Lottery Winners: Rich...but Happy?

Newly affluent lottery winners are actually in quite a tricky situation, so much so that lottery organizers employ counselors to help them. These counselors encourage winners to get advice from financial experts, such as accountants, about how best to invest their earnings. The counselors also help winners to understand how their lives may change for the better—and possibly for the worse. Many lottery winners are sensible when managing their new wealth; some, however, do not use their money wisely and end up getting into various unforeseen difficulties. Michael Carroll is an example of what can happen to lottery winners if they don’t manage their money carefully. When Carroll was 19 years old, he won £10 million in England’s National Lottery. At the time, Carroll was working as a garbage collector, and the money changed his life. Three months after winning the lottery, he bought a home in a small town and turned the backyard into a 24-hour racetrack. The constant noise and dust upset his neighbors. He also purchased several luxury vehicles but was stopped for driving a brand new BMW without license plates or insurance. He was banned from driving for six months. This wasn’t Carroll’s first encounter with the law – he was frequently arrested for drug possession and other crimes, and was jailed for nine months in 2006 for violent behavior. Upon his release from prison, Carroll applied for loans to make the payments on properties he had bought and to continue funding his extravagant lifestyle. In just eight years, Carroll had spent all his winnings. It was reported in 2010 that he was trying to get his old job as a garbage collector back.