Winning the lottery jackpot is a life changing moment. Just how life changing depends on the amount, but whether you win £1 million or £100 million you life is never going to be the same again. But just what would you spend your millions on? Most people would put a new car, a holiday and a new house or two at the top of their list, but once the initial shock is over a whole new round of ideas may well pop into your head.
For many winners, helping out family and friends and charities they feel strongly about is a high priority; others prefer to buy little at all and continue to live simple lives, albeit without financial worry or stress. For some, the biggest luxury of winning big is to quit work for good, whilst others continue to work but do so for more personal causes.
The National Lottery Euro Millions is the big one, the one everyone wants to win. Somehow we are no longer satisfied with a million when we could win many, many millions. The Euro Millions was launched in France in 2004, and initially only included France, the UK and Spain. Since then the Euro Millions has expanded to include 12 countries and thus the jackpot has been steadily increasing. The biggest win from Euro Millions was in July 2011, when a couple from Scotland won £162 million. Now that really is a life changer.
So if you won this kind of money, obviously you can buy a new car, house and go on holiday many times over, but what else would you do? According to the book We Won The Lottery there are plenty of more unusual lottery purchases. Here are a few of the most interesting.
One winner decided she wanted to be a lady, so purchased herself a ‘Lady’ title. Several others were in the market for plastic surgery with various surgeries being undertaken by the winners and their relatives. Another loved horse racing so much he bought his own racecourse, while one was rather partial to whiskey so purchased his own whisky factory.
Even more unusual was the purchase of a pair of new knees, a Robin Reliant and a flock of sheep, though not all by the same person. Whilst one woman wanted to do her bit for the environment so bought up a large area of woodland along with 300 new trees.
You can read an excerpt from the fascinating book We Won The Lottery from the BBC by clicking on the link.
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