Home Columnists Donal Miller: What to do if you did actually win the lotto?!

Donal Miller: What to do if you did actually win the lotto?!

This conversation is more frequent than ever in our household of late. It used to be a once-a-week topic but recently it’s becoming a nightly conversation, ‘what would you do if you won the lotto?’.

I’m guessing it’s just as common in every home throughout the country with some sort of lotto draw taking place every night of the week.

I often wonder how much I’ve spent in total on lotto tickets but I dare not calculate as I’m sure the figure would terrify me.

So what would you do if you won the lotto? Here’s a few things to consider:

To tell or not to tell?

Who do you tell, who can you trust? You don’t want every Tom, Dick and Harry landing on your doorstep looking for a hand out. But would it be a burden keeping it to yourself? Would you tell your loved ones?

To share or not to share?

Where do you start and where do you draw the line? If you share with your family then you must give everyone an equal share. Will some members find themselves in financial difficulty regardless and come looking for ‘a favour’?

How to spend it?

This all comes down to whether you want people to know or not. If you buy a brand new Lamborghini Veneno, are the neighbors going to immediately speculate? Do you say some ‘auld lad’ dropped off and you’re spending the inheritance?

What about a new house? Do you stay put and invest in various properties or sell up and buy the house you’ve always dreamed of?

To give up the day job or not?

This whole ‘choose a job you love, and you’ll will never have to work a day in your life’ statement really grates on me. I’m sure Hugh Heffner must have been the one to coin that phrase but for the rest of us poor hams getting a train to Dublin at 6.20am, our commute and job is never going to have the same feel about it as Hugh’s Grotto! My very first phone call would be to my boss!

How much is too much?

I know someone who says they’d be happy with 2 million but terrified with 200. They reckon anything above 2 million would destroy her life. For me, I couldn’t get enough, there’s people with billions and they’re surviving pretty well.

Would relationships suffer?

This is the other worry, would your marriage and friendships suffer? Would, you see a side to people you never knew existed?

How to claim you winnings?

You can’t go up the next week, the photographers are bound to be waiting like vultures. That’s of course, if you don’t want people to know.

You have exactly 90 days to collect your winnings and must present yourself to the Lotto HQ with your identification details.

Don’t worry it opens from Monday to Saturday 9:30am-8:00pm just in case you decide to keep the day job!

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