Not so fast Diamond Jim. If you want to get your money and keep it for the long haul, you have a LOT of work to do.

“Huh?” you say, pointing at the ticket.

Absolutely, you have a lot of work to do. Realize that most people don’t have the skills or knowledge needed to manage that much money. The history of lottery winners is chock full of people who ran through the money in just a few years and ended up destitute.

There’s a clear path you need to follow to get your money and keep it for the long term, but it’s one that has to be followed carefully and above all else quietly. You need to keep the winnings secret and secure, get good advice, make a plan, cash your ticket and execute the plan, and then evaluate your long-term goals.

KEEP IT SECRET AND SECURE

Realize that you will become a “mark” for hucksters, investment scammers, unscrupulous friends and relatives, and anyone else who hopes to take some of your money. You need to keep things quiet and follow a plan, or else you’ll be bled dry before you even get rolling.

Practice saying “No”. You’ll need to do it a lot once you cash that ticket.

Don’t run out and cash the ticket right away if you’ve won anything more than a million dollars. If you’ve won less than that in one lump sum, I’d still be really careful, and it might be a good idea to sit on it and make a plan.

Don’t tell anyone you have a winning ticket. Not your brother, your mother, your neighbor, or your best bud. Word of something like this gets around quickly, and you’d be amazed at how fast the hands come out, looking for “a piece”. Don’t tell your kids. If your relationship with your spouse is iffy, don’t tell your spouse until you know what you want to do.

Get a safety deposit box. Put the ticket in the box. Don’t go near it again until it’s time to cash in.

If you’re working, keep your job for now especially if you have an ailing family member on your health insurance. Nothing can suck your lottery winnings dry like having an uninsured family member with health care needs.

Investigate the payout terms on the ticket. If you won a million dollars, but it’s paid out at $50,000 a year for 20 years, you are not a millionaire. If you won $1 million as a lump sum, you’re still not a millionaire after federal taxes and whatnot.

But you have a big payoff, and you need to plan.

If you won a really big payout, get an unlisted phone number and another cell number. Give the unlisted number only to really trusted people. Use the extra cell for quotes, advisor candidates, etc., and plan on canceling the number as soon as you have your payoff. This is the junk/payoff number, and the one you will list when you cash the ticket. You will cancel it later.

GET PROFESSIONAL ADVICE AND EDUCATE YOURSELF

Find a good financial planner or adviser. Unless you have wealthy friends, don’t ask your friends for referrals. Most states have handbooks listing qualified people, or you may know someone who inherited a good bit of money and had good help. Or look for insurance agents with a CFP (Certified Financial Planner) and a long-standing business. Visit several of them, and tell them you have a lottery winning and you need help. Downplay the amount you won if you won a million, say you only won $250,000. If you won $40 million, tell them you won $2 million.

Why the secrecy and paranoia? Because once you cash that lottery ticket, your name will be on the public record and anyone absolutely anyone will know who you are and how much you got. You need to get some ideas on your direction and what you want to do before anyone else discovers that Lady Luck picked you.

It wouldn’t hurt to see a psychiatrist, and if you’re married you need to bring your spouse along. Sudden wealth can really screw up a marriage, especially if there are underlying tensions on other fronts. You need to have a clear head and a clear atmosphere in your household for what’s about to happen. Talk freely about the lottery winnings and so forth a psychiatrist is an MD who will respect patient/client privilege and will not reveal your secret.

If you use drugs or are an alcoholic, get treatment BEFORE you turn in that ticket. Ditto for any obsessions with sex or gambling. If you’re married and fooling around on the side, break off the affair (or get a divorce, if that’s the way you’re heading). If you think your spouse is unfaithful, hire a private detective.

Above all else LEARN LEARN LEARN. Read about insurance and annuities and investments and taxes. You don’t have to be an expert in these fields, but you want to be informed before you haul in your pot of gold. You could enroll in continuing ed classes or take seminars on money management, which would help you in many ways.

And if your life is a total mess and you have only lowlifes and problems in your world, then it’s time to get a passport. Because you need to go away for awhile.

MAKE A PLAN

With all this advice and research, you should have an idea of what you want to do. Here are some things to keep in mind.

1.) Health insurance. Don’t overlook this. A healthy family can get a good plan from a reliable insurer for a reasonable amount, but don’t think you can blow this off and “just pay the bill” if something happens. Get a solid plan from a solid company, but opt for a high deductible if your family is healthy. If you can get in on a group plan, all the better. If someone in your family has health concerns, be very careful to make sure they are covered.

