What Would You Do If You Won A Million Dollars?

It’s true, money won’t buy happiness, but it will make a helluva down payment.”

Redd Foxx, Comedian

What Would You Do If You Won A Million Dollars?

A young rancher struggling to make a living in one of the poorest corners of the nation claims one of the biggest undivided jackpots in U.S. lottery history — $232 million — after buying the ticket in a town called Winner, South Dakota

Neal Wanless is 23 years old and single. I bet not for long. Women will be coming out the countryside. In fact, across the country and around the world to get the hands on Neal’s money. Winning the lottery is big gamble on life. I wish him well.

Neal Wanless' winnings are certainly enough to set him and his family up for life, but past lottery winners have burned through vast fortunes in spectacular fashion or found that they were better off before they struck it rich.

Evelyn Marie Adams won the New Jersey lottery twice in the mid-1980s but still managed to lose the entire $5.4 million.

And there's West Virginia's Jack Whittaker, who won $315 million on Christmas day, 2002, and five years later was blaming the money for causing his granddaughter's fatal drug overdose, his divorce, his inability to trust and hundreds of lawsuits filed against him.

"I don't have any friends," he told The Associated Press in 2007. "Every friend that I've had, practically, has wanted to borrow money or something and of course, once they borrow money from you, you can't be friends anymore."

The secret is to use the riches that you possess and the ones that you can obtain to enjoy personal fulfillment and to help others. There are people who have money and people who are rich. There is a difference. I’d rather be rich. I am rich, I have always been rich.

3