What To Do With Your Settlement, Inheritance or Other Large Amount of Money That Suddenly Comes Into Your Hands
First, take to heart the warnings contained in these sad stories of waste and loss.
• Tony Middleberg of California inherited more than $5 million. He quit his job, got married and decided to take it easy for a while. Within three years, he filed for bankruptcy and divorce. Having lost all the money, he’s currently unemployed and looking for work.
• Evelyn Adams won $5.4 million in the New Jersey Lottery in 1985 and 1986. By 2001, through gambling and gifts to other people, she had lost the money and required public benefits to survive.
• William Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988. One year later the money was gone and he was $1 million in debt. He’s now living on his Social Security of $450 a month, which has to be supplemented by food stamps.
• Suzanne Mullins won $4.2 million in the Virginia lottery in 1993. She borrowed $1.9 million and used her lottery winnings as collateral to secure the loan. She agreed to repay the loan from her yearly Virginia lottery checks. But when the rules changed, she took a one-time lump sum payment, and then stopped making payments on the loan. She is in debt and has no more lottery checks coming in. She said that several family members where very sick and uninsured and needed her help.
• Ken Porter inherited $2 million. He had the noble idea of going into business with his brothers – the car business. Unfortunately, within five years, he had to file for bankruptcy.
Now, the best advice I can give you about your settlement or inheritance is this: quickly and quietly deposit the money in a bank account that is FDIC insured (currently the FDIC insures up to $250,000) in your name alone.
And then, do NOTHING with the money for 12 months – or until enough time has gone by for you to think about the various ways you could use that money and for your mind to settle on the best options. Be careful not to give in to “needs” of others for the money – for the “needs” will surely be greater than the available money. Do not rush to spend, invest or give away the money. Rather, as you think about the possible uses, be sure to keep in mind your long-term goals. As you do this, you’ll discover that additional ideas about how to spend or invest the money will come to your mind, and you may discover that your first thought (or impulse) was not your best idea after all.
And while the money is “just sitting” in the bank, you’ll get the peace of mind knowing that you have money in the bank in reserve in case of an emergency or a rainy day.
If you want more information on this topic, call me today at 1-800-875-9700. I’d be happy to talk to you.