016) $280 million Mega Millions lottery. This begs the question: what are you supposed to do or not do if you win? Lottery winners know that the cash value is of course discounted, down to $186 million for the up-front cash. We also saw the note from the lottery site that this is the largest Mega Millions lottery since November of 2014. Whichever payment option is taken, the reality is that this is multi-generational empire money.

What the public needs to understand is that there is a more serious side to the lottery, even much farther along than the odds being 1 in 258,890,850. With instant extreme wealth comes the need for extreme responsibility. Sadly, many lottery winners and people who come into unexpected instant wealth end up broke. Some of them go broke in just a few years.

24/7 Wall St. has tracked many lottery winnings over the years, and we have come up with a self-help guide of 12 things not to do if you win the lottery. It probably seems hard to imagine, but you can blow through $186 million in a very short time if you are not careful. The newly wealthy (and those who have had wealth) need to keep one adage in mind: you should only have to become rich once!

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This may seem hard to imagine, but there are many pitfalls waiting for unprepared lottery winners who never decide to take certain steps of protecting themselves. With extreme wealth comes extreme responsibility.

Lottery winners and others who win large sums of money unexpectedly need to consider more than just themselves. This can and likely will impact your family relationships and friendships. Some people continue to work or use their time like the rest of us, but some go live the easy life of luxury.

Lottery winners need to do several things immediately. Signing the winning lottery ticket and reporting it to the state is just the start. Before going to brag to everyone you know, you might want to reconsider. Winners also better line up solid financial and tax advisors, and they better get a handle on the notion that a budget and a life plan is imperative.

Before thinking that you need to be responsible after becoming filthy rich overnight, ask yourself this: if it is so easy after winning the lottery, then why do some people still go broke? Some pitfalls are hard to avoid. Family and friends may think you should be their own piggy bank and ATM. Others will think you need to bankroll all their business ideas or extravagances. And then there is protecting yourself from yourself. Running out and buying up every luxury item imaginable is a recipe for disaster.

Do you know about alternative investment vehicles outside of stocks and bonds? Do you know about investing in businesses or other cash flows, and about complex financial and tax structures? Do you know that your life could now be real in jeopardy? Do you buy everything for everyone, or do you throw extravagant Gatsby parties?

These are just some of the things that a lottery winner will have to consider. It is rather simple to blow through a close to $200 million. The 1980s film Brewster’s Millions made it seem impossible to blow $30 million in 30 days, but that can now be done in hours or days without even being all that creative.

Private jets, mega-yachts, mega-mansions, private islands, fourth and fifth homes, keeping an entourage, holding private concerts, buying endless jewelry or arts and collectibles: these are all fun, but they add up to endless money real quick. And most things like that come with ongoing maintenance, staff and even ongoing taxes and insurance. Any combination of those could hit close to $200 million rapidly.

24/7 Wall St. does not want to see any lottery winner go broke. Here are the 12 things not to do for any lucky lottery winner. Again, you should only need to get rich once!

1. Do not forget to sign the ticket and report to the state.

It seems crazy that people might not sign a ticket. It seems even crazier that they might lose a ticket, or fail to report to the state that they won. Can you imagine losing a lottery ticket? Then imagine what can happen if someone else snags your ticket and shows up to collect the prize. Fighting over this is no simple task and disputes have arisen over who owns what ticket.

In a way, lottery tickets are almost considered the last form of bearer bonds that anyone can collect on if they show up with the coupons and bonds. You have to sign and secure that ticket, and you then have to report to the state.

2. Do not dare tell everyone you know.

If you win millions of dollars, chances are pretty high that you will to want to brag about it to everyone you know. How could you not? Still, keep quiet for now. The problem is that telling everyone you know before you collect your winning puts you in danger, and in more ways that just one. Everyone who has ever done anything for you now may come with their hands out asking for something, or worse.

You may have heard of kidnap and ransom insurance before. Sadly, more than one lottery winner became a murder victim. If you can manage it, and if your state allows it, try to remain anonymous for as long as possible. How you became vastly wealthy will be found out in time anyway, but there is no need to hurry that along and jeopardizing yourself.

3. Don’t just automatically take the cash option without consideration.

Supposedly some 70% of lottery winners end up broke again, many within a couple or few years. Let’s say that you can choose to get $186 million up front, or you can choose to receive a payout of $280 million slowly over the course of a lifetime. Most people choose the lump sum rather than the annuity payment. After all, it is instant empire-making money.

Go see a reputable and visible tax professional and a reputable investment advisor at a top money management firm with a widely recognized company name and a long corporate history. This theme of “reputable and visible” will echo throughout.  Do this before you automatically make the decision about a lump-sum or annuity option.

4. Do not dare think you are now the smartest person to manage your money and finances.

Getting outside financial advice is a must. If you were living paycheck to paycheck before, does it seem logical that someone will know the best things to invest in and the best tax and asset protection strategies? There are many ways to invest and protect that fortune. Strategies of the wealthy often go way beyond buying stocks and bonds and letting the investments ride. As far as who to use, or who not to use, chances are very high that your drinking buddy might not be the best choice as an advisor and expert.

