It goes without saying that special financial planning and forethought is required if you were to intercept a financial windfall. While lottery winners are likely to take on big sums of money, you could also inherit property suddenly or even unexpectedly. This should prompt you to schedule a consultation with a financial planner. There are five tips shared by previous lottery winners that could help you make decisions about what to do if you are suddenly to come into a great windfall of money. These include:
- Don’t spend it all on celebrating. It might seem tempting to spend all of your money on a great celebration of this inheritance or new winnings, but you should never do this at the expense of seeing any real benefit from that money.
- Be smart about passing on gifts. If you don’t do the proper tax planning with the help of experienced financial professionals and perhaps an estate planning attorney, you could be paying a significant portion of your winnings in gift taxes.
- Invest instead of gambling. Sometimes receiving a lump sum of money may prompt you to think that you can get a big return on it and be tempted to gamble it all away. Investing will give you a much safer return over the long run and allow you to establish financial support for you as well as your family.
- Give to charity carefully. Make sure that you choose a financial planner to determine the charities you wish to receive the benefits of your hard work and ensure that you know much you can afford to give so that you can continue to give years into the future.
- Work directly with a financial advisor so that the money can last throughout your life time.
If you don’t have comprehensive financial plan in place, it can be a significant adjustment to your life to suddenly get used to having a large sum of money. Many people who find themselves in this position are ill prepared to do so and will spend through the money too quickly. You could go broke within just a couple of years if you don’t have the right financial plan in place. Find an estate planning lawyer who can help.
