10
Plan for the version where nothing goes wrong
The boring outcome is available and it is mostly a matter of structure.
The cautionary tales are famous because they are unusual. Plenty of large winners are fine, and what they have in common is not discipline or luck, it is structure set up early: an entity to claim through, a professional team paid by them, a written policy for family, and a deliberate pause.
Update your will. Review your insurance. Expect that your relationship with money, work and several people will change whether or not you want it to, and that a therapist is a reasonable line item.
And then, genuinely: enjoy it. The point of the money is not to be managed flawlessly. It is to make your life better, which it can, provided the first fortnight did not go badly.
The short version
- Sign the ticket, photograph it, secure it.
- Tell nobody. Spouse or partner at most.
- Find the claim deadline and the cash-election deadline. They are different.
- Find out whether your state lets you claim anonymously, and how.
- Lawyer, then CPA, then a fee-only fiduciary adviser. In that order, chosen by you.
- Halve the headline, then take about a third off. That is closer to real.
- Decide the family policy before you are asked.
- Nothing irreversible for six months.
One last time, because it is the only thing in here that really matters: none of this is advice, and the version of it that applies to you depends on where you live and what you won. Get the three professionals. They are the cheapest thing you will buy that year.