Can’t buy happiness

Recently it was announced that someone from New Jersey was the only winner of the most recent Powerball jackpot -- $429.6 million, give or take a buck or two.

The news anchors were exclaiming what a lucky person that winner is. Most people would probably think so, and all of us at one time or another have imagined what we’d do with such an obscene amount of cash. A lot of that involves telling off the boss and leaving the current job.

For some winning meant sharing the wealth, according to the blog Lottosend.com

In 2010 Violet and Allen Large blew headlines with their prize of 11.2 million dollars. They are always thinking of other people, so they tried to help everyone. After the victory they secured all the necessary family and his parents only after that they gave the money to charity. The largest charities accept donations from them and thereby have helped many sick people.

Christine and Colin Weir, after their surprise victory in 2011, became richer by $ 250 million. They decided to open a charitable foundation to help children with different rare diseases. Their donation of the money was given to a little girl with paralysis, the young artist and neighbor orphan. Weir says that their charity has prompted many people to help others.

Carolyn and Jim McCullar won $380 million in 2011. They alleged that the purchase of luxury items for them isn’t important in life, they think about the future of their children and grandchildren. Instead of spending money on a round the world trip, they invested in profitable business to the next generation – to not feel the need of finance.

But there’s luck, and there’s luck. Some lottery winners ran out of luck almost as soon as they hit the jackpot.

Take for instance William "Bud" Post who won won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988 but was $1 million in debt within a year, according to the web site Business Insider. A former girlfriend successfully sued him for a share of his winnings and his brother was arrested for hiring a hit man to kill him in the hopes that he'd inherit a share of the winnings. After sinking money into various family businesses, Post sank into debt and spent time in jail for firing a gun over the head of a bill collector. Bud went on to live quietly on $450 a month and food stamps.

According to CBSnews.com, Urooj Khan of Illinois died July 20, 2012, one day after collecting the lump sum option on a $1 million win. A medical examiner initially found that the 46-year-old Khan died of natural causes, but another official asked for a deeper investigation, which revealed the lottery winner was fatally poisoned with cyanide.

Tonda Lynn Dickerson, a former Waffle House waitress, got served a big plate of karma when she refused to split her winnings with ex-colleagues and was forced to pay the tax man $1,119,347.90, Business Insider reported. How did it happen? Dickerson placed her winnings in a corporation and granted her family 51% of the stock — qualifying her for the tax.

It’s been said love of money is the root of all evil. It’s also been said that if you want to know what God thinks of money, look at the people he gives it to.