- Hey, good humans.
Milky here.
- And Timmy.
- Timmy, what would you do if you won the lottery?
- Hmm. Maybe long walks on the beach.
All day, every day.
But you know what?
I actually hate the wet sand.
- Oh, have you heard of that sneaker brand...
Vessi?
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what shoes to wear during the wet season.
I'm tired of boots
and I don't want anything too bulky or heavy.
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- [Timmy] And they come in stylish designs
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- [Milky] I love that Vessis are a 100% waterproof
and great for unpredictable weather.
Especially being in LA.
I have them right by my front door
and slip them on without a second thought.
- [Timmy] They're made from Dyma-tex,
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- [Milk] They're so cute and effortless
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- [Timmy] Vessis are the perfect gift under the tree.
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- Thanks, Vessi, for sponsoring this video.
Now please enjoy the episode.
What did your scream sound like?
- It was like, ah!
I don't know.
That's, that's, I'm not doing it justice.
- Ah!
- It wasn't that, it wasn't that.
- [Milky] If you were alone in a room
with someone who won the lottery,
what would you ask?
- What was the first thing you bought
when you won the lottery?
- Have you felt taken advantage
of by friends or relatives?
- Do you think that winning the lottery has like
exponentially like added to your happiness?
- I think that...
- Hi, I'm Andrew.
Nice to meet you.
- Hi, Andrew.
I'm, I'm Timothy.
Nice to meet you.
- Yeah, what's up?
Big balling boy.
What's cracking?
- Hey, how you doing?
- Dude, I'm doing good, bro.
It's, dude, it, how much was it, man?
We wanna know.
Or I wanna know.
- Oh. When I won, it was 28 million.
- Jesus!
28 million?
If I had 28 million right now, you man.
Ooh, I'd go to Cheesecake Factory.
- So when did you win the lottery?
And how old were you?
- I won in 1999, and I was 21 years old.
- Oh, wow.
How did you come into this like, winning lottery ticket?
- Worked at a gas station 48 to 60 hours a week
for a little over minimum wage
and I sold it to myself while I was working.
- Were you somebody who played the lottery frequently?
Like was this your dream to win the lottery?
- Kind of a crazy story, but I actually had a dream
about winning the lottery a few months
before it happened in real life.
So I, I was living in an efficiency,
sleeping on an air mattress,
just trying to put myself through college.
And I had this very vivid dream that I had won the lottery.
I woke up and it took a little bit to understand
that it hadn't already happened.
It was was it was that real.
And so I, after that point in time,
I started playing the lottery
a little more consistently because I believed
that it, you know, it could happen
or that it was likely to happen.
And some people think that's just coincidence
but you know, it, it happened.
- So what was it like winning it?
- Oh, it was so surreal.
- [Interviewer] Right.
- I mean, it's one of the,
the craziest things
that that's ever happened to me.
I mean, it was, it was one minute you're working
at a gas station,
- Right.
- Next minute you win millions of dollars.
I mean, your life is turned on its head.
It was crazy.
- Could you recreate that, that energy?
Can you, like, how,
what did your scream sound like?
- Ah!
I don't know.
That's, that's, I'm not doing it justice.
- Ah!
- It wasn't that, it wasn't that.
- What was the first thing you bought
when you won the lottery?
Like, first thing, even if it was gas.
Just what was the first transaction you made
after you won the lottery?
- This is gonna sound kind of funny
but it was actually a video game system.
It was the latest, greatest video game system.
It was a N64, and I'm dating myself
because that's ancient.
But I was 21 years old.
This was 1999, and that thing
at the time was awesome.
And so that's the first thing I purchased.
- What's the most expensive thing that you've bought?
- I've never really been
into material possessions, too much.
I've purchased some real estate, new vehicles.
The nicest car I've ever purchased
was probably a new Audi A4.
- After you get that money,
I feel like you have some kind
of clarity from certain anxieties
like you don't think about,
you know the bills you gotta pay.
What was the thing you had to worry about after
you got like, that anxiety covered of having to survive?
What was like the next anxiety?
- The next one was making sure
that people didn't want to use me.
- [Interviewer] Right.
- In trusting people.
I mean, that was, that was the next big anxiety.
- Have you felt taken advantage of by friends or relatives?
- You know, people can come out of the woodwork,
especially if you have to claim the prize publicly
or if you choose to.
That's, that's very real.
That happened to me.
