Magnificent mansions, fast cars, exotic holidays and loneliness – doesn’t this paint a clichéd image to you? For many people winning the lottery is a dream. A life without financial worries is sure to make your life perfect. Isn’t it?
Apparently not as recent studies have shown that gaining large sums of money in a short period of time can lead to loneliness, depression and in the most extreme cases: suicide. It appears that more and more negatives seem to be surfacing around the issue of suddenly inheriting such vast sums quickly. More than one in 15 winners of over £1,000,000 in the National Lottery have admitted that they have felt lonely because of their new found wealth.
Of course there are many positives to counter the negatives; some people immediately place their money into savings accounts whilst other generous winners give large donations to charities. Research shows that it is these people who are the most likely to stay grounded and happy within their life. Another piece of advice that has been given by a previous jackpot winner was to keep your job. Mrs Smith, who won 2.5 million in 2005, has said that she thinks that, by keeping her job as a sales assistant, “I managed to keep my friends... I knew they didn’t just like me for the money”. She speaks of a very valid point; once people find out about your money, how do you know if they like you for who you are as opposed to the money you have?
The chances of winning the lottery are very slim. The ones with the largest jackpots, such as Euro Millions, have odds of just one in 76 million but that doesn’t deter millions of you from making your weekly outing to buy those numbers. Just five simple numbers can transform your life. Perhaps it’s the simplicity of it all that makes it so popular. Everyone knows that someone’s got to win and it really could be you. So with a sense of false hope, millions of people will check their numbers until one person somewhere on the continent will start screaming after realising that they’ve won.
From this initial shock reaction things can go either one of two ways; they can be amazing, providing life changing opportunities or they can more commonly soar out of control. As previously mentioned, when thinking about the lottery most people feel the pros far outweigh the cons, but the truth can be far more shocking.
Another issue to do with this is how most people have to work hard to earn money. Talent and hard work are what normally feed and clothe most people. Yet these people can acquire the money for just a couple of pounds. Winning vast cash sums takes away the need for hard work and so people who’ve spent their whole life working to survive will have very mixed views about lottery winners. As with all money, sometimes this money will fall into the wrong hands. Stories have been covered by the British Media of winners who’ve spent their money on drugs, or of those who have become abusive and aggressive because of their win.
Tales like this are the truth behind the cliché and so next time you hear someone say “money can’t buy you happiness”, think twice before you laugh off the comment. Then again, it can certainly buy you most other things...
