It had to happen sometime. One Mega Millions lottery ticket sold in Indiana will cash-in for whopping $540 million for the annuity value, or $381 million for the cash value. The winning ticket was drawn Friday, July 8. The Powerball lottery drawing on Saturday, July 9, sports an annuity value of $288 million and has a $201.4 million cash value.

Friday’s winner takes home the third largest Mega Millions jackpot ever after the drawing’s longest-ever run without a winner. Since the last winning Mega Millions ticket was drawn, an estimated $1 billion in tickets had been sold.

What lottery players will want to keep in mind here is that the record Mega Millions jackpot is $656 million. Until Friday’s drawing, the largest amount won on a single ticket was $326 million on November 4, 2014.

It is becoming ever more obvious that the new American Dream is winning the lottery. If you can become filthy rich in an instant, that just sounds a lot better and more fun than a lifetime of hard work, saving and budgeting. And of course there is the media floodgate that keeps telling the public that it is just too hard to get ahead in the old-fashioned way these days.

Whether lottery winners take the annuity or the cash option, lottery jackpots of this size should generate multi-generational wealth. To bend a more common phrase: sudden and extreme wealth brings the need for sudden and extreme responsibility. This is why 24/7 Wall St. has created the 12 things not to do if you win the lottery guidelines.

Get Our Free Investment Newsletter

I have read, and agree to the Terms of Use

Can you imagine winning a cash sum of $100 million, $200 million, $300 million or more? Even after backing out all the cash-option discounts and the massive taxes, this is multi-generational empire-building money. The sad reality of the lottery is much lower than its lure. Many lottery winners ignore all the warning signs, and many lottery winners end up totally broke just a few years after becoming filthy rich.

Maybe it seems hard to imagine that you could blow through hundreds of millions of dollars. The reality today is that it has become incredibly easy to blow even a fortune of that size. Temptation and careless planning and actions can now wipe out almost any vast sum of millions of dollars in short order.

Many pitfalls await lottery winners and those who unexpectedly come into instant wealth. Family relationships and friendships will be challenged. Bragging about the win can be dangerous (and deadly). Getting immediate financial advice and tax advice is a must, as is a realistic budget. Playing ATM and banker for friends and family can wipe you out. Learning the world of high finance is an absolute must. And thinking you are now smart just because you got lucky will doom you. If all these points sound too extreme or silly, then please understand this message: the odds are high that you are a prime candidate to go broke very shortly after becoming filthy rich overnight.

Start tallying up the cost to buy and the costs to keep things like jets and yachts, or mega-mansions and third and fourth homes — or buying a private island or keeping an entourage. What about the multimillion dollar art auctions? What about buying tickets to fly into space or renting out a cruise liner for all of your friends and family. The list of temptations is endless and anyone can now spend hundreds of millions in a few days if they put their mind to it.

Hopefully this is acting as a reality check. Our entire effort behind the 12 things not to do if you win the lottery guidelines is to keep anyone from going broke. 24/7 Wall St. does not want any lottery winner, or those who come into instant wealth, to go broke. Again, with extreme wealth comes extreme responsibility, and you should only have to become rich once.

Here are the 12 things not to do if you win the lottery.
1. Do not forget to sign the winning ticket, and do not fail to report it to the state.

This is going to sound impossible to imagine. Some people might not sign a winning lottery ticket. Other people might lose a winning ticket — millions and millions of dollars have gone unclaimed. Some people even fail to report to the state that they won. Imagine how you would feel if you lost a winning lottery ticket. Now imagine what could happen if someone else takes your winning ticket and then shows up to collect the prize. Fighting over a winning lottery ticket is no simple task and disputes have arisen over who owns what ticket.

In a way, lottery tickets have effectively become 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 go out and brag to everyone you know (or anyone!).

If you are lucky enough to win millions of dollars, one of the first things you might think is that you want to go tell everyone you know. How could you not? Do not do this! Keep as quiet as you can. The problem is that telling everyone you know before you collect your winning can put 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, multiple lottery winners became murder victims. 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. Do not automatically decide to take the lump sum cash option.

Taking it all now may sound better than getting money sent over a lifetime. Supposedly some 70% of lottery winners end up broke again, many within a couple or a few years. Let’s say that you can choose to get $381 million upfront, or you can choose to receive a payout of $540 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 think you are suddenly the smartest person about finance.

Many lottery winners and people who come into large unexpected sums of cash need to immediately get outside financial advice. If someone is living paycheck to paycheck before, does it seem logical that they will now know the best things to invest in and the best tax and asset protection strategies? There are many ways to invest and to protect that new fortune. Strategies of the extremely wealthy often go way beyond just buying stocks and bonds and letting those 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 financial advisors and managers from reputable firms 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 life’s debt and obligations remain in place.

If you suddenly become filthy rich, one of the best things you can do is to get rid of your old financial obligations and debts. If you start thinking something like “I’m rich and don’t have to pay anymore” then please understand right up front that you are on the path to 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 live the big life way too big.

Temptation to keep buying or accumulating can wipe you out. 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. Now just wait until the real con men find you. Taking you and your favorite 500 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 and more money – and they usually end up broke for that cost.

7. Do not run out and buy everything for everyone (even yourself).

Buying nice things is fun for many people, and it can even create a rush for some people. Imagine getting to buy whatever your imagination can think up. Then take a breath for a second. Society and the endless commercials make you think you need to own endless stuff. 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 that a budget is just for the poor and middle class.

This may seem hard to imagine, but creating a budget and actually living on a budget are not just for the poor and the middle class. Again, with 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. Do not become the business backer for all your friends and family.

Being a venture capitalist or a merchant banker may sound powerful and enticing. 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. This could expose you to more than just a loss. You could end up with endless liabilities in some cases.

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 dare give it all away at once.

Many lottery winners and many who become filthy rich may think that they need to immediately share their newfound wealth with society. It may 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 or a large part of it 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 develop athlete or celebrity envy.

Many movie stars, entertainers, and athletes get to live a life that is almost hard to imagine. Lottery money gives a winner the chance to live like the lucky few, and comes with pitfalls that can make them go broke. Keeping up with the Joneses is bad enough. Trying to keep up with the Kardashians or other celebrities is a recipe for disaster. It has to 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 really quickly. Just ask actors and athletes who did this how they feel now.

12. Do not think that laws and decency standards no longer apply.

Some people think the rich can do whatever they want without consequences. It is true that the wealthier you get, the more high-class 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 and television shows often 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.

Get Our Free Investment Newsletter

I have read, and agree to the Terms of Use

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 all its temptations can often interfere with logic.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.