Could Winning the Lottery Ever Make You Happy?
You’ve heard of lottery winners who regret it. The guy who won $ 16.2 million but later said he was happier when he went broke. Powerball winner with a buy-in of $ 315 million, who later regretted not tearing his ticket. The woman who received $ 6 million after splitting the winnings with colleagues and said that the people she loved “turned into vampires trying to suck the life out of me.”
But still, when the jackpot ends, we line up for a ticket, even if we know it won’t solve our problems. Deep down, we are convinced that money ( any money) will help.
There has to be a limit at which the lottery is most likely to make us happy, right? Maybe if we just buy scratchers and skip the Powerball frenzy? Maybe if we only buy a ticket when it’s a particularly giant jackpot?
Let us browse the lottery winnings literature to show that there is more to darkness, darkness, and vampires. In fact, if you win the right amount, you’ll even love the update.
This is why everyone says the lottery cannot make you happy.
There is a lot of cited research that found no difference in happiness between lottery winners and non-lottery winners. But there are several problems with using this example today: First, the study was conducted in 1978 and there were only 22 “main” lottery winners among the subjects. In addition, the study compared lottery winners with a control group as well as a group of people paralyzed by accidents. He does not track any of these subjects over time to determine if their happiness levels have changed.
I refuse to believe that money won’t make me happy, so let’s get on with it.
You must win the “correct” amount
The 2010 poll focused on the winners of the weekly Street Prize of the Dutch Postal Lottery, where everyone who bought a ticket next door receives an award of approximately $ 14,000. The researchers found that winning did not affect family happiness six months after the event, although the researchers acknowledged that the survey period may have been too short.
This study also notes that it is possible that happiness “is simply more to do with long-term personal income than short-term fluctuations,” because winning the $ 14,000 lottery that is taxed at 25% will not leave you that much money to tackle. your material problems.
How much do you need to actually make your life better? Robert Pagliarini , a certified financial planner specializing in sudden riches, says the ideal lottery win is $ 30 million after taxes – in fact, a $ 100 million jackpot, where a lump sum means you get 60% compared to annuity. “$ 30 million, if invested wisely, will allow you to live on $ 1 million a year with minimal risk of ever running out of money,” he wrote in a Forbes column. You will have the freedom to use your resources without extended media hype.
I have a theory that one scratch ticket in my Christmas stocking could change my life.
Lotto happiness is a matter of time
Research on lottery winners is difficult to assess because a group of winners rarely win the same amount under the same circumstances. But if you look at time, not just quantity, you begin to understand where the happiness factor is.
A 2006 British study compared the impact of medium-sized lottery winnings with small-sized lottery winnings, with medium-sized lottery winnings ranging from US $ 1,750 to US $ 210,000. After two years, the middle prize winners still had noticeably higher mental well-being than the rest. The study found that winners experience more stress in the first year (taxes! Documents! Long-lost cousins!), But less stress in subsequent years.
Another 2010 study of German lottery winners examined 1,300 winners of “substantial” prizes of up to US $ 1 million. The researchers found that the winners do enjoy their money, but it takes two years to do that. “Winning the lottery destroys an identity and it takes time to develop a new one,” the report says. “In the first few years, having money is incompatible with a normal person’s lifestyle, and it takes several years to learn to be a person who has money.”
Stay anonymous
How do you manage to stay calm during these two years while you figure out yourself after the lottery? Well, it helps to keep the win a secret.
“When the lotteries get really big ($ 500 + million), the media gets too much interest,” Pagliarini said via email. “I think it’s best to play ‘smaller’ lotteries, so if you do win there will be much less (if any) media interest.”
If you see news reports of a big jackpot before a draw, chances are high that when someone wins, a lot of media will emerge. In many states, you can remain anonymous to collect your lottery catch. Working with an attorney to form a trust can also help keep you from getting distracted.
But you also need to remember to keep a low profile during those early days and weeks, unless you want friends and family to try to fulfill any promises you made as you celebrated your victory.
Resist the urge to show off
If you’re going to cross the two-year threshold to love your post-lottery lifestyle, you’ll have to have willpower against human psychology.
Mental accounting, a concept dubbed by the behavioral economist Richard Thaler, states that when we receive money in excess of our normal income, we are more likely to make irrational decisions with it.
So if you win the lottery, resist this urge to spend it, because your money will likely run out before you can truly enjoy your newfound wealth.
Then there is the hedonic treadmill, or hedonic adaptation, which refers to our tendency to return to baseline happiness after major positive or negative life events. Thus, if you win the lottery, you must plan ahead how you will use and invest that money in order to adapt to your newfound wealth as gracefully as possible. Of course, it will be great to pay off your house, your car, and your student loans. Maybe buy something new. But once the novelty of winning wears off and you get used to your new lifestyle, life with this jackpot stops feeling good and starts feeling normal, and you end up wanting more.
If you win the lottery, expect to spend some money on financial advisors and lawyers to help you navigate your new territory. As much as you want to avoid the crowds of people who come in asking for handouts, you need a network to help you make smart decisions at a time when you might be too overwhelmed to do so reliably.