What surprised me was the number of 1-digit millionaires that suffered the same fate. That kind of win is not life-changing. Heck, many cities in US/Canada have an AVERAGE housing price of $1 million, meaning you could literally buy a new house (not a mansion), and that's it.
Yeah, anybody who hears "winning the lottery!" thinks of some massive windfall but most guys who win a good chunk of money don't win enough to really live the high life. My dad met one lotto winner who just took his winnings and retired a little earlier. Apparently he still drinks at the same bar, has the same hobbies, etc.
Although tbh that's really all I would need to be happy. I don't have some lucrative pension/401K, so to be able to throw it all into a retirement plan and stop working even a couple years early AND live a comfortable retirement... buying the latest game consoles & games whenever I want... that's living the dream.
And it's small enough of a win that the leeches won't even bother coming after me.
Yeah, if I had that kind of a modest windfall, I also imagine I'd only use a small portion of it then just invest the rest. The idea of using it all up just feels depressing. There's really not much that I need anyway. ---
(\/)(\/)|-| There are precious few at ease / With moral ambiguities / So we act as though they don't exist.