Monday, April 2, 2012

Chemist Wins Lotto, Pays Off Student Loans

Asking someone what they'd do after winning the lottery is a sort of personality test - anyone who says they'd still show up for work on Monday must really enjoy their job (right? right!?).


Cure for student loans?
Credit: Inquisitr.com
When the largest jackpot in lottery history - Mega Millions, $640 million USD - finally ended this past Friday, a few lucky folks got to make just such a decision. As reported by the Boston Globe Metro Desk, a Boston-area chemist was among the winners, and he'll take his prize as a lump sum of $175,000. 


However, that's not the best part: what do you suppose he'll spend it on? Fast cars? Cruise ships? World Travels? No, he's going to "...pay off his student loans and make a down payment on a house."


At first I was shocked, but slowly realized that I'd do the exact same thing. Cars depreciate, clothes go out of style, stocks fluctuate, but not having to pay loan agencies every month? That's a gift that keeps on giving.

16 comments:

  1. There's probably a sweet spot in 'found money' where no matter your personal inclination, you'll spend it wisely, i.e. if someone hands you $200, you might blow it on a nice dinner out and if someone hands you $200,000,000, you'll get stupid really fast before you recalibrate and get smart.

    Seems to me that $100,000-$300,000 for most middle-class folks is about that sweet spot. Best of luck to Richard, lucky bum.

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    1. I'm skeptical about that. Seams a lot of those multimillionaire athletes end up broke.
      By the way, stocks are a pretty good place to put your money. Use your knowledge to invest in companies you can evaluate.

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    2. Oops, make that "Seems". (Can this be edited?)

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    3. There is a joke in professional football: "Know what 'NFL' means? 'Not For Long'!"

      Half the population in the US makes less than $25K. If you spend absolutely nothing and take your annual salary of $25K and put it in the bank, in 40 years you will have made $1M.

      So, you take some young athlete, fresh out of college with an eternally maxed-out credit card limit of $1,000 and probably only ever held a part-time job, throw a team jersey over his and a check for $3M to play professional sports, that is more money than they would ever see in 120 years! They go out and buy some toys—the Aventador, the boat, a new bach' pad while focused on $3M, not quite taking into account that the $3M is spread over three years and they just spent half of it this month. Because that $3M is more money than they could normally make in a century, it doesn't occur to them that they can spend it in a month! And that's what they end up doing.

      There is a group of retired NFL athletes and a few still-active players that formed to teach new NFL players how to manage their money properly. They recognized that too many of the new kids had so little experience with dealing with that kind of money, that the kids couldn't comprehend that it was a finite amount. I hear their efforts have been very successful.

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  2. A society full of debtors, whose every windfall goes straight into bank. And waiting for that windfall, all those debtors scrape the top off their income, give it back to the banks.
    So this is how money disappears.

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  3. Smart man. Paying off your loans will put you further a head than nearly anything else you can do. If a person looks at their interest and figures out how long it might take to pay off their loan they would be amazed. Most people dismiss this, seeing it only as a number one month, not adding it up, not realizing the total cost of their loan. Of course it makes a huge difference if they make big payments or microscopic minimal ones.
    A student loan should never be a burden but for many people it is and when they come into money they see it as if the money is some kind of a bonus, in this case he was super lucky and won the lottery, but he did the best thing a person could do, pay off their loan is like getting all that interest money free.

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  4. I agree very smart and lucky man.Pretty amazing.

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  5. I am sure this man is going to do an absolutely right thing.Student loan is a debt and with a help of this money he is able to pay off his debt and forget about it.Being debt free is amazing feeling, when you haven't to pay money to someone, when you can do and buy what you want.Paying off loans give lots of advantages and make a positive influence on a credit score,so if in future he will have a necessity to apply for a loan he will get it easily.Every one has his own values- somebosy would spend this $175,000 for material things like cars, clothes, some one - for new impoessions and entertainments, some one would invest it somewhere and start a business,by the way I think it is quite a good option also.But if I had to pay off any loans or debts then it would be a task #1 in my to do list.

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  7. Your work is totally appreciative and informative.
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  8. That chemist is quite lucky for winning that prize and paid off the loan. If only winning on lotto is easy I would also have repaid my existing loan debts. Well try my luck on other ways to get money other than a lotto then. I know it's hard to repay student loans but I'm hopeful I could get a good deal on this one sooner.

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  10. Can Student Loans Now Be Discharged In Bankruptcy?
    In order to have a student loan discharged through bankruptcy, an Adversary Proceeding (a lawsuit within bankruptcy court) must be filed, where a debtor claims that paying the student loan would create an undue hardship for the debtor.


    Read More Can Student Loans Now Be Discharged In Bankruptcy?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Can Student Loans Now Be Discharged In Bankruptcy?
    In order to have a student loan discharged through bankruptcy, an Adversary Proceeding (a lawsuit within bankruptcy court) must be filed, where a debtor claims that paying the student loan would create an undue hardship for the debtor.


    Read More @ Can Student Loans Now Be Discharged In Bankruptcy?

    ReplyDelete