Chapter Fifteen How to Manage a Windfall Successfully
If only God would give me some sign ... a clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank.
—Woody Allen
Imagine coming into a large sum of money in a very short period of time. That’s the definition of a windfall. The amount might be more money than you’ve ever had in your life.
You may be thinking, “I wish! It should happen to me!” Well, believe it or not, over the course of a lifetime it probably will happen to you at least once.
Windfalls aren’t limited to lottery winners, entertainers, and athletes who sign enormous contracts. Although those examples garner lots of media attention, millions of people come into sizable sums every year. Some common sources of windfalls follow:
- Inheritance
- A divorce settlement
- A lawsuit settlement
- Widowhood
- An insurance settlement
- A real estate sale
- Stock options
- A one-time, huge income bonus
- Sudden growth of a business
- Sale of a business
- A new job with a big increase in income
- Retirement
Successfully managing a windfall can be very challenging. A commonly heard statistic is that more than 75 percent of windfalls are squandered. We don’t know if that’s true, but most financial practitioners agree that well over 50 percent are lost in a relatively short period of time. NBC News reported that more than 70 percent of lottery winners exhaust their fortunes within three years.
The purpose of this chapter is to prepare you for the day when a windfall floats into your life, ...
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