Previously, I wrote an article about some people who won the lottery and thought their lives were gonna be fantastic, only to find that the results were the opposite. The fates of lottery winners is a weirdly specific but very interesting topic; there are even television specials and series about it!
While doing some research on this topic, learning about how people's lives have changed thanks in part to the lottery had me thinking about a lot of things. What if the lottery didn't exist; then what would be done with that extra money? But most importantly, if you won the lottery today, would it change your life, and would it change who you are?
Nobody ever really thinks about how winning the lottery could ruin their lives because of the association of having money with happiness. If you won the lottery, of course, you'd be thrilled, too! You've got millions of dollars to do whatever you want: travel the world, shopping sprees on Palm Beach Island, loaning to your friends, and more—the world is your oyster...or is it?
The reason that some lottery winners go broke after only a few years is that of frivolous spending without a care in the world. And you can't blame them—with so much money, people become reckless. They don't think to hire a financial adviser or set some aside for retirement, or anything like that. None of these practical things come to mind—they are suddenly granted freedom to do what they please, and usually, that's exactly what they do.
Don't get me wrong, some people have won the lottery and their lives turned out great! But learning that some people's lives turned out...well, not-so-great after the fact should serve as a basic warning to everybody that money really isn't everything.
Yes, we do need money to survive in this society. We need money to take care of basic human needs: water, food, shelter, transportation, and healthcare, to start. But if we were to put all that aside for now, would we still really need money?
We may think we need to get these new shoes that came out last weekend, or else hell will freeze over. We may think we need that shiny harmonica on Amazon. But when it comes down to it, in the grand scheme of things we really don't need these things. There's a reason minimalism is becoming popular.
I touched on a couple of lottery winners who lamented that life was better when they weren't as rich. Acquiring large amounts of money seems to bring people out of the woodwork, and it will teach you who your real friends are. And if you don't have a sound mind, you could find yourself squandering all of your earnings on foolishness.
Money is really an interesting thing to think about. I definitely agree that it would be nice to have enough money to get by and have some extra saved over for treating yourself. But at the end of the day, no amount of money can buy you true happiness. If you were to ask me, I'd say that having me and all of my friends, family, and everyone else I know and love together and struggling to make ends meet beats having millions of dollars any day.