Is there a lottery curse?!
Here are the smartest lottery winners ever!
6 - Peter Lavery Can you imagine waking up one day and finding
yourself ten million pounds richer?
That’s exactly what happened to Peter Lavery back in May of 1998.
Lavery is a former bus driver from Belfast, which is in the United Kingdom by the way.
He says he’s been lucky his whole life, escaping bombs and avoiding robbery while
a bus driver in Belfast…..I had no clue that Belfast is that dangerous, but hey, hashtag
blessed.
At first, he followed the common lottery winner’s route.
He blew half a million on sports cars alone in the first two years, and he also bought
a huge house in a fancy area in the city.
He quit his job within the first 6 months of winning, but now he says he works even
harder than before.
At first when he won, he didn’t want people to find out that he was a big lottery winner.
But his girlfriend at the time let THAT little secret slip out.
After letting the win soak in a bit, Lavery eventually made two crucial decisions.
First, he was determined to put his money to use how he saw fit.
He felt compelled to help people, but only to the people he felt was deserving of help.
But, he still found it really hard to say no to the thousands and thousands of letters
asking him for help.
Wow.
Thousands of letters.
That’s just insane.
He still rejects all begging letters.
He says that he always tells them he’s NOT the answer to their need.
Lavery said quote, “If I gave to you because you needed help with your children’s education,
I’d get letters from everybody expecting the same.”
But, he’s quietly given away a substantial amount over the years via the Rita Charles
Trust, a cross-community charity he set up that’s named after his parents.
Oh yeah, he’s also given generously to his own family members.
His second decision was that he was going to make his money go to work, both in terms
of making him money and also filling him with purpose and opportunity.
This, beyond anything else, is what really was his good fortune.
Turns out he had a great head for business: he now owns 33 properties, has several housing
projects in development, and his very own whiskey distillery.
Although he likes to keep his current wealth a secret, there are rumors that he’s tripled
his original 10 million pound win.
He’s even stated that his lucrative whiskey business has been like winning the lottery
again.
Lavery says, quote ‘Money can’t bring you happiness.
You have to be happy in yourself first.
Money can open a lot of doors.
Money can solve problems, like the fact that I haven’t had to drive a bus for the last
18 years.
Money can give you reassurance, but it doesn’t bring happiness.”
Hey, wise words from a wise lottery winner.
5 - Brad Duke When Brad Duke won the powerball for 220 million
dollars back in 2005, supposedly he was already a seasoned investor.
When he won the lottery, he already owned five Gold Gym’s franchises in Idaho.
It definitely seems like he was already well off, so I really don’t understand why someone
that’s probably already rich and seems to already know how to generate a decent amount
of income would want to play the lottery, but hey, that’s just me.
After taking the prize in a lump sum and paying the necessary taxes, he wound up with 86 million
dollars.
What do you think he decided to do once he got his cash?
Go on a 1 year vacation?
Blow it on a bunch of lambos and ferraris?
No, c’mon, he’s on this list!
This man actually kept his job and kept going to work at Gold’s Gym as a spin instructor.
But, he did develop a lofty goal.
Check this out, this dude actually wanted to become a BILLIONAIRE. 86 mill to 1 billion
would be quite an accomplishment for anyone.
At first he wanted to achieve billionaire status in 3 years.
That would have been REALLY amazing to be honest.
But unfortunately, even if it was to be expected, he fell short of his goal.
His advisors convinced him to plan for 15 years instead.
Twelve years later, he still hasn’t achieved his initial goal, but he is rather quote “content”
with his net worth and now looks at the billionaire goal as a lifelong journey.
Duke said his financial team has accumulated nearly $100 million toward the $1 billion
marker.
Hey, doubling your net worth is still nothing to sneeze at.
The team suffered some setbacks during the housing crash, a time when a considerable
amount of their investment money was in real estate and home security.
In any case, his billionaire plan is still going full speed even after all these years.
Like any good investor, he’s diversified his portfolio and spread out his risk.
As for the winning part, he claims that he’s developed a winning lottery system that’s
made him win smaller amounts of money.
Okay, this guy still sounds the Vegas tourists I run into who tell me they have a system
to beat some game, but it’s okay, not everyone’s perfect.
To this day he stills teach spinning class, but it’s just for fun.
4 - Richard Lustig Richard Lustig came to be famous not only
for winning the lottery 7 times, but really for the infamy surrounding his book Learn
How to Increase Your Chances of Winning the Lottery.
A lot of social media and press surrounded the book, making it get all the way to #3
on the Amazon best-selling list.
Lustig’s actually tips don’t actually follow any strict mathematical logic, although
he’s stated that luck has nothing to do with his repeated winnings.
Uh, yeah, sure.
Luck isn’t involved.
Okay.
Anyways, he recommends many I’ll just say, interesting strategies, such as avoiding quick-pick
lottery cards with pre-selected numbers, buying AT LEAST ten tickets every time you play,
and playing in lottery pools.
Yep.
That’s science folks.
His ahem “proven” system was featured on some prominent news channels such as ABC
and Fox.
Some skeptical reporters weren’t really convinced with his methods, and started digging
further.
Lustig claims that he’s won “millions” over the years due to his techniques, but
when he was questioned exactly how much he’s won, he avoids a straight answer.
It’s also unknown how much he’s really invested in lottery tickets, because really,
have you won ANYTHING AT ALL if you’ve invested everything you’ve ever won?
Yeah, I’m not convinced either.
For the record, Paul Dreyer, a mathematician for the RAND Corporation fully disagrees with
the logic of Lustig's method.
