The big question: What to do with a lottery win? With quite a few winners hailing from Shoreditch, it’s probably a thought that has crossed the mind of many Shoreditch residents.
Everyone in Shoreditch seems to know someone who knows someone who’s numbers have come up. We all have that one friend who has detailed plans on how they will spend every single penny of the life-changing winnings should their day come. Plus, it isn’t just lottery winners that have benefited from Shoredich’s lucky streak over the years; the 150-year-old Hoxton Hall won £1.8million worth of lottery funds back in 2012 which it used for an extensive restoration.
Ah, those sweet, hopeful daydreams. Full of yachts and monstrous mansions and supercars. Would you start a business? Would you spend the rest of your days travelling the globe? Do you think you could put the money to better use than past winners?
“You need to be in it to win it,” the old saying goes. So, you shouldn’t really be brainstorming ideas unless you have bought a lottery ticket.
For Londoners, the chance of winning the biggest fortune comes from EuroMillions. The cheapest EuroMillions tickets are only £2, but if you want to increase your chances of winning, it may be wiser to punt on a few lines of numbers. There have been 5071 lottery winners in London to date, with 569 millionaires – could you be next?
To get an idea of how astonishingly huge a EuroMillions win can be, let’s take the figure of the £151million jackpot from early October. If you divide the winnings by the cost of the latest Ferrari 438 (which is listed at £149,246 in the UK), a sole winner would be able to purchase more than 1000 of the luxury, Italian machines. That’s a whole lot of supercars to show off, if you could find a place to park them.
However, before you plan on buying an obscene amount of automobiles if you win, remember that – even if you became suddenly rich – you would need to manage your money properly.
A minority of previous winners have managed to blow the lot or fail to claim the prize. One unlucky lottery winner from Tower Hamlets missed out on a £1million jackpot after misplacing his ticket.
Luckily, in anticipation of my big day, I’ve thought about this a lot. I know what I’d do. Yes, I’ll splurge on that posh new car or fancy house, but won’t go buying a massive mansion for a family of four. Lottery winners in the past have expressed dissatisfaction over their impulsive spending sprees; some blew a tonne of cash on totally impracticable items.
A sensible and rewarding way of using the money could be to donate it to charity. UK couple Ray and Barbara Wragg gave most of their £7million jackpot away to friends, strangers, and charities, and claim to be the happiest lottery winners ever. Perhaps a combination of some charitable donations along with a few luxury purchases for yourself would be the most rewarding way to use the money. This moderate approach to suddenly becoming wealthy is probably the healthiest way of approaching your big win.
So, what would you do if you won that incredible fortune? Would you share it with all your friends and loved ones, or splash out on the jet-setting life of opulence? Go and purchase some tickets today and soon you could be in with a chance of putting these wild dreams into more realistic plans.
