How would you spend a EuroMillions jackpot? Would you invest it carefully and save for the future, or indulge in your passion for shopping, travelling and partying up a storm? There’s no reason why you can’t do both and Mike Myles is living proof of that.
After winning £1 million on the EuroMillions Millionaire Maker two years ago, Matt went on to see the world and have a good time. He spent at least £500 000 visiting 22 countries in 18 months, sipping champagne, wooing countless women and buying designer clothes.
That sounds exactly what any other young, single, former soldier would do. Matt was a Lance Corporal in the Royal Engineers from 2005 to 2010. He travelled the world with his brother, Pete who also served a term in Afghanistan. But the EuroMillions winner admitted was he wanted to start a family and settle down by the time he was 30.
It was Matt’s mother, Vivien who sat him down to have a serious chat about his finances. He realised that if he carried on living the good life, his fortune would be gone in the blink on an eye. So he started investing in property, medical shares and a film. He’s now worth £1.1 million.
Matt’s story has a lot to tach those of us who try to pick the lucky lotto numbers every week. Even if you just play the Powerball lottery for fun, winning a big jackpot is serious business. You might think it would take you ages to run out of money, but for many winners this happens sooner rather than later.
There’s no harm in spending your winnings on your friends and family, or making some of your dreams come true. But it pays to think about the long-term and put something aside for a rainy day. If you play the lotto online, you’ll have to pay taxes on American lotteries such as the Powerball and Mega Millions. That will put a dent in your jackpot and you’ll walk away with less than the advertised figure.
With European lotteries such as the EuroMillions and Eurojackpot, only a few of the participating countries demand that players pay tax on their winnings. But non-European winners may have to pay some form of tax on lottery winnings as per the legislation in their country. So before you buy your Powerball tickets online, find out what the law is in your country regarding tax on lottery winnings.
Once you know exactly how much you’ll be taking home, it’s worth talking to lawyers and accountants to help you manage your money. Only a few Powerball lottery winners have gone on to consult with experts before claiming their prize. Most winners can’t wait to collect their cheque and don’t take any time to consider the financial implications of winning a big jackpot.
Picking the winning lotto numbers doesn’t make you a genius with figures so it’s better to get talk to people who can give you sound financial advice. Thanks goodness Matt’s mother had that chat with him. Now that he’s making his money work for him, it’s clearly paid off. Why settle for a big jackpot when you can take that money and grow it.
The long-term benefits of savvy investing far outweigh the short-lived thrills of shopping and partying. Even if the lottery results are in your favour, that doesn’t mean the rest of your life will be trouble-free. And even if you aren’t confident enough to play the stock market, simply putting money aside and letting it gather interest while you continue to work, will set you up for a comfortable retirement.
Matt has realised this and is now looking forward to fulfilling his dreams of becoming a firefighter. It’s incredible to think that even after spend half of his EuroMillions windfall, he’s even richer now. There are very few Mega Millions or EuroJackpot winners who manage to increase their jackpots within a few years.
So, perhaps instead of spending all your time daydreaming about what you would do if you won the lottery, you should investigate how best to invest your winnings. It’s one thing to buy Powerball tickets online and hope for the best, but it’s quite another to work out how you can rely on a jackpot to give you a comfortable life without ever having to work again.
By all means keep buying your Powerball tickets online and studying the lottery results. But while you wait to crack the winning lotto numbers, don’t forget to educate yourself on money matters. Chances are you can use what you learn to grow the savings you already have. That way, you could earn more money to play the lotto online without putting in extra hours at the office. If you take anything away from Matt’s story, it should be that life is all about balance!
