So here’s the scenario. You decide to play the lottery. You choose your numbers, pay your dollar and stick the ticket in your pocket. The next day, just for fun, you check the winning numbers and —-. Guess what? You won! A perfect match. Yes! You jump up and down, you check the numbers again and — yes! You won. So you race to the nearest lottery office — trying not to kill yourself or anyone else along the way — and run in with the winning ticket.

You are escorted into the lottery offices. They verify the ticket and confirm that there was only one winning lottery ticket sold, which means that the entire lottery — let’s go with, twenty-five million dollars — is all yours. Every penny of it. Congratulations.

So you are lead to a room and you try to control your heart rate as a photographer takes the standard lottery winner photographs: the ones with you smiling and holding your huge cardboard check that has your name, then a dollar sign followed by a 25 and six zeros. The caption under the photograph will read: John Q. Public, our latest 25 million dollar lottery winner.

Then there are the interviews with the lottery people asking the normal lottery questions: What will you do with your twenty-five million dollars? How does it feel to now be worth twenty-five million dollars? Did you ever dream you would someday win twenty-five million dollars?

And by the next day, the world will read about everything that you’re planning to do with your brand-new 25 million dollar pot. They will read that you are going to buy a new house for your sister and have one built for your mom. How you are going to pay your niece’s tuition to medical school and give a lot of the money to charity.

And after the photographs are taken and the interviews are over, you move on to the good part. The best part. The time when they give you all that money. When they give you all that cash; your twenty-five million dollars!

You fill out more paperwork and are escorted down the hall to a large conference room where your check is waiting. You sit while a smiling lottery man slides the check across a polished conference table. Your flip the check over to see your name and a check for — $834,000.

You look up at the lottery man.

“What’s this?” you ask.

“That? Why, that’s your lottery check, sir.”

“But,” You say confused. “I won twenty-five million dollars.”

But the lottery man is ready for this. The lottery man has dealt with this confusion before.

“Sir,” he says patiently. “You opted for the lottery payment option when you purchased the ticket. Which means that you will receive twenty-five million dollars over a twenty-year period. Which means that we have put twelve and a half million dollars in an annuity for you, which over the course of twenty years will double and will equal twenty-five million dollars. We have taken the taxes out for you and you will receive a check for this amount, on this same date, every year, for the next nineteen years. Congratulations.”

You stand there and look at your check. Well, you have to admit, $834,000 is still a lot of money. A lot of money! More money than you have ever had at one time before and besides, you will receive a check like this for nineteen more years and by the end of it you will be worth — twenty-five million dollars!

So you grab the check and head out of the office happy and excited.

And soon the world will see you with that big paper check. The world will know that you won twenty-five million dollars. And soon you will start to believe that you do have twenty-five million dollars, or at least you soon will have that much. And suddenly your house is too small for a multimillionaire like yourself. Your car is too drab, your vacations too plain. Someone of your wealth needs to live a little. To share a little; to pay back the family and friends who were with you back before you weren’t so rich. And remember, you did promise to pay for your niece’s college and to build your mother a house. And those preapproved credit cards that are clogging up your mailbox can be put to use. It’s okay to charge a few things. Hey, it’s not like you don’t have the money, right? You’re rich now.

And let’s not forget those friends and family. Friends and family that now feel—no, now believe—that they are entitled to a part of that twenty-five million. You don’t want to seem greedy. You don’t want to disappoint them.

And then — four months before the next $834,000 check is set to be cut — you notice that things are getting a little financially tight. Hey, you quit your job months ago, remember? And the minimums on those credit cards are pretty high and then there’s the taxes on the three houses you now own and Suzie’s next tuition payment is due. But hey, you’ll weather the storm, right? Borrow a little to bridge the four months until your next check comes in. It’s okay. You’re a millionaire. It’s not like you don’t have the money. It’s not like you’re not rich.

