On keeping your friends after winning the lottery

 


I thought Miss Manners' answer to this was clever.

Lenona.

http://lifestyle.msn.com/relationships/article.aspx?cp-documentid"790208

Dear Miss Manners,
Some friends and I were discussing what we would do in the unlikely
event that any of us won the lottery, and find we need to appeal to
you on one major question that came up. What is the etiquette involved
in suddenly becoming embarrassingly rich?

Of course, we all agreed that none of us would flaunt it, but the fact
remains that, even if one accepted the winnings anonymously, one would
have a moral responsibility to use large portions of the winnings to
help out friends, relatives and charities. It would be impossible, in
that case, to hide the fact that one had "come into" a bit of money.

How does one politely refuse to divulge the exact amount of winnings
received? Or for that matter, the amounts given to various people and
causes, or even the amount of winnings currently remaining? How does
one politely refuse to become a fairy godmother to everybody and their
sister? If one wishes to, say, fund the college education of a
cousin's three children, is it necessary to gift an equal amount of
money to the comfortably well-off cousin's childless sibling? Is it
possible to give money to charities and not have them hound you for
the rest of your life?

These are burning questions to which we all hope to need the answers
soon.

 


Three decades ago I came into $3 million over a short period of time.
I did not reveal the fact to friends at the time. I must say my
concern for others dwindled to almost nothing during that era. The
windfall was short lived due to market changes in the gas & oil
exploration business. I think I'm better off now and care more for
people. Everybody handles these things differently, but I have never
had trouble telling people NO.

 

Lenona wrote:


No, and the hounding continues into the afterlife.  After the one-year forward
on my mom's mail ended, the Post Office graciously gave all the charities the
address to which her mail had been forwarded -- mine.  I now receive several
begging letters per day for her.  It always angered her that the ones she
actually contributed to wasted her money on sending her more begging letters.

I take a certain amount of satisfaction in the fact that eventually they will
have spent more on soliciting her than she gave them during her lifetime.

I wish there were some way of punishing the Post Office for what I consider to
be an egregious breach of confidentiality.

--
Cheers, Bev
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
"Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do.
  They don't have the energy.  If they had that much energy,
  they'd have indoor plumbing by now."         -- Ann Coulter

 



Just how often IS it possible to win and not have your name made
public?

Lenona.

 

Lenona wrote:

Anyone can win and be anonymous.  I forget what it's called, but you can
set something up through a third party.

Marsha