Having a solid and respectable team of advisors and managers from reputable firms in place will act as your buffer to protect your assets now and in the future. Do you know how to protect your assets against all threats and know exactly how to protect your estate in case you die or become incapacitated? Here is a very real hint – If you answered yes, you probably did not bother playing the lottery.

5. Do not let your old debts and obligations remain in place.

Get rid of your old obligations and debts, immediately! If you get the bug in your head of “I’m rich and don’t have to pay anymore” you are dooming yourself. Whether you take the lump-sum or the annuity option, if you have a single penny of debt in the immediate future and distant future, then something is seriously wrong. For that matter, you should not have a single debt ever again. One lottery winner in California was reportedly strapped with debt from property purchases.

If you manage to go broke down the road and still have a mortgage, car payments, student loans, credit card debt and personal bills, all of your friends and family members should get to spank or ridicule you every day for the rest of your life.

6. Do not become a high-roller or go immediately live the big life.

If you go from living a simple life to instantly being able to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more) per week, what do you think happens to your expectations in life ahead? Chances are high that you will want more of the same.

If you start gambling in Las Vegas and are not happy until you are gambling with hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more) per play, you are dooming yourself. Wait until the real con men find you. Taking you and your favorite 50 people on a luxury cruise around the world can become very expensive, very fast. Having an entourage generally only works for people who keep making more money.

7. Absolutely do not buy everything for everyone — or for yourself!

Do not go out and buy dozens of cars, followed by houses and whatever else, for you and your friends and family members. This will start you on a bad path, and you could easily become the next friends and family personal welfare department.

If you start buying everything for everyone, chances are high that they might expect that to last forever. The other end of the story is that you do not have to be a cheapskate either. Still, after hearing a real life personal story of one lucky winner buying more than 30 cars and multiple houses in three months it is just crazy.

8. Do not think you are above living on a budget.

Again, extreme wealth comes with extreme responsibility. It may sound crazy on the surface that you have to live within means when you get a vast sum of money. After all, major lottery winners are generally wealthier than everyone they know combined. This also goes back to having advisors and being prudent, but at the end of the day you do still have a finite sum of money. Chances are very high that you will make some serious purchases and your lifestyle will be changed forever.

Without setting limits for yourself and for what you do with others is a recipe for disaster. Again, many lottery winners go broke. If they went broke in a very short time, what do you think the reflection about wishing for a proper budget would be?

9. Don’t become the business backer for all your friends and family.

One common theme that has come up with lottery winners who suddenly get vast sums of cash is that their friends and family start pitching them on endless business ideas. Sure, some will sound great and some will sound crazy.

If someone has no knowledge of a particular business and does not know what it takes to actually run a business, will they do better because a lottery winner who lucked into vast wealth gave them money to start it? If your answer is yes, you seriously need to protect yourself (from yourself).

10. Do not give away the whole fortune, at least not yet.

It would seem nice to give away vast amounts of cash to charity or to religious institutions. This might not be the case for everyone, but giving away an entire fortune to a charity or to religious institutions needs to be given great consideration. You can be generous without doing the unthinkable. Rather than giving everything away now, the current charitable trend of the extremely rich is to plan for how to give the money away upon their death, while still often leaving some for their heirs.

Imagine what you will feel like down the road when a serious crisis arises in your life or your family’s life, knowing that you no longer had the means to change it. Should you be charitable? Absolutely! Should you give it all away? Absolutely not!

11. Do not ruin your life with celebrity and athlete envy.

Keeping up with the Jonses is bad enough, but definitely do not try to keep up with the Kardashians or other celebrities. It may seem cool to own a 200-foot yacht. It may seem practical that certain celebrities have an entourage, or to have a film crew following you around. It may seem cool owning castles in Europe. Owning an original Picasso painting sure sounds impressive.

Having a big new private jet makes sense for a lot of people. Trying to dodge taxes might even sound appealing to misguided people. Now go add up the price tags of these things, plus the cool cars and houses and the rest of it. You can go broke real quick. Just ask actors and athletes who did this how they feel now.

12. And don’t think laws and decency standards no longer apply.

It is true that the wealthier you get, the more trouble you can find. It is also true that the rich can afford better attorneys and legal defense then the rest of us. Still, living a reckless life without concerns about the law will not keep you from going to prison, or worse. A good sports coach will tell any star athlete upfront that chances are high they will have to be human for far longer than they are going to stars.

Movies sometimes glamorize scoundrels, but what good does it do you if you are incredibly wealthy and such a pariah that no one will associate with you? Remember, you don’t get to take any of your wealth with you.

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24/7 Wall St. would not want anyone who wins the lottery to end up broke. Losing wealth, or worse, is just not how things are supposed to go. Following a list of tasks may sound easy enough. Unfortunately, life and temptations can often interfere with logic.

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