5 Business Ideas That All Lottery Winners Should Invest In
Winning the lottery is obviously going to mean a tremendous change in the way we think about money. We’ll start thinking about the crazy and extravagant cars we can buy or all the different places we can go on vacation. The reason so many lottery winners struggle so horribly after they hit the jackpot is that these thoughts are almost uncontrollable.
Hell, I have uncontrollable thoughts about all the extravagant things I’m going to do with the $500 I just won on a scratcher. I can’t even imagine actually winning enough to buy an island or a private jet or any ridiculous fantasies that pop into our heads when we’re dreaming of hitting the jackpot.
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It’s actually quite depressing how many people have, in fact, lived much worse lives after winning the lottery than the simple life that they previously led. Their world is taken over by the media and money-hungry acquaintances and they really just have absolutely no semblance of their previous life. There’s even a TV show dedicated to talking about past lottery winners and the bad turns that their life took after winning big. Ooo the terrible life of lottery winners right??
Most of us tell ourselves that everything will be ok if we win it though, that we definitely wouldn’t be ‘those guys’ that went out on a ridiculous spending spree or gave all their money away and had their lives ruined as a result. I think that’s a natural thought for most people to have but at the end of the day, the only people that really know how we’d feel are the actual lottery winners.
So now that I told you how shitty our lives would be if we win the lottery, here are five great investment ideas to ensure that our lives won’t suck after we win big:
1). Real Estate, Real Estate, Real Estate
If there is one thing that a lottery winner can’t really go wrong with as far as their purchases go it’s real estate and land. The world’s growing every single day and people will always need a place to live. Even if we lose every single penny of our winnings we can still be somewhat relieved knowing that we at least have assets that can get us through.
Now I’m not talking about going out and buying a ton of super-expensive homes. That would actually be really really stupid of us. I’m talking about buying 3-4 homes or properties that have the potential to generate income as well by making their rental properties or through other avenues. Maybe buy 3-4 homes around $80,000-$100,000 and then a few plots of land that have the potential to become something someday. That’ll put us up about $500,000 of our jackpot and it’s something that we can’t ‘spend’.
The one thing that we do need to be careful with when we’re buying all this land though is that the property taxes aren’t too high. The best way to go about it is to buy the properties, assess the tax situation, and use the homes to generate enough revenue as rental properties to at least cover the costs of property taxes and upkeep. We can easily hire someone to manage the properties and we’ll basically be sitting on at least $500,000 that we can’t spend and that could be extremely valuable in the future.
2). Now That We Have the Real Estate, Buy a Construction Company
This business idea obviously ties in with our first idea. Now that we have the real estate and property, we mine as well buy a construction company to go with it. We’d be wise to invest in a smaller company, but one that still has quite a bit of experience. Experience building houses and working with apartment buildings would be optimal. It’d be perfect if we could find a company with 3-4 employees that have been around for at least 10-15 years, and that’s established at least somewhat of a reputation as a trusted contractor.
Now, I’m assuming that none of us are construction gurus or that any of us have any sort of idea about how to handle running a business so I’m definitely not saying we should take over the day-to-day operations. What we should do instead is pay the previous owner a handsome salary to stay on board and continue to operate the business as if it was his own. He’ll appreciate it because it means a significant and consistent check for him, something that’s nonexistent as a regular business owner, and we’ll appreciate it because we wouldn’t have any idea in hell what we were doing. We just need to make sure we take care of the previous owner very well both with respect and financially.
Having your own construction company can do three things for us. First, it can give us the opportunity to build a new house, however, we want it and for a much cheaper price than buying one. It’ll also come in handy for building or upgrading a family member’s home. Second, we can use the construction company to keep an income coming in. Third, we can use the company to build, upgrade, and maintain the real estate that we’ve already purchased.
If lottery winners combine these first two business ideas we’d probably be dropping anywhere from $1-$1.5 Million and would be all but guaranteed that we would never run out of cash flow, no matter what we spend the rest of our money on.
3). All Lottery Winners Need to Chase Their Passion
This isn’t your typical ‘business idea’ per se, but if we just won the lottery why not start a business that would be a blast to own? Something like a trampoline park, some type of sports facility, or really anything that you’re passionate about.
Lottery winners don’t have to turn into some kind of lazy couch potato that just goes on vacation and sips margaritas for the rest of their lives. I mean I know that sounds amazing but there’s a good chance that doing it will eventually make us unsatisfied with the product in our lives.
Use winning the lottery as an opportunity to pursue a dream business idea that you once had. Heck, maybe you wanted to own your own hair salon or restaurant. Or maybe you wanted to own an arcade or a pool hall. It doesn’t matter what your dream was or is but go do it! Winning the lottery shouldn’t mean you quit working for the rest of your life, it just gives you more options on what you can do with your life.
Whoa, I got a little sentimental on everybody for a second there. Let’s reign this horse in a little bit and give you two more actual business ideas that would be a good fit for lottery winners.
4). Open a Chain Restaurant in a Good Area
This is somewhat of a risky venture, as owning a restaurant is never guaranteed to accumulate wealth. Owning a chain restaurant, however, should give you the brand name and stability that you’ll need to ensure that you aren’t having to go through the years and years of struggle of a typical new restaurant.
Most major chain restaurants yield a yearly revenue of somewhere in the $100,000-$200,000 range but also require a good million dollars or so to start. Just be absolutely sure that the person you hire to run the business is a good one. I’ve seen numerous major chains fail because of faulty leadership and hiring good employees is the most important part of this venture.
This is all being said without mentioning that we’ll get to eat for free whenever we want, can’t get much better than that right?
5). Open up a Bar/Nightclub
This idea isn’t nearly as safe as any of the others, but I feel that it’s necessary to put on here because of the urges we are now going to have to go out and have a good time on a regular basis. We’re almost assuredly going to be taken into a celebratory world almost immediately upon winning the lottery. We’ll feel as if we deserve to celebrate for the rest of our lives because we just won the lottery and can finally relax.
We’ll also, more than likely, be having a small entourage of family and friends that we’ll want to make happy through our newfound wealth. Owning your own bar and/or nightclub will ensure that you still have a great time out while not spending thousands of dollars a night to satisfy yourself and your newfound entourage.
While there is no sure shot as far as business investments go, these are some ideas that can help make sure that a cash flow is continually coming your way. So many lottery winners win the lottery and then just simply get put into the ‘spend, spend, spend’ mentality that eventually cripples them.
Sitting around and having no income to go with new and ridiculous spending habits is going to put us in a situation that lottery winners never thought they’d be in following their big jackpot win. Buying real estate and developing assets that can generate wealth is something that every single lottery winner needs to do. There is no reason to put ourselves in a situation where our lottery winnings eventually vanish. Setting ourselves up for our future is easy, just as long as we win the lottery first!
