If you had daydreams about how you would live your life after you won the jackpot, use them as benchmarks for your financial plan. Most of us will never experience a meaningful windfall like this, so it make sense to face reality and put meaningful, real goals in place along with a plan to reach them.
If you thought about all the debt you would pay off, all the charities you would support, and all of the business ventures you would start—what are you doing today to accomplish those plans?
If you think your financial life would be complete chaos after winning the lottery, take a look at your financial life today and see if you are actually in a financial chaos to begin with:
- Do you have an understanding of your personal balance sheet—or are your finances in disarray?
- Are you relying too much on a future windfall (inheritance, settlement, etc.) when you should be focusing more on saving?
- Do you have an advisory team in place—or are you going at it alone?
- How are you managing your smaller windfalls, such as the sale of a home or business, bonuses, or raises at work?
- Do you have a financial plan or are you relying on luck and good fortune?
Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that anybody reading this will be winning the lottery. We can, however, drastically change our own financial lives by taking small, meaningful steps.
This post was originally published on January 13, 2016. It was updated on August 23, 2017 to reflect the latest lottery news.