You know what?
Math never lies.
So why is Lustig exactly on this list?!
Well, it’s because for one, we know he’s not broke because this man turned his lottery
luck into a best-selling book.
And he was smart enough to know that his system is a complete joke, so he decided he can sell
it to a bunch of people who’re gullible enough to believe him.
And THAT, my friends, is WAY smarter than going out and buying a bunch of lottery tickets
to rely on for your income!
3 - Elaine and Derek Thompson This British couple won 2 million pounds way
back in 1995, and they’re still reaping the benefits.
At the time of their win, Elaine Thompson was working part-time in a hospital and Derek
Thompson was working as an accountant.
Elaine said that the moment she actually realized they were rich was around six months after
their lottery win, when she was deciding on which sweater to buy at a Marks and Spencers
and suddenly it dawned on her: JUST BUY THEM ALL.
Well, I’m gonna go ahead and disagree with her on that sentiment.
Just because they have 2 million pounds it doesn’t mean they’re rich, they’re actually
just well off.
BUT, it’s okay, what they did after their win was still quite smart.
Now, they actually both quit their jobs.
BUT, even though the both of them left their jobs immediately, they still worked.
A LOT.
They first decided to buy a bed and breakfast.
But they decided to sell that venture.
They then decided to buy their favorite seafront restaurant, which included more than 50 employees,
a fish and chip takeaway, and an ice-cream parlor.
Yeah, you could say they love food I guess…..then again, who wouldn’t want to own their favorite
restaurant?
Restaurants are hard work to turn a profit, but that’s what they did.
They ended up putting in 18 hour days, and loving it.
The couple mostly spent their money investing in the restaurant, and also in paying their
kids’ college tuition.
Home for the couple is a four-bedroom normal house on a normal housing estate.
Eventually, Elaine started doing charity work with other lottery winners, to help them out
with managing their new finances and personal lives.
Although their lifestyle didn’t change, you can for sure say that their lives completely
changed.
2 - Steve and Carolyn West Thumbnail:
In 2006, Steve and Carolyn West, along with Carolyn’s parents, Bob and Frances Chaney,
won what was then the largest single-ticket Powerball jackpot in history: $340 million
dollars.
Both families have bought new houses, some toys, and have traveled to Europe and Hawaii,
but they haven’t followed on the steps of those cringe-worthy stories about lottery
winners who declare bankruptcy a few years after their big win.
These families have actually SORTA kept their expenses in check.
After the big jackpot, the family hired an outside financial advisor, who, like any good
financial advisor, recommended having a monthly budget.
Sooo what’d this guy recommend to make him worth his fee?
His first suggestion was limiting the monthly expenses for the family to THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND
DOLLARS a month!!!
Really?
What kind of financial advisor was THIS guy?!
Well, in his defense, doing some quick math, that’s only 3.6 million a year, and even
after 30 years, it’s just a little over 100 million spent.
Which I guess is ummmm…….STILL REALLY F*CKING UNNECESSARY!
Luckily, the family decided that their financial advisor was a complete idiot and that a hundred
grand a month was more than enough.
Well, since the bar is set pretty low for lottery winners, just not being a complete
f*ck up will land you on my list of smartest lottery winners, so congrats!
The family smartly invested the rest, and only spend big money on special events, limited
vacations, or things that will improve help their everyday lives.
Even after the big win, both Steve and Carolyn still work every day.
A downfall of being rich though?
A newly acquired stalker.
Apparently this stalker kept calling, saying she was going to commit suicide and she couldn’t
go on unless they gave money to her.
Only one stalker?!
I say that’s lucky they only have one!
1 - Les Robins Back in 1993, middle-school teacher Les Robins
won a $111 million powerball jackpot, a record at that time.
Well, he WAS a middle school teacher.
Anyways, he bought the winning ticket in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin’s famed “Miracle Mile”,
the strip of grocery and convenience stores that had previously sold a string of big-money
winning lottery tickets.
With his newfound fortune, he bought 226 acres of land.
Nope, not for a huge mansion with a pool and a hot tub.
But for a day camp for children.
YEP.
It's called Camp Winnegator, a local day camp that runs four or five weeks every summer,
primarily catering to kids from in and around Fond du Lac.
They try and entice children with the promise of horseback rides, painting classes, and
swimming.
The camp, even though it’s mildly successful, doesn’t even have a website or even an official
Facebook page, but is known through word of mouth rather than through conventional marketing
efforts.
The camp combines two of Robins’ big loves: Lake Winnebago and the Florida Gators.
This day-camp tries to make children 6 to 16 disconnect from their electronic devices
to just enjoy the great outdoors.
The camp is near Robins’s waterfront home and includes riding stables, a gym, a pool,
miniature golf course, and enough powered water toys to keep campers afloat on the lake.
It’s reminiscent of Robins’s own childhood in Florida, where Robins went to camp, and
later became a camp counselor. Robins said he just hated to see kids not doing the kind
of things he did growing up - playing soccer, softball, and hanging out.
Robins keeps a low profile by tooling around his property in a 13-year-old Jeep Grand Cherokee.
On Friday nights, when weekly camp sessions end, he usually takes a place in the back
of the gym, watching as kids, their parents, and counselors eat dinner.
Robins' advice for future winners: Put a portion of the cash into an irrevocable trust for
up to three years.
"Let time tell them what they really want to do with it," he said.
With the rest of the money, Robins has built a family foundation that will support both
his family and the day camp when he’s no longer there to overlook it.
All I can say is, well done!
Here’s what’s next!