You win the EuroMillions (£50m+) - how do you keep it secret as long as possible?

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Empty_Gift2157@reddit

I’d whip it, nay nay it, whip my hair back and forth, then invite everyone to a party. Anyone who turned up would get blocked and everyone that nay nay’ed would get crunk

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revvend7783@reddit

Honestly I'd probably not change much. I'd carry on living where I am. I might quit my job and live off the money.

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Buy a flat, pretend I'm renting and saving for a house deposit, wait a few years, buy a house. Do similar things with other things in my life too, not splurge on anything huge, pretend I've had a payrise to counteract any questions about other things like some bigger purchases. Just live my life like that.

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AbsoluteScenes4@reddit

I would admit I had won the lottery but pretend it was a lot less like £1-2m. Basically enough to invest in some property and a successful business or two but not enough that I can afford to give massive handouts to all of my friends and family. Having made a few property investments I put the rest in a high interest account and just tell anyone who asks how I fund my lifestyle that my investments are providing me with a nice income. Realistically nobody other than the tax man is going to look into my accounts and to everyone else it's perfectly believable that somebody with a £1-2m property portfolio is making enough income from it that they are able to afford a nice house and car for themselves whilst not having to work a full time job for a living.

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ec265@reddit

Putting ‘the rest in a high interest account’ would be a pretty poor decision

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AbsoluteScenes4@reddit

It's got to go somewhere. I am not spending it all the moment I get it.

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ec265@reddit

Well no, but you would seek professional advice and be investing in far more efficient tax structures. You’d want to seek higher returns for minimal additional risk, too.

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AbsoluteScenes4@reddit

I've got £50m in the bank, I am set for life. I am not planning on having kids so I don't need to worry about leaving it to anyone. Putting it anywhere other than a bank is more effort that it's worth when I honestly don't care about growing wealth.

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djordastic@reddit

You don't know what kind of inflation hits you. For example, in my country in the 90s the inflation was so high that 15 million was the average monthly salary. In the end they cut 4 0s to have a 'normal' currency again. Life is long, we may go through wars, pandemics etc. You don't know if 50 mil. is enough. Also, keeping all the money in the same place is dangerous. What if your bank declares bankrupcy or something?

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ec265@reddit

It’s neither optimal or capital efficient, hence a poor decision You’re welcome to do as you wish in this hypothetical situation, and you’re going to be OK, sure, but once you have wealth it’s about preserving it

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AbsoluteScenes4@reddit

Why would I want to preserve it? I can't take it with me and have no plans to leave it to anyone. £50m is already more than enough to sustain my ideal lifestyle for multiple lifetimes. Rich people just hoovering up money they don't actually need and will never be able to spend even a small percentage of in ever growing bank accounts is the leading cause of the economic shit storm the world is currently in.

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etherenum@reddit

>I've got £50m in the bank, I am set for life. > >Rich people just hoovering up money I assume you will donating 95% of your winnings?

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ec265@reddit

You do you Have a lovely day

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Legitimate_War_397@reddit

Similar to what I’d do. I’d tell my dad, and give him money so he can retire and buy as many fancy watches and cars as he wants. Other people, I’d say I only one £1-2 mil and that I’ve put it into a savings account and buy a nice home. I wouldn’t want to publicly say how much I actually won because I’d feel like any friendships or relationships you make afterwards might not be genuine.

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Wide_Inspector_3358@reddit

Great shout

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MrNippyNippy@reddit

Yeah this is exactly what I’d do Tell everyone you’ve won’t enough to have a comfortable life and tell no one the real amount. I’m not a big “look at me” on Facebook etc anyway so if I mentioned I was off on holiday no one but someone with me would know if it was a £1000 holiday or a £1m holiday etc. Same with cars - I like fast cars but no interest in lambos etc.

