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!

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.

The pick odds of winning 1:1000
Odds of winning the Lottery = 120,000,000:1
Odds of being struck by Lightning = 2,650,000:1
You are 45 more times likely to get struck by lightning and die then win the lottery. Do NOT COUNT ON THIS!

The pick 3 is the only lottery game that gives you a legitimate chance of winning. You can throw how to win the lotto out the door. There really isn’t a method to winning the lottery but a lot of luck and prayer. You do not need that to win at pick 3.

To win at pick 3 all you need to do is develop a great pick 3 lotto system. The first thing you need to do is throw out all Triple combinations. Those are 000, 111, 222, 333, 444, 555, 666, 777, 888, and 999. In order to win those, you seriously need some luck. On an average pick 3 drawing, you will see a triple number 1 out of every 100 drawings. You have to HAVE THE CORRECT triple number set win this 100th drawing comes to even have a shot at winning. That is why you need to just ignore triples and never play them, unless you are just feeling extremely lucky about it. Doubles are not that good to play either. These numbers consist of 221, 334, 667, 858, etc… they do not occur that frequently either. I would strongly advise not playing these combinations either. You need to stick to unmatched numbers such as 123, 325, 809, 341, etc… These numbers have given proven winning results month after month no matter what state you are in.

If you can master winning the pick 3 lottery by coming up with a system to consistently win at pick 3, you can be rolling in the dough week after week. The possibilities of how much you can make are endless. On average, you can be well on your way to making over $1000.00 a week once you get the hang of it. Many people want to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on lotto software that is absolutely useless which half the time gives you triple and double numbers that are almost impossible to win! Seriously, stop wasting your money in useless garbage and just learn about unmatched numbers. You can’t go wrong. Take a look at your local states pick 3 winning numbers for the month. I bet you at least 23 out of 30 are unmatched numbers. Going with unmatched numbers and a proven formula will make your chances of winning the pick 3 lottery go from 1 out of 1000 to more like 950 out of 1000. I hope this information helps and good luck!

Be smart, be patient, and remember to overall have fun when playing the lottery. It’s a lot easier then you think to be a winner.

The sad truth is there are actually people who fall for these schemes. For the promise of a quick buck (or million Euros as the case may be) people will turn over their bank account numbers, wire money in the hopes of getting more back, or give other information that could lead to identity theft.

These lottery and sweepstakes schemes have gone on long before the internet, with one of the oldest being the phony sweepstakes which required an entrance fee to claim your prize, which amounted to more than the “prize” was worth. Another variation of that scheme was requiring the potential “winner” to call a certain number to find out if he or she was a winner. The phone call cost the potential “winner” a certain amount per minute with an unusually-long wait time on hold. The real winner was the scamming company which made money off the phone calls.

Today’s thieves have a wide choice of scam-delivery mechanisms, including in person, the mail, phone and internet. However, the same holds true no matter how the scam is delivered: if it sounds too good to be true, it is.

How Can You Recognize the Lottery or Sweepstakes Scam?

There are certainly legitimate lotteries and sweepstakes offers. Who hasn’t bought a state or multi-state lottery ticket from their local lottery retailer? Or, who hasn’t seen one of those sweepstakes offered by a recognized company advertising in the coupon section of the Sunday newspaper? You fill out the entry form or reasonable facsimile (usually a 3”x5” card) with your name and address and send it off.

Therein is your biggest clue as to whether you’re the victim of a scam. In a legitimate lottery or sweepstakes you have bought the ticket or entered your name and address. In a scam lottery or sweepstakes you are notified you’ve won when you haven’t even entered or bought a ticket.

In addition, it’s illegal to use the mail or telephone to play lotteries across borders, whether national or state lines. Any lottery offer involving the purchase of lottery tickets for other state or country lotteries could end up with you being charged with illegal activities.

One ploy used by foreign scammers involving lotteries or sweepstakes is offering you an “advance” on your winnings. The scam artist will send you a check for part of your “winnings.” All you have to do is wire them payment for “taxes” or other official purposes. By the time you find out their check has bounced the money you wired is in their hands. And, because it was wired it’s harder to trace.

Lottery scammers don’t always use e-mail or the phone. Sometimes they do their dirty work in person. A typical scam would go something like this: You are approached in person by someone who claims he or she just won the lottery but isn’t eligible to claim it. They offer to split the money with you if you claim the prize. Sounds good, right? Except that before you claim the prize from the lottery retailer you are required to withdraw some money from your account and give it to the ticket holder as a good-faith gesture. By the time you find out you’re holding a non-winning lottery ticket, the thief is long-gone with your good-faith money.

In order to protect yourself from these scams, it’s important to remember the following:

Lotteries

•It’s illegal to use the mail or telephone to play lotteries across borders.

•If you ever receive a phone call, letter or e-mail announcing you just won a lottery, it’s a scam.

Sweepstakes

•It’s illegal for a company to require you to pay to win or claim a sweepstakes prize.

•It’s illegal for a company to suggest that buying something will improve your chances of winning.

•Companies cannot ask for money from you for taxes they say you owe on a sweepstakes winning.

•Be cautious when entering sweepstakes from displays you see in malls – often times these are people just wanting your name and address for a future sweepstakes scam.

•Only enter sweepstakes from recognizable companies, and never pay a fee to enter.

Avoiding being the victim of a scam takes a healthy dose of skepticism. If you are ever unsure about the legitimacy of an offer made to you, you can call the National Fraud Information Center’s Hotline at 1-800-876-7060.

Very first, let’s start with some scientifically proven lottery strategies that are guaranteed to enhance your chances. They might not guarantee you a big win, but a minimum of they are mathematically valid.
The best way to Win the Lottery – Technique #1: Do not use birthdays!