But here’s the rub. You’re not rich. You don’t have the money. You’re not even a millionaire. You’re an eight hundred thirty-four thousandaire. You’re the same as that executive who earns that same amount every year, only he has one advantage over you. He knows he’s not rich. The world knows he’s not rich. But you have been lied to and now believe that you are rich. You and your family and your friends and the strangers at restaurants who think that asking you to pick up their dinner tab is normal because you got so lucky with the lottery and all—everyone believes you are rich.

Evelyn Adams, who not only won the New Jersey lottery but won it twice for 5.5 million, now lives in a trailer.

Suzanne Mullins won 4 million and is now broke and in debt. Abraham Shakespeare won 30 million and was murdered. Michael Carroll won 14 million and spent it on call girls. ‪Jack Whittaker won 314 million, was robbed, had a murder attempt against him and ended up bankrupt. Billie Bob Harrell won 31 million, was broke in less than two years and committed suicide. And you can go on and on and on.

The National Endowment for Financial Education estimates that 70 percent of people who suddenly receive a large sum of money, will lose it within two years.

And that’s the depressing news. The good news is that at some time in your life — through hard work, good timing or simple dumb luck — you will experience at least one  financial windfall. Maybe not a lottery win, but a windfall.

As you are moving along in life, as the pace is steady and calm, pow, an unexpected lever will be turned and money will fall into your lap. This could be through an inheritance, your industry could be poised on a temporary position in the market, you could be the beneficiary of a life insurance policy or a law suit, whatever. It’s an absolute certainty that at some unknown time an unforeseen spike will occur and you will be sitting on an unexpected fat check.

And depending on your station in life, this could be for a few thousand dollars or one of those with many zeros. But it is a certainty that at least once, you will experience found money.

Now the bad news is that because this money occurs quickly, because found money has a different value in our psyche than earned income, because of the emotions attached and because of the pressure put on you from others, you will make a lot of mistakes. Many, many, many, mistakes. And it’s of very higher probability — 70% — that you will blow that money. In fact, it’s entirely possible that when the money is gone you could be financially worse off than before you received it.

The main reason for this is that we believe that that money can solve most of our problems. If we just had more money, the troubles would be over and when that money comes in suddenly it’s easy to ignore other issues.

RULES FOR FOUND MONEY

1. Don’t do anything for one year. Money is a very emotional entity and it’s extremely difficult to make clear decisions when there is so much excitement involved. So don’t do anything with it for a year — one solid year. Stick the money in a savings account, hide the bank book and let it sit for twelve months. Now, the only exception to this is paying off some debt but even that is questionable. You need to allow time pass to think — and this will give you an out later on when you need it because …

2. Your friends and family are not financial advisors. You are going to need some sound advice, absolutely, and that means professionals. Depending on the amount of money you receive will determine how many of your friends and family are willing to help you make decisions. And because you trust them as people you can trust them with your money, right? No. You need to have advice from professionals who have no emotional ties to you. And — if family and friends put apply pressure on you for loans, you can state that the money is all locked up and you can’t do anything with it for a year. And then give them your advisors name to contact.

3. Don’t buy a house. Yeah, we covered this in the first area, but I’ll say it again. Don’t do anything for a year. People who come into a windfall will typically buy a new house quickly. And you really don’t want to do that before taking the time to think about the consequences — and then there is everything that comes with a new house; taxes, fees, decorators, furniture, taxes, insurance, even utility costs are greater. So don’t do it.

4. No loans. And don’t be so quick to make new friends. Once you make money, everyone will approach you about new investments, ways to triple that money quickly, or sad stories of funds needed quickly.

5. Stay healthy. Since money is so important to us — especially to those who didn’t have it before — we tend to think it can fix anything. Many people that come into money neglect their health. You need to stay healthy and strong.

6. Keep moving on. As much as possible keep your life as close to it was before the windfall. Stay the course, keep plodding ahead and keep moving forward.