CAREERS

Here’s why lottery winners

go broke
Pu b lish e d F ri, A u g 2 5 2 0 1 7 3 :2 8 PM EDT Updated Fri, Aug 25 20175:58 PM EDT
5 Abigail Johnson Hess

After winning the biggest undivided jackpot lottery in U.S. history,

Mavis L. Wanczyk of Chicopee, Massachusetts, ignored much of the
advice that financial experts typically give to lottery winners. She
10 quit her job, spoke with the press and took her winnings as a lump
sum. While she may be able to afford to break the rules, most
winners can’t.

Lottery winners are more likely to declare bankruptcy within three

to five years than the average American. What’s more, studies have
15 shown that winning the lottery does not necessarily make
you happier or healthier.

“Evidence shows that most people who make it to the top one
percent of income earners usually don’t stay at the top for very
long,” writes The Washington Post’s Jonnelle Marte.

20 Economist Jay L. Zagorsky agrees with the research. He writes

for U.S. News and World Report: “Studies found that instead of
getting people out of financial trouble, winning the lottery got
people into more trouble, since bankruptcy rates soared for lottery
winners three to five years after winning.”

25 Jack Whittaker, who won $315 million in a lottery in West Virginia

in 2002, tells Time, “I wish that we had torn the ticket up.” Since
winning, Whittaker’s daughter and granddaughter died due to drug
overdoses.
 Just eight months after winning, he was robbed of $545,000. “I just
30 don’t like Jack Whittaker. I don’t like the hard heart I’ve got,” he
said. “I don’t like what I’ve become.”

“He’s the last person I would have prototyped for going completely
crazy but he did,” Don McNay, a financial consultant to lottery
winners and the author of “Life Lessons from the Lottery,”
35 tells Time about Whittaker. “No question it was because he won
the lottery.”

McNay says many winners struggle with suicide, depression and

divorce. “It’s the curse of the lottery because it made their lives
worse instead of improving them,” he says.

40 Another major struggle that winners often face is saying “no” to

friends and family who hope to join in on the good fortune.

Charles Conrad, senior financial planner [ -8- ] Szarka Financial,

told Teresa Dixon Murray, “Once family and friends learn of the
windfall, they have expectations [ -9- ] what they should be entitled
45 to.” He explained, “It can be very difficult to say ‘no.’”

Of course, some lottery winners survive the tumult and go on to

thrive. Missouri lottery winner Sandra Hayes has managed to keep
her head [ -10- ] water even after splitting a $224 million Powerball
jackpot with 12 coworkers.

50 “I had to endure the greed and the need that people have, trying to
get you to release your money to them. That caused a lot of
emotional pain,” she told The Associated Press. “These are people
who you’ve loved deep down, and they’re turning into vampires
trying to suck the life [ -11- ] of me.”

55 The former social worker has avoided financial misfortune by

maintaining her frugal lifestyle even though she no longer lives
paycheck to paycheck. “I know a lot of people who won the lottery
 and are broke today,” she said. “If you’re not disciplined, you will go
broke. I don’t care how much money you have.”

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