2.) Life insurance. Look for a “single payment” plan where you drop a lump of cash to pay a policy in full. It usually costs a lot, but you never have to think about it again, and it will pay your beneficiaries in full if you dropped dead tomorrow or 50 years from now. You might feel like a rich person, but this is the best way to pass some money along if you have children.

3.) Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Plan to split your money between investments, annuities, money markets, etc. Don’t make it too complicated, but don’t put all your trust in one person or company. If something goes bad economically, legally, whatever you don’t want to lose everything.

4.) If you’re buying a new home, plan how much you’ll spend and stick to it. Do not take out a mortgage, pay for it in full. A mortgage will cost you in points, fees, etc. and the tax break you get on interest payments will not offset the cost and the nuisance of a mortgage payment. If you are staying in your home, get a payoff quote on the mortgage and get rid of it.

5.) Don’t go shopping for a new car just yet. Milk the car or cars you have for every mile until you’re comfortable with where your money is AFTER you cashed the ticket and everything is settled.

6.) Plan what you will tell friends, acquaintances, and family about your new found wealth. Don’t lie, but be vague. Tell them you’re “managing properties” or you’ve become an “investment manager” or something like that. If you took any courses in money management, you can refer to them. Do Not Tell Them You Hit The Lottery.

7.) Expect that your plan will not be foolproof. Everything has waiting periods, processing periods, etc. You won’t be able to make it all happen in one day.

8.) If your life totally sucks and you don’t have a worthwhile person around you, plan your escape. Look at sinking your money into a lifetime annuity trust with a clause that it can’t be used as security on a loan. Then look for somewhere happier to live.

CASHING IN! KA-CHING!

All that cash has been burning a hole in your pocket, but until now it’s been “virtual” cash, not money in the bank. Now it’s time to turn that ticket into real money.

Find the most secure travel mode you can find. A bus, a train anything where you don’t have to drive is best. The reason: your mind will be occupied, and you don’t need a highway crash to screw you up now.

Go to the redemption office for the lottery ticket and get your bucks as quickly as possible. Bring your check book in case they want to do a direct deposit. You’ll also need your driver’s license and social security card if you have one. Bring your passport if you have one. Make this a one-shot trip with no follow-up needed.

And bring the ticket, ferchrisakes.

“Ring-ring!” go the bells. In a few days you’ll have your cash and you can execute your plan.

AFTERMATH

Once you’ve cashed your ticket and moved your money where you want it, you still have more painful choices and study to do. Because your careful plan only secured your cash and hopefully set you up with a solid income for life, a solid inheritance for your children, and a solid future for all, it still didn’t spell out what to do with your other financial options.

Wait until you’ve settled into your new lifestyle before starting a business or buying into one. When you do do so carefully. Don’t invest in a business because a relative owns it do your research. Don’t indulge yourself in a car collection or night-life. Take your time, and move slowly. Say “NO!” often.

You’ve got a Buttload O’ Bucks, and you are in control. You can take your time, do your research, and make your own decisions. And that’s financial freedom.

Some have continued to gamble, but have armed themselves with unlimited creditcards or tabs at the Las Vegas casinos. There is actually no “curse” of the lottery, there is just a treacherous path for those winners who are unknowing, unprepared and unable to realize that a large infusion of cash might aggravate existing family dysfunction.

The first step for the lottery winner is to have a plan. There must be a good attorney and a meeting even before the ticket is claimed. Banking can be a huge ripoff, considering all of the convoluted financial “products” which will be thrown at the confused winner. A good banking, financial consumer affairs, or tax attorney can prevent a lottery check cashing disaster. The good attorneys prefer to keep their clients out of court and out of trouble.

Have a plan for the money: At least the following decisions should be made: how much to set aside and protect in order to insure a steady income. How much will go for housing? Is is better to set up a steady income for loved ones and friends or to give a one time gift? The wise counsel of a professional (one who is not solely interested in trying to sell “products”) will get a person off to a much better start than going it alone.

A “lock box” for taxes: Many lottery winners forget that a certain amount should be held in reserve to make sure that future income and property tax bills can be paid. Have all of the federal and state income taxes on the winnings been deducted from the prize check, or are there taxes owed? If one wins a lottery in January, for example, income on money that gets invested or put into savings will constitute additional taxable income. In deciding to buy that dream house, were annual property taxes calculated and considered? What charitable giving or reasonable investments will help to offset income taxes?

