Imagine winning a lottery. We know, you are probably laughing at us. The probability is just too high. But now, increase the range of your imagination. Imagine you have won $5 million. Do you think you would be able to enjoy it alone? Chances are, there would be quite a lot of bees coming in for that nectar.
Winning the lotto is a lot like having a pack of gum- everyone wants a piece. Your family could be asking for a share- and then your conundrum begins. If you give them what they want- you will be considered a pushover. But if you don’t- are you a jerk?
OP Secures A Bag Worth $5 million
This brings us to this story about a man who recently won $5 million but refused to share his wealth with his family. And while most of us would definitely be screaming for his head, he went on Reddit. He went to one of the most polarising subreddits on the platform- r/AITA. With a growing feeling that he could probably be a Grade-A A-hole, he decided to share his story with a bunch of strangers. Welcome to the Internet- as they say.
The user, u/Grand-Signature-4590, first stated that he and his wife are both 24 years of age. And for fun, they would buy a single lottery ticket every single month. One month, fortune favored him:
Every month we buy a lottery ticket for fun. Well, we won big. After the lump sum fee and taxes, we won around 5.6 million dollars. After paying all our debt( student loans, house mortgage, car loans) we had around 5 million left. I’m case you don’t know 70 percent of lottery winners go broke after a few years.
-Reddit
u/Grand-Signature-4590 did display quite a modicum of smartness after winning the prize. With over $5 million in the bank, he first paid off the mortgages on their house, his student, and car loans. This set him back to an easy $5,000,000- which brought forth another question. What do you do with the rest of the money? With the user working in the financial sector, he was well aware of the way most lottery winners spent their wealth:
Me being in the financial sector didn’t want to be in the 70 percent and also never have to work a real job again. What we did was invest 3 million in a combination of mutual funds, REITs, and preferred stock funds for a very steady hands-off extremely low-risk solid return approach. With the 2 million we ended up buying a 5 million dollar apartment complex that cashflows and will give a high return with low risk
-Reddit
OP’s Family Considered A Million Dollars To Be Thicker Than Blood
But as they say, mess with the rose bush and you get the thorns. The moment the Redditor got this huge sum, he was invaded by his family asking for a pie:
When I told my family I thought the first reaction would be exciting for me and how we were financially responsible with the money. But that started talking about a huge family trip, how I was paying for all their debt, and more.
-Reddit
Needless to say, he had other plans:
I explained 5 million is a lot but not enough where I will be giving it away to family and they got pissed. They said I wasn’t welcomed in this family and that I shouldn’t every talk to them again.
-Reddit
A rational human would congratulate the man on his good luck and walk away. Yet we know- common sense isn’t all that common. His relatives were quick to show their displeasure at him. The Redditor also clarified that the family he was speaking of was his extended family. His father had died when he was a child. As for his mother, she walked out on them.
Redditors Come To Millionaire OP’s Support
With the Redditor unsure about the guilt that he was facing, he turned to Reddit for some assurance. And the other Redditors were only too happy to provide that.
One user wrote:
You’re no longer welcome in the family because you didn’t give them your money? The entitlement is nauseating. NTA.
–lelawes
Another user affirmed this and also stated:
This. 100% this. I’d just be happy for one of my family members to be able to enjoy life outside of the rat race. Most of us just work till we die.
–BellyButtonFungus
Another user commented that OP was quite wise in his investments. He further stated:
You don’t need people like that in your life. Make sure outlying family members and friends know your side of the story, because I guarantee that they’re going to paint you in the worst possible way to them.
–DerekScott
Is OP The A-Hole?
On the other side of the spectrum, there were quite a few users who believed that OP should have provided his family with a piece. But, as one user commented:
But I guess it depends on how much you like your family. Personally, I would have thrown my family at least 100k each as a one time payment.
-Particular-Tone4981
As we can understand, there are two sides to the coin. On one hand, OP knew that he would have to invest his $5 million properly to ensure that he had sustenance. On the other hand, if he and his family got on extremely well, he should have handed them an amount. In the end, money seems to be a burden- something OP would clearly attest to.
Keep Reading: Man Shamed for Demanding Girlfriend Pay for New Sheets After She Leaked on Them
Sources
- “AITA for not giving my family any of my lottery winnings.” Reddit
Attention: While many of these stories are interesting, and we would love to take their word for it, the content in this article was taken from an unverifiable source (i.e., a Reddit forum). As such, we cannot guarantee that these events truly happened in the way that they are described in the original source.