* Even though it’s tempting, don’t use birthdays as lottery numbers. Most lottery players use family birthdays for luck, but this leads to many folks all playing numbers between 1 and 31 (due to the fact you can find only 31 days in a month). Pick lottery numbers greater than 31 and the chances of other people playing the very same numbers go way down!

How to Win the Lottery – Strategy #2: Don’t pick common sequences of numbers

* Probably the most popular selections by other players will probably be sequences of numbers that follow a pattern. Do not pick numbers that follow a set sequence, including 3-6-9-12-15-18. Just like lottery strategy #1 above, this is what most other lottery players is going to be doing.

How to Win the Lottery – Strategy #3: Do not choose recent winning numbers

* Steer clear of playing lottery numbers that have been recent winning numbers. Everyone else will do this, and those numbers are no a lot more likely than any other numbers to be winners! Remember that the lottery is fully random – so you may too pick random lottery numbers to play. Here are some effortless methods to quickly believe up random lottery numbers:

* Play the address of wherever you might be getting the ticket.
* Play the jersey numbers of your favorite renowned athletes.
* At the gas station, get a receipt. Then you can play the number of gallons your purchased, just how much you spent, or the cost per gallon!

How to Win the Lottery – Strategy #4: Join a lottery pool.

These are also known as Lotto Clubs. Men and women join together to share inside the cost of acquiring tickets and then share within the winnings. A lotto pool can consist of numerous, dozens or even hundreds of players. Joining a lotto pool can minimize the price of playing and boost the chances of winning.

Successful lottery players don’t depend solely on great luck. They take sensible actions to significantly increase the likelihood of having a winning ticket. Playing With Wheeling Systems is among the smart step to take.

A Wheeling Program can be an effective systematic strategy for playing lotto games and covering numerous possible winning combinations. It is been proven time and again that players making use of Wheeling Systems win far more frequently than those making use of Fast Picks or randomly picking numbers.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/art-and-entertainment-articles/easy-lottery-strategies-that-really-work-4384554.html

About the Author scottmejia
Discover about lottery strategies and powerball strategies.

These people are playing what is called Full Odds. For example, in the Lotto Texas 6/54 Lottery, the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 25,827,165. This is an example of Full Odds. So, they’re going to have to be one very lucky Texan to win the lottery. How lucky?

Well, this statement is probably going to disturb some of you. I firmly believe that everyone who plays is destined to win the lottery! This is true if they live long enough. So, how long is enough? Well, in Lotto Texas, the drawings are held twice a week. If the winning numbers never repeat, the last winner will jump for joy in about 250,000 years! Even if you were one of the real lucky players and your numbers came in 50 years from now, you wouldn’t have much time left to benefit from your good fortune.

Lottery Players Dilemma

This is the lottery player’s dilemma. How does the player win his lottery jackpot before he’s dead or too old to enjoy it? This is the problem that serious lottery players attack every drawing. How do they reduce those 250,000 years of lottery drawings down to something reasonable?

The only hope that any serious lottery player has is to use some quality lottery software and their brains. The lottery software will help them develop and manage their lottery strategies to improve their chances of winning. So, if you intend to play the lottery and win in your lifetime, it would be wise to get some good (great) lottery software. Unfortunately, there are only maybe 3 or 4 decent lottery software packages on the market and the rest are a waste of time and money. So, caveat emptor my friend.

So, just for grins, How much do you think you can improve your chances of winning the lottery by using lottery software? Quite a bit, actually. I think most of you will be surprised at the dramatic effect even some rather simple lottery strategies can have.

Here’s an example. Let’s take a look at the TX654, Lotto Texas lottery. As I stated earlier, the odds of winning this lottery are one of the highest in the US; 1 in 25,827,165! But, you don’t have to settle for that. Here’s one very simple thing that you can do that has a dramatic effect on your odds of winning the lottery.

Improve Your Chances

Don’t play!!! That’s right; don’t play the state’s game. Instead, play your own game and call it the Lotto Texas 6/53. Simply remove one of the 54 numbers from play. Pick one of the 54 numbers that you believe will not be one of the winning numbers. The remaining 53 numbers become your reduced play list.

At first, this may not sound like a big deal but the effect is dramatic. This simple act can improve your chances of winning the lottery to 1 in 22,957,480 by removing 2,869,685 wagers from play! That’s nearly 3 MILLION wagers!!! This has the effect of concentrating your dollars. Now, each dollar you spend has an effective value of $1.12.

Does this mean you are going to win the lottery? Not necessarily. But, using lottery strategies like these means that your odds of winning the lottery are better than everyone else playing Lotto Texas. Here’s an interesting point. If everyone playing Lotto Texas used this strategy in the next drawing, the state lottery officials would be scratching their heads the following day and wondering why the payout suddenly jumped 10 above normal.

Whoops

I know that many of you are already asking this question, ‘What happens if you pick one of the 6 winning lottery numbers by accident?’ Great question! All I can say is, ‘Whoops.’ Yes, it happens, but, how often? Remember, in each Lotto Texas 6/54 lottery drawing, only 6 winning lottery numbers are chosen, leaving 48 lottery numbers that are not chosen! Your chances of picking one of those 48 non-winning numbers are very good. In fact, you should be able to do that over 95% of the time.

So, over the long haul, this lottery strategy will work in 19 out of 20 drawings. As a result, you can improve your chances of winning the lottery in 19 drawings but not in 1 drawing. All things considered, not a bad deal.

Article Source: http://professordolph.articlesbase.com/sports-and-fitness-articles/how-to-improve-your-chances-of-winning-the-lottery-1096941.html

About the Author
Professor Dolph is the world-famous lottery expert, lecturer and columnist who developed the breakthrough lottery software known as LONA. For a refreshing look at your lottery, ask Professor Dolph for the Best Lottery Advice.