It is important to have a good attorney who can advise about wills, trusts, and estates. All wills, advance directives, deeds, divorce settlements, arrangements for child support, debt clearing, and other legal and estate issues must be adjusted, planned for, or set up as soon as possible.

Security: After winning a huge lottery, it is not smart to let the lottery officials or press broadcast your good fortune, your name and your address at the same time! All sorts of trouble will show up at your house! Lottery winners may have to deal with robberies, fake appeals for charity, kidnap attempts, and a host of other attacks by the desperate and greedy. It is best to keep everything quiet until you have some security around you and your loved ones! The most savvy individuals tell no one about their good fortune until their legal, financial, security, and other affairs are in order.

Once settled: The best advice is to do nothing for a few months. Many lottery winners barge out into massive life changing situations and find themselves very quickly lost, disappointed, and losing. It is perfectly fine to take some time to settle down emotionally and intellectually before making huge life changes.

No amount of suddenly acquired wealth is the answer for individuals and families who do not have good life plans, good counsel, and control over what is surely to be a demanding set of life changes. So taking some time to do it right will pay off even more in the future!

It might seem sad, but to protect yourself on the internet you must start to be skeptical with everything you see. If it might be too good to be true, it probably is! Many of the victims of these schemes hadn’t thought to ask themselves the important question: if it really is true, how can I make doubly sure?

1. Did you even enter that lotto?
You can’t win a lotto you never entered.
2. Did they use your full name?
If it’s addressed to Dear Winner, the odds are they have no idea who you are.
3. Is it even a real lotto?
Never heard of the Australian State Lottery? Neither have I.  A quick check of the yellow pages online reveals it doesn’t exist.
4. Have they included a telephone number to contact them?
I am yet to see a scam lotto email that included this.
5. Do they ask for your bank details, or ask you to send them money to make your claim?
Run. Run a mile. This is the way most scams bleed their victims dry.
6. Who is the mail from?
Lotto companies do NOT use email addresses from Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail or any other free email service.
7. No, who is the mail really from?
Your email program will have a way to show either the mail’s sending details or the email header. What looked like it came from a legitimate address is actually from some free email address? Toss it out immediately.
8. If you get to point number 8 and they pass all the tests so far…
Ignore any contact information in the email, and use the yellow pages or your local directory book to find their contact information. Call them directly and ask. Tell them you received an email and want to know if it’s real. Most lotteries don’t send emails in the first place, and would have advised you by post or telephone. They’ll tell you if they really sent it.
9. Bonus tip: Never reply to a scam email at all. Don’t even reply to tell them to get lost. As soon as you do this, they know your email address is active and they’ll sell it to another spammer. Just delete the mail and move along.

Writing Style Warning Signs:

If you weren’t sure whether there was such a thing as a national or international lottery done by email, you can still find many other clues that you have a lottery scam spam. They are usually written with almost no regard for English spelling, grammar or punctuation. THEY WILL EVEN USE ALL CAPITALS LIKE THIS. Only idiots and scammers write entire emails in capital letters.

Biggest Warning Sign Of All:

The biggest warning sign is that there will be a link in the email for you to click on and confirm that you have read the email and are eagerly awaiting your winnings for the nonexistent lottery.

Here the scam works in different ways. One way is to bring you to a site that might mirror your state or a country’s national lottery. The copycat site will then ask for some information so they know where to send the money to.

This information would include your bank account or credit card number. Once they have that, you no longer will have any money in your bank account and your credit card statement will go through the roof.

Another way that the lottery scam works is that you are sent to a site that does not ask for these personal questions, but does ask for your name and address, in order to send you a check. While you are on that site, a door is open for malware (malicious software) to enter into your computer. This gives the sender of the malware access to your files, your personal data or exactly what you see on your computer screen. They could even use your computer just to gain access to your email address book so they can find more places to send the scam spam to.

What To Do:

If you get a lottery email scam, delete it without clicking on any links that may be included in the email. Afterwards, immediately delete the “delete” file in your email program. Some malware has been known to activate even though you haven’t clicked on any links in the email. Just getting it at all can infect you if you keep the email long enough.

You can also avoid spam lottery fraud with the use of a spam filer for your email program and the latest version of a computer security package, which includes a firewall, an anti-virus program and an anti-spyware program.