If you weren't good handling money before winning, you won't be good afterwards either. I just saw on the news that the average lottery player spends $40 a week so that adds up year after year. I had family members who spent that much or more and had a hard time paying their bills but thought "what's a few dollars here and there". Well $160 a month could pay the electric or gas bill instead of having to borrow money from family!
And I hate when people say a little wasteful spending won't hurt - I enjoyed this article on Yahoo Finance:
If you buy one $4 latte each day, that coffee habit will set you back $28 a week, about $120 a month and $1,460 per year. Keep that up for five years, and you've slurped away $7,300, not including any money you might have earned by investing your cash instead. If you account for missed investment returns, the loss amounts to roughly $9,300 (assuming a 9% average return).
After 10 years, your Starbucks habit costs you a car. After 30 years, the $239,891 that you drank away (including investment returns), could have bought a house. Over 40 years, the Starbucks habit could reduce your retirement nest-egg by an astounding $634,428 -- enough to generate an income of more than $2,600 a month.