I couldn't even go into a grocery store
without people knowing who I was.
- Dang.
- So I had to move.
There were people, they wanted me to pay for their debt.
I received stacks of letters from people asking
pleading for money, and of course I felt sorry
for, for everyone that has asked for money.
I, I did a lot for other people.
I did everything that I could
but I also had an understanding that I couldn't just give
and give and give everything or,
you know I would go broke rather quickly
because there's too much disparity in the world.
They view it as you get something
for nothing and therefore I should be entitled to it.
Some people feel that way.
- How sexy is your credit score right now?
- I, I mean, I can't complain.
I can't complain about my--
- So, it's pretty sexy.
It's pretty sexy
- I would say so.
- Like, Sports Illustrated cover sexy.
- Yeah, Yeah.
Walking down the, the runway
- How do you feel about like,
the taxes in the US for example?
Like should you know people who have your amount
of wealth be taxed?
- Well, first of all, if you win the lottery
in the United States, that is,
the initial payment when you go to
the lottery office and claim the prize
the initial payment that you receive is heavily
heavily taxed because they, you know,
it's part of income tax
and it's very, very high in the United States.
And so there are lots
of people that argue that it should not be so high.
- How much do you have left?
- Well, I can't publicly say that
because of a non-disclosure agreement.
Non-disclosure agreement.
Non-disclosure agreement,
which prevents me from talking about that.
- What do you do for a living now?
- I direct a podcast that I created
on, on YouTube where I'm interviewing other people
that I find fascinating
including some other lottery winners
or people that have overcome the odds in life.
It's, it's more of a labor of love, I would say.
- So you don't need to be working.
- No.
- Why don't you retire now?
- You, you can argue that I retired when I was 21 years old.
You know, it took me a while to understand,
to try to understand what, what makes me happy.
And I think for a lot of people,
might feel this way, like when you wake up
in the morning, are you looking forward
to something?
I couldn't just sit on a beach every day for,
forever and just, you know,
drink mai tais and Coronas or whatever
or, you know, just be a beach bum.
Some people maybe they could,
but for me I needed a purpose.
I needed a reason to wake up
in the morning and look forward to life.
- Do you think that winning the lottery has like
exponentially like added to your happiness?
- I think that, I mean, it's allowed
in the sense that it's allowed me to pursue my dreams
without stressing so much about financial obligations.
It has.
- Yeah.
That, that makes sense.
Yeah.
- But, but it hasn't changed me as a person.
I mean, if I had not won the lottery
I still would've pursued film and journalism
and pursuing my dreams,
because 99.9% of everyone
that's ever achieved their dreams has not won the lottery.
And you absolutely don't have to,
but it can help.
- Yeah.
That is true.
- Do you feel like you deserve the money that you won?
- I do.
I do.
I mean, I'm forever grateful though.
I don't, do I deserve it more than someone
on the street?
You know, not necessarily, you know.
After I, when I initially won, I,
I mean, the exhilaration is
through the roof and I was so unbelievably excited,
but most of my peers and my family were not at that place.
And so once the exhilaration wore off
I even felt a sense of guilt for having one.
And I came across this thing called Sudden Wealth Syndrome
which I would have no idea what the heck that even means.
I looked it up and I was like
that is really funny because I feel
like I'm experiencing a lot of these types of things.
- Knowing what you know now
would you recommend other people to buy a lottery ticket
or would you recommend other ways to make money?
Well, obviously, you know, it's very...
- Well, my, my advice, my advice is to only
if you play the lottery,
only spend what you can afford.
But the risk reward payoff.
I mean, is huge.
If you're spending $2 on a ticket
and you hit millions of dollars, I mean,
that's a pretty big deal.
But never spend more than you can afford
and have fun with it.
And remember that you do have a chance to win
if you play because that, that is the truth.
And that's, that's my advice.
I mean, you can't win if you don't play.
And I hate to be that guy, but it's true.
- [Producer] And would you guys like to meet each other?
- Sure.
- I would love to meet Timothy
after hearing his soothing voice.
- Hi there.
- Hello.
- Hi.
- How you doing?
- Yo, bro. Gnarly.
- Yeah. Nice to meet you.
- What are the odds you buy me a car?
- Out of 100.
Out of 100?
- All right. 1, 2, 3.
- 57.
- 40.
Okay.
I wanted a Honda Civic.
- It was close.
It was so close.