this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2023
179 points (97.4% liked)

News

23311 readers
4536 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

A man who won one of the largest lottery payments in U.S. history has filed a federal lawsuit against the mother of his child in an attempt to keep his identity concealed.

The man won a $1.35 billion Mega Millions jackpot earlier this year after purchasing a lottery ticket at a gas station in Lebanon, Maine. He has sued his child's mother in U.S. District Court in Portland with a complaint that she violated a nondisclosure agreement by "directly or indirectly disclosing protected subject matter" about his winnings, court papers state.

The court papers state that the defendant in the case disclosed the information to the winner's father and stepmother. Both the winner and the defendant in the case are identified only by pseudonyms.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] bruce_willass@lemmy.world 114 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I’ve read the famous lottery post enough times to know the major bullet points to follow after winning (not that I’ll ever win, because I don’t play the lottery):

  1. Don’t tell anyone.
  2. Go to your nearest big city and hire a partnered lawyer in trust & estates from one of the big national law firms. Look them up on martindale.com, apparently.
  3. Decide how you want to split your winnings and have your new lawyer handle the distribution.
  4. Yada yada, typical personal finance investing advice (good to follow even without a lottery).
  5. Live off the returns/interests earned.
[–] finthechat@kbin.social 55 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Bad advice. I'd rather:

  1. Throw away all of the money on drugs and hookers
  2. Die
[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (3 children)

So you'll be taking the smaller lump sum rather than the larger amount paid out in installments?

[–] CH3DD4R_G0BL1N@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Am I missing the joke here? You do know the lump sum is always the better option right?

[–] finthechat@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago

You are missing the joke here, because if I do (2. Die) then I won't be getting the payment installments

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Not if you want financial security until you die.

[–] CH3DD4R_G0BL1N@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 year ago

Pretty sure the math works out on even dumping the lump in a jumbo savings and giving you better dividends than the lifetime payment plan. You can obviously way outperform that with extremely stable index funds and other safe investments. You do you though

[–] Bbbbbbbbbbb@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Getting a lump sum of $500m will forever alter your life for the better in the same way as receiving it over 30 years. You will have financial security for the rest of your life in either situation. Its better to receive it all in one lump sum and investing a larger portion now for bigger returns later rather than investing a sum yearly for returns you may not ever see

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You will have financial security for the rest of your life in either situation.

You might want to look up what happens to lottery winners and their money.

[–] moody@lemmings.world 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Are there any reports regarding 9+ figure winnings? Because I've definitely heard and read of 1-2 million dollar winners going broke quite quickly, but a billion dollars is an absolutely monstrous amount of money that I would struggle to spend entirely on purpose.

[–] veroxii@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

The resdit post referred to by the top level comment mentions that winners of very large jackpots turn up dead with alarming frequency.

Also the bigger the jackpot the more people get sued, family kidnapped, harassed, etc. A miserable existence apparently.

[–] dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 year ago

Yeah, this is the way.

[–] Case@lemmynsfw.com 3 points 11 months ago

I briefly worked at a convienice store that sold lotto tickets, and people should be aware that the default is the smaller lump sum. The operators have to change a couple things when they get the ticket made.

However most people do a random "quick pick" over filling out the associated forms to select individual numbers, pay out type, etc.

That being said, mathematically if you do win, and take the lump sum and invest it positively, it can out "earn" the staggered payments, resulting in more money.

However, the mathematically inclined rarely play lottery type games, I mean they give you the odds on the ticket.

You're more likely to be hit by lightning on a clear day than winning the jackpot.

But hey, a couple bucks, some wishful thinking, and its cheap entertainment for a short while imagining what to do with the winnings.

I realize the odds are totally stacked against me, but when it gets to 1b I'll buy a ticket, just on the off chance, lol.

[–] Nougat@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

You can do that now, without playing or winning the lottery.

@snaptastic Please notify me if this comment does not satisfy your relevancy requirements.

[–] Eezyville@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've heard that hookers are a great investment.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Especially when you pair them with blackjack. Then when you make enough money, you can open a theme park.

[–] colorsoloud@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago

In this case, I assume he was attempting to follow that advice except he had to tell the mother of his child for child support reasons. He did have her sign an NDA, she’s the one who told.

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Also maintain physical control of the ticket, maybe consider a bank safety deposit box. And if privacy is a concern create an LLC to claim it under, since many (most) states require public disclosure of who wins (possibly including the news broadcast with a Big Check. If you trust them you’re new best friend- the asset protection lawyer you got referred to by the afore mentioned estate lawyer can claim it on the llc’s behalf.)

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That all sounds like sound financial advice.

How many people who play the lottery pay attention to sound financial advice?

[–] ohlaph@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago
[–] ohlaph@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Basically. I'd also change my name, grow my hair and facial hair out ao I'm damn near unrecognizable.

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

If you trust a lawyer (I’d trust a lawyer with a contract far more than I’d trust family with a million dollar ticket,) you can create an llc and have them claim it on your behalf. The name of the llc is what then gets published.

You can then distribute the winnings out of that LLC into one or more that then holds the cash or, holds the big assets (like a house).

This is particularly useful for inheritances and such like. Because the contents of that llc are secret to only the people managing it in trust and the owner, there’s less ability to fight over it.