So what would you do if you got your wish and suddenly came into a lot of money -- by winning the lottery, perhaps, or getting a six-figure insurance settlement or a long-awaited inheritance? Financial freedom, right?
Ken Jennings, a 33-year-old former software engineer who earned US$3,022,700 by winning 74 games on Jeopardy in 2004 (and added US$100,000 last summer playing Grand Slam on the cable network GSN), says it is not that simple.
"For a long time, I was paralyzed," he said. "I didn't know what to do. I was depositing a US$1.5 million check into an account that had never had more than US$5,000 in it."
PHOTO: NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
What he did was quit his job. Eighteen months later, he moved his family from Salt Lake City to a larger home in the more expensive city of Seattle, bought a widescreen television and has become an author and developer of board games.
Initially, he said, "it was a very lonely feeling. I was getting junk mail from all over the world and begging letters."
He added: "For a lot of people, the money is the end. But that's just the beginning. You need to decide what your goal is and stick to it."
Laurel Touby, 44, an entrepreneur based in New York City, made her money last summer by selling www.mediabistro.com, a Web site for job-seeking media and creative professionals that she had founded in 1996.
She sold it for US$23 million -- leaving US$9 million to US$11 million, she said, in her bank account after taxes. One of her concerns, she said, was losing friendships.
"I've tried to be really direct, and I try to be really sensitive to their needs," she said. "Otherwise you do have a separation and scare people off."
Like Jennings, Touby and her husband, a print journalist, are feeling their way in an unfamiliar new world of money with little guidance.
"I had all kinds of illusions about how far the money would go and what I would enjoy, but they're not true," Touby said. "I thought, `OK, a car and driver and a new apartment and a whole new life.' In fact, I can only afford two out of three."
She said she interviewed 20 wealthy people for advice and quickly found out about the deep divide between the truly wealthy -- for whom private jets are the norm -- and people in her new station.
Robert Frank, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal who wrote the book Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich, drew the same dividing line as Touby.
From 1995 to 2003, the number of millionaire households more than doubled to more than 8 million, he wrote in his book, with many of those households worth far more than US$10 million.
For people who did not grow up wealthy, suddenly having to figure out how to conserve and build on a seven or eight-figure windfall is not easy.
Nor is it easy to find smart, solid advice for handling it.
"If you have list of 10 things you think you'll be able to do with all your money, you'll only be able to do two," Touby said. "There's a knockdown period when the accountants tell you what's really possible."
She remains determined to buy a Manhattan loft apartment, which will consume half her money, and she must still earn US$100,000 a year to pay for it, she said.
Elwood Bartlett, a 41-year-old accountant in Westminster, Maryland, won US$84 million in a lottery last summer -- US$33 million after taxes. He gave away US$200,000 to the Special Olympics while fending off hundreds of strangers pleading for his aid or investment.
"I went from being `Elwood Bartlett the individual' to `the corporation,'" he said.
He incorporated himself to gain protection from a frivolous lawsuit.
"Someone could see my face on TV and walk in front of my car," he said.
Bartlett's wealth has allowed him access to investments available only to those with US$2 million to US$5 million, like certain hedge funds.
"I've bought a number of properties and I've made some opportunities for people," he said.
He has hired a full-time personal trainer, property manager and personal assistant, paying each an annual salary, with health benefits, of US$30,000 to US$60,000.
Mary Sue Donohue, a lawyer in Boca Raton, Florida, who has specialized in wills, trusts and estates for 25 years, advises caution. Many of the newly wealthy immediately want a larger house, she said.
"It's a pattern we regularly see, and it's not a wise choice. It's not necessary -- they already have a place to live," she said.
Donohue advises clients to spend 5 percent to 10 percent at once, to have a little fun.
"For anyone with a net worth of US$250,000 or less, a windfall can be a real shock," she said.
Patricia MacGregor, of Wellington, Florida, who has written over 20 thrillers as T.J. MacGregor, used a US$100,000 inheritance to pay down credit card debt and buy her daughter a used car. She put the rest into certificates of deposit earning 5 percent.
MacGregor, whose husband is also an author, said the money "basically made life easier," adding: "We have no steady income so if we have a slow year," interest income on what is left can help pay the bills.
A windfall need not be six figures to make a difference. Janice Moore, for instance, ended up with US$8,000 by selling a rare Beatles album.
Her copy of Yesterday and Today, which she bought in 1966 at a Sears store, bore the "butcher" cover that had been recalled by the record company.
She had not paid much attention to it until a relative mentioned a couple of years ago that the album might be worth a lot of money.
Experts from Antiques Roadshow on PBS confirmed that the record was valuable.
She spent half the proceeds from the sale on repairing her roof and the rest on her first trip to Europe, including a walk on Abbey Road, made famous by another Beatles album.
Initially, conceded Moore, an administrative assistant in Schaumburg, Illinois, "I didn't know what to do with it."
For those who suddenly got much more money, investing in CDs, mutual funds and real estate was attractive, but making the bigger choices remained daunting, sometimes for many months.
Jennings said, "The fun part for me was seeing my face with some seven-figure number below it," when he was on Jeopardy.
"It was like playing Pac-Man. It never felt real, but when Alex Trebek pulled a seven-figure check from his pocket, I almost fainted. It wasn't a video game score. I was now `the millionaire guy,'" he said.
His advice now?
"Put your money somewhere not idiotic and leave it alone as much as possible," he said.
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