Sudden Windfall
TOTO does not discriminate. TOTO doesn’t care if you’re white or black, 21 or 98 and dying. TOTO picks its lucky winners unconditionally. As my lottery-fanatic friend loves to say, buying the lottery is to: 买个希望 (Translation: Buy yourself some hope)
According to our previous article, the odds of winning 1st prize for the $12 Million Hong Bao Draw today is 1 in 13,983,816.
But clearly, these low chances haven’t stopped Singaporeans from putting some money on that bet.
If you already bought your lottery ticket for today’s $12 million draw, you might as well start thinking what you will do with the sudden windfall if you’re the lucky Singaporean who wins it.
8 Things People Will Do: Winning The Lucky Windfall
We talked to a few people and gathered that people will do pretty wise, and bizarre things with the money.
1. Change It All To Coins And Swim In A Pool Of It
At this point, it’s not about practicality.
2. Clear All Debts
The recent Household Sector Balance Sheet released by SingStat showed that Household Liabilities amounted to $323.5 Billion in 2017.
Credit Card Loans, Car Loans, Housing Loans, Personal Loans, Student Loans and everything you paid in installments. This point applies to people of any age because there would be some form of debt to pay off at every phase of your life. More or less financially stable with this sudden windfall, you can finally clear this load off your chest by living debt-free.
If you know you didn’t win the draw by the time you’re seeing this, don’t wallow in misery, here are some tips you can use to clear your debts nonetheless!
3. Fulfill Material Dreams
Winning $12 Million can make you feel like you own the world.
Asking people what they would do with a sudden windfall, we naturally received a few dreams people wanted to check off the bucket list. Here are some we think you can resonate with:
- Travel around the world
- Take up that expensive hobby: Horseriding, Art Collecting, Scuba Diving. One friend we asked said that he would finally buy the $800 DJ mixer he always wanted to live his Hardwell Dreams.
- Live the dream of becoming LadyIronChef
- Buy your favorite Ice Cream Shop (Udders, anybody?)
- Fly all my wedding guests to the dream Island Wedding I can now afford in Florida
4. Buy Property
The common thing to do would be to buy a private property and rent out either that or your current HDB. This way, you can earn rental plus have overall earnings from the long-term appreciation of property prices. But, here are 2 tips you should take note before choosing your investment property.
1.Anticipate rental value and the factors underpinning it
It is generally best to avoid a property whose high rental value is predicated on a single factor. For example, there is a substantial risk that the rental value of the property would fall if a large commercial facility disappeared from the area that initially had a high value. You need to have a thorough understanding of the rental value that generates income when making an investment in property.
2. Confirm every minute detail yourself
Primary sources of information can only give you a rough idea of the surrounding neighbourhood. Visit and ascertain these things yourself. The rental value of different properties located the same distance from the same station can differ depending on such things as how much sun they receive.
Further reading: 6 Steps To Choosing Your First Investment Property
5. Invest
‘I’ll invest it’ was literally 90% of the answers we got when we asked people what they would do with their lottery winnings. The worrying thing is, many of them could not spell out what exactly they would invest in when we probed further.
First, don’t rush into investing. Investing is tricky if you’re new and financial advisors will swarm to you with tons of plans and advice. Don’t just take the first advice you’re given but do your research well by checking sources thoroughly.
For a start, you can consider putting your money into the Singapore Savings Bond (SSB) or a Regular Savings Account. If you’re really interested in living off dividend income, look for more “growth stocks” than “income stocks”. You can read more about this here.
Another thing you could do with all that wealth is to become an Angel Investor. Funding a new idea in this innovative climate may really help change the world. The availability of capital can help a small enterprise scale up to fulfill its fullest potential. Plus, angel investing diversifies your investment portfolio compared to the usual, standard offering in the market such as fixed deposits to a direct investment into value creators who will drive stock markets in time.
You could be the next Ron Conway.
6. Do Everything The Same
This was a reminder by one of our Seedly Community Members when we posted a similar question on our Personal Finance Facebook group. Living life the same way you were living may just be the best way to handle a sudden windfall. Flaunting your fame may invite more bad!
Nothing good comes out of rash decisions. Don’t let the decisions made out of irrational exuberance come at the expense of your long-term financial goals.
7. Help People
“When financial stability is no longer an issue, I hope more would focus on doing good.” Another enlightening quote from one of our Seedly Community Members.
With great power (Read: Money) comes great responsibility. Help your family and friends in need, donate to social causes and meaningful non-profit organisations in Singapore. There is never too much good you can do!
8. Quit Boring Job, Chase Passion
To some of us, this may be the impetus we needed to finally be brave enough to chase what we really want in life.
Pay is inevitably one of the biggest drivers of why we chose the jobs we are slogging so hard for now. If money wasn’t part of the thought-process, perhaps we could finally take a step back to try what we really had the passion for but may not pay as well as our current job.
Portion out some of the money and invest it in yourself. Take a course and be a pro at the thing you really wanted to do. This could be professional diving, painting, graphic designing, or anything you were afraid to take the risk of time and money to do in the past.
A sudden windfall throws your entire life off balance, but don’t forget to keep your feet on the ground. Portion out your money wisely, there’s no such thing as saving too much for rainy days.
Good luck!
Advertisement
