Yahoo Finance 7 Most Expensive Purchases Ever Made by Lottery Winners
Winning the lottery takes exceptional luck, but being financially wise with the winnings takes even more. The National Endowment for Financial Education says a whopping 70% of lottery winners lose it all. This is because winners tend to mismanage their money, splurge on luxury items and fail to make a plan for their financial future.
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Here are some of the most expensive — and most interesting — purchases ever made by lottery winners.
$47 Million Dollar Home
As the winner of the largest lottery prize ever, Edwin Castro has purchased several houses, including a $47 million dollar mansion in Los Angeles, California. He has also purchased a $25.5 million dollar mansion in the Hollywood Hills and another $4 million mansion.
Castro was the sole winner of the largest Powerball jackpot ever, which soared to $2.04 billion. After taxes and taking the lump sum, he kept just under $1 billion. So, even though his real estate purchases seem extravagant, they’re actually only a small portion of his overall wealth.
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$825,000 Toward Legalizing Marijuana
Bob Erb is a Canadian lottery winner who won $25 million in 2012. Known for his generosity even before winning the lottery, Erb has spent large portions of his wealth helping others.
But there’s one political cause he was especially focused on supporting: legalizing weed in Canada. An avid marijuana smoker, Erb donated around $825,000 to political causes to support his desire to make it legal.
$200,000 for a Water Park
While there are many things you can buy with the $319 million John Kutey and his wife won, a water park is a unique choice. This couple donated $200,000 to create Spray Park located in Green Island, New York.
The park, which is a giant splash pad, can now be enjoyed by residents of Green Island for years to come. The Kutey couple dedicated the park to their parents. Many other professionals, such as engineers, donated their time, and a local business donated the building materials. The best part of the generosity of so many people is that no taxpayer funds were used to create the water park.
$5 Million on Gambling
Evelyn Adams might the luckiest or the unluckiest person in the world, depending on how you look at it. Against all odds, she won the lottery two years in a row, in 1985 and 1986. The winnings altogether totaled to $5.4 million.
Sadly, she took her winnings hoping for more of a good luck streak in Atlantic City and unfortunately gambled it all away. By 2016, she was broke.
$608,000 on a Fireworks Factory
Debbie Mather used her lottery winnings to buy a fireworks factory, which cost the equivalent of just over $608,000. This was a relatively small portion of her $6 million win, and it helped her re-live some of her childhood joy of watching the sky light up with fireworks.
$250,000 for a Racehorse
Keith Gough decided to use his U.K. lottery winnings to buy a racehorse among other things, including lavish homes and cars. Sadly, Gough would later say the roughly $11 million win contributed to his destruction. He became an alcoholic, fell for repeated scams, ended up divorced and died just five years after winning the lottery.
$30,000 on Producing Music
Roger Griffiths won $2.2 million in the lottery in 2005. The husband and father of two decided to use some of the money to resurrect an old dream — becoming a rock star. He wanted to get back together with his college band, so he spent $30,000 producing a record with them.
Sadly, the record wasn’t a success and only sold 600 copies. Griffiths’ marriage also failed, and soon, his lottery winnings were gone. Griffiths isn’t giving up on his rock star dream, though. Just recently, he announced his band is going to re-launch once again and that they’re also in the middle of writing a book about their experiences.
A Cautionary Tale
Although everyone dreams of winning the lottery someday, many of the stories above are cautionary tales. If lottery winners don’t know how to manage their money, they can easily lose it all in the span of a few years. Sadly, many of the examples above show that lottery wins created significant personal struggles.
The bright side is many lottery winners have also used their winnings to give back, to be generous and to create a legacy for future generations. All in all, winning the lottery can be a massive blessing or a curse. How it pans out depends on the willingness of winners to take a step back, exhibit some financial restraint and plan appropriately for their futures.
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