Have You Ever Won Anything Big?

[wroughtn_harv]

Hmmmmm, everytime I check my lotto tickets at the convenience store where I buy them and they come up nothings I say, "darn, I guess I'll have to settle for only being lucky in love and friends."

However, I do play the lottery here in Texas. I figure it's cheap intertainment. When my hands get busy sometimes and my mind gets the opportunity to play I'll buy tractors and places for fun with imaginary winnings.

I don't plan on winning the lottery. I understand that buying a ticket only slightly alters the odds of winning. But I also know that it's impossible to win without buying the ticket.

The last statement isn't an absolute truth. I figure I got the best odds of anyone alive when it comes to being a winner on state lotteries. It seems just about everyone is always telling me that if they won they'd have me doing work for them.

Almost twenty years ago I got a patent on a product. The local paper sent out a reporter to do a story on me. The reporter pointed out that there was a chance the product could make me very rich and asked how I felt about that.

I told him I had some concerns. I pointed to my son and mentioned him wanting a car. Right now the kid accepted that it wasn't affordable for us as a family. But if I was rich and didn't give him the car then in his mind I'd be, well, the north end of the southbound if you know what I mean. It seems with sudden wealth a lot of the time comes misunderstandings.

 

[GaryM]

Food service was bad, but the radio flyer had the wooden side rails, so it was nice.

You got me! Guess I relly did ride a radio, but it's at least 55 years ago.

 

[RedRocker]

I've never been accused of literary competence.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

I had taken a few days off to paint and have not had time to check this thread. Since someone brought up the lottery here is my view.

I play twice a week $2.00 total, $104.00 a year. I told my wife a least twice a week I could wake up a millionaire...other than that no chance in...


And yes money does not buy happiness, but it will buy freedom and freedom can buy some happiness!

 

[Champy]

I use the lottery when interviewing new hires or summer interns.

I always ask them. "If you won the lottery, and did not have to work, what would you do for a living or as a career?" When they answer "I'd be a writer"; "Open my own business: "fly around the world"....etc.... I then ask them - if that is really your ultimate dream, why not go after that goal anyway.....why are you trying to work here?

I get a surprising variety of answers and some clear insight to their character and life goals......

 

[wjoerob]

When my wife and I paid off our first home, it seemed like a dream. 13 years of work and remodeling, scrimping and saving. Like Dave Ramsey says, "living like nobody else, so that someday we can live like nobody else." When we paid off the second, much more expensive home with 4 1/2 acres, it seemed like a familiar joyful feeling, and we praised God again for giving us a job, discipline to save, and no catastrophes that would have ruined us financially. Now we are halfway to paying off the 15-yr. mortgage on a new-built home on 20 acres, and helping 24-yr. old daughter to buy her 1st place. Will try to do the same for each of the other 3.
My marriage is intact, we have all we really need. My father watches out for the little sparrows, how much more will He take care of me and my family?
Have I ever won anything big? You betcha, every day, buddy.

 

[TheDingy]

And yes money does not buy happiness, but it will buy freedom and freedom can buy some happiness!

SO TRUE, money can also bring many problems if not managed correctly.

This is a sad story.

Jack Whittaker (lottery winner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

 

[Podunkadunk]

SO TRUE, money can also bring many problems if not managed correctly.

This is a sad story.

Jack Whittaker (lottery winner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

I read the link you provided. It's not a sad story at all...Mr. Whittaker is an idiot! He came out of the gate strong, ie. giving to charities, etc. but then went into a nosedive and it seems that he never pulled back on the stick. Crash and burn!

Who in their right mind would carry that much cash around in their vehicle? It gives credence to the old saying: "A fool and his money are soon departed".
Podunk

 

[EddieWalker]

SO TRUE, money can also bring many problems if not managed correctly.

This is a sad story.

Jack Whittaker (lottery winner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

I didn't recognize the name, but after reading the story, I remember the stupidity. I really hate to call somebody stupid, but why carry over half a million in cash? Then he leaves it in his car while he's in a strip bar!! So that's enough to think of this guy as stupid, but then he does it again with $200,000 cash!!!!!!!!!

One thing that really suprised me is that he was already worth $17million before winning the lotto. He must have some smarts to create that much personal wealth. I don't get it, but from the shows I've seen on TV about lotto winners, and the one case of a friends cousin winning, something happens to people who get allot of money real quick.

There was another big winner who was on TV a few years ago showing off his house and all the goodies he'd bought. He had the sword from the movie "Braveheart" and all sorts of other props, but some of the most ourtragish yard art he could find. He was on a spending spree without limits. While watching the show, I kept wondering if he was trying to run out of money, or if he was bored out of his mind and had to keep buying junk to impress himself. It was really silly what he was buying and how he through his money away.

Then just a few months ago, he was in the news because he couldn't pay his homeowners fees. It was some rediculous amount like $5,000. I never learned what happened to the money, but his was was sold out from under him for around $300,000 to settle the fees that he owed. That was a multimillion dollar house that sold at auction for almost nothing.

I wonder what condition the house was in to sell so cheap and what happened to all his junk he'd been collecting? They did say that he had been living life very large with millions spent on part ownership of a private jet as just one of his expenses.

I don't know what I'd ever do if I won, but I'd like to think I could live on a budget and provide a good life for my family. I already have a wonderful life and I'm very thankful for what I have.

Eddie

 

[mjarrels]

I won a free power pole yesterday... utility crew changed out a power pole in the field and left the old one on the ground for me... they make good corner post when cut.

mark