Will winning the lottery change you?
We all fantasize about winning the jackpot on the lottery, what we'd do first, and how it would pay off all our bills and get us a better house and car. But sometimes a large win can change people too and that can go both a good way and a bad way.
The ways in which lottery wins might change you
For example, a large majority of winners come from the lower middle class to poverty class. Suddenly becoming a millionaire or multimillionaire can have a devastating effect on people. The life of living pay cheque to pay cheque, or social payment to social payment can cause people to try and compensate for that lack of “luxury” that they now can have. As such many do buy houses that are too big for their needs, a luxury car when all they need is a cheaper new car, and buy toys and trips and have party after party.
There are some couples who split up after the win, splitting the prize money and then getting a divorce and going their separate ways. Other couples split up as the spouse who is the winner takes off with the prize. These results seem to be something that was lurking in the background anyway and the lottery win just propelled action to long-standing desires.
But can a lottery win actually change who you are? Can you be a nice middle-class person before a lottery win and then become a complete tool and a-hole after you win? A few do, but not many. And the other way around, from tool to nice person, is quite rare.
In most cases, a huge lottery win will not actually change who you are. Nice, gentle people who win big usually stay that way, giving a lot of their winnings over to charity or helping out family and friends. They end up actually investing some of their winnings properly to give them interest and dividend payouts that live on without having to spend the principal win. They never use their money to try to show off or influence anybody.
Winners who are risk takers, substance abusers, partiers, narcissistic or egotistical, aggressive, or just plain bad people all around, tend to remain so as they throw parties, buy hordes of stuff, show off their money, and try to use their money to buy their way into clubs or organizations, the front of the line, or try to get special treatment.
Winning big in a lottery just tends to make people who are a certain way, become even more of that certain way. So a good person remains a good person and a bad person remains a bad person. But this isn’t always the case. Sometimes a good person can be corrupted by the sudden influx of money that it goes right to their head and actually does change them. And even a bad person can be turned good when they now can live a repectable life without feeling miserable and grouchy because they have no money.
A lottery win can change who you are, but it doesn’t have to. Don’t let a lottery win go to your head. You are not an instant influencer, a showoff, or an egotistical millionaire. You are simply a regular person who has become lucky and won a large lottery jackpot. The only thing it should change is your lifestyle, not your personality.