Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.” – Vince Lombardi
This post isn’t about the morality of gambling, but rather about what happens when you come into a windfall of money – whether it is from an inheritance, sale of a business, a big break, or winning the lottery. If you cannot handle money responsibility before you have a windfall, chances are you will not be able to handle money afterwards. What are you doing to prepare? Like the farmer who prepares the field for rain, are you preparing your finances so God can bless you?
Be Careful What You Wish For
Kenneth and Connie Parker were winners of a $25 million jackpot. Their 16-year marriage disintegrated just months after they became rich beyond their wildest dreams.
William “Bud” Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988 but now lives on his $450.00 a month Social Security check after relatives, and an ex-girlfriend tormented him until he invested and shared his millions with them.
The 2002, $314.9 million dollar Powerball winner Jack Whittaker was sued by an Atlantic City casino in 2004 for allegedly writing bad checks from a closed bank account in West Virginia.
Evelyn Adams, who won the $5.4 million dollar New Jersey lottery not just once, but twice in 1985 and again in 1986 gambled most of it away, and is broke today.
Billie Bob Harrell Jr. hit the $37 million dollar Texas jackpot in 1997 only to end his own life less than two years later when he realized that all he wanted his marriage more then the money, but that it was too late to fix the strained marriage. Why was it strained? His spending habits spiraled out of control, and his wife only wanted a normal life which was anything but.
Juan Rodriguez had been thrown out by his wife Iris prior to purchasing a winning New York lottery ticket worth $149 million. She reconciled with him for two weeks, then filed for a divorce taking half of his winnings with her.
Many people wish, dream and pray for a quick fix. My point is fix the problems before asking for more money. We should be very careful about what we wish for as everything comes with a price, including winning the lottery, especially when it involves winning millions of dollars. The actual chances of becoming a multimillion dollar lottery winner are astronomical to begin with, but if it happens or you come into a windfall, miraculous things can happen that will forever change a person’s life, for better or worse.
Even though huge winnings can change a person’s life style dramatically, it is said that if you were happy before winning a huge sum of money, then you will be happy afterwards, but if you were an extremely unhappy person to begin with, winning a multimillion dollar jackpot will change nothing except the size of your bank account. In other words the problems that you had are still lying in wait to rear their ugly head, and the lottery money only temporarily covers up the problems for a brief period.
Experts have looked into the lives of past lottery winners and have learned that not all multimillion dollar winners have a happy ending. A common issue within our society is the belief that money solves most of our problems. Another big problem is the lack of financial guidance when being handed over a large amount of money. In fact nearly one third of multimillion dollar lottery winners become bankrupt in just a few short years after their big win. If you are not accustomed to having great wealth as many of these big lottery winners were not, then the problems that come with suddenly having a lot of money overnight can be so overwhelming that depression becomes inevitable.
Having a solid foundation in your faith, in your relationships, and in your money management habits are critical. Preparing to receive wealth is one of the surest ways to obtain wealth. In The Faith-Based Millionaire, I have identified twelve essential habits that lead to faith-based wealth. Following the bible as a guideline is the surest way to obtain wealth in a way that honors God!