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AbsoluteScenes4@reddit

Yeah I don't think I would be the type who is regularly dropping money on flash cars and houses. I would have a very nice house but it wouldn't be a huge mansion. Maybe a holiday home or two but they would be listed on Air BnB when I am not using them to provide another cover as a source of income. Car wise I can't see myself needing more than a couple of cars and none of them overly flashy. Probably a modest convertible for when I just need to get from A to B and something more practical like a high end saloon or 4x4 for when I need something spacious. Honestly I can't see myself ever owning more than about £150k worth of cars at one time. A perfectly feasible amount for somebody who has won £1-2m and has a steady source of income from a property portfolio to spend on cars. I am not at all interested in designer clothing, jewelry, watches etc. Even if I wasn't keeping my money a secret walking around wearing thousands of pounds worth of gear is just asking to be mugged. Tbh my biggest extravagance would probably be flying business class whenever I went anywhere and plenty of people who are not multi millionaires do that regularly too,

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MrNippyNippy@reddit

Funny I’ve given this some thought ;) I grew up in the Scottish highlands where it’s basically impossible for kids to stay unless they can split the Croft and build. It’s all incomers and holiday homes - even doctors are struggling to get accommodation. I would love to buy up what property there is available and rent on a “moral” basis to people I deem worthy in order to try and help the community potentially with some sort of option for them to buy almost like a council house. Of course it’d need some sort of legal trashing out so it’s not legally discriminatory. I reckon you could run that in such a way that it doesn’t look like you’re the sole owner just the day to day “manager”. I’d even like to drive round in a van doing some of the repairs etc to keep be busy between holidays.

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AbsoluteScenes4@reddit

Tbh I doubt it would need to be that complex. Buy the property and rent it to whoever you want at whatever price you want. You don't necessarily have to advertise to you friends and family what you are renting it for. You could just say you have invested in some property that you are renting out for a profit. You wouldn't even have to put it on the open market with a price tag on it could even talk to the local council and businesses about offering a discounted rental option on the property to people who they hire for specific job roles that way they can use it as an incentive to attract workers to the area and you guarantee that whoever lives in your property is providing a benefit to the local area. The actual rental income details stay between yourself and the tenant and their employer and for all your friends and family know you are renting it at the going market rate and making a handsome profit in doing so.

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Extreme_Survey9774@reddit

By not telling anyone

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IndividualCurious322@reddit

I'd just build an underground library and live there for the rest of my life. Everyone would think I'd disappeared.

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ActivatedBiscuit@reddit

So you won the euromillions then?

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TheHalloumiCheese@reddit

Don't post on Reddit asking how to keep it secret

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StoicWeasle@reddit

Get a lawyer and accountant, ask for their help and take it. Then, upgrade your lawyer and accountant once you have some lay of the land. Then, move TF as far away--while still living in a place that meets your needs--from anyone else who might want your money. And get ready to make new friends. Wealth is quiet.

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Doc_Sithicus@reddit

Now that's a very good advice.

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Solid_Bake4577@reddit

I'd have everyone I know killed, buy an island, and live in splendid isolation with no Internet.

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Chance_Cherry7841@reddit

Work out exactly how much you want to give to friends and family and hire a legal firm a few hundred miles away to disburse those payments out anonymously. Be thrilled and surprised to be one of the people who received a windfall from an anonymous benefactor. Everyone assumes you got about 100k like the others, so your slightly flashier lifestyle is easily explained away. Like someone else said, then buy every house for sale on the area and rent at a reasonable price to local people through a company you've set up. Have lovely lovely holidays and quietly give up work after some good investments.

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Regular-Ad1814@reddit

I would say I won the premium bonds or won the normal lottery with a small jackpot. Tell people close to me I have invested and that I can retire off the investment. Then live the exact same life as today, as I have a comfortable life anyway, but maybe with a slightly nicer few holidays and slightly nicer car (nothing super flash). Occasionally my investments will "do well" when I want to buy something. I'd still live in the same house, still dress the same way, still have the same hobbies, etc. Only people would know I have a bit more money are close friends who know I'm now retired but even they would have no idea how much I actually have.

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LateralLimey@reddit

By buying a nice home, setting up a trust to pay me a nice annual amount, and giving the rest away to charities.

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Ceejayncl@reddit

It depends who you are keeping it from and what you are doing with it. If you are going all out and splashing it everywhere, then people are going to cotton on or think you are drug dealing. If you are sensible then it would be a lot easier. If you are moving house or buying a house and it’s not an absolute mansion, then just say you got a mortgage. If you get a car and it’s not massively flash, then it’s on finance. Are you still going to work? I presume not, but you just say that you got a promotion and a desk job, or work from home type of job. No one needs to know that you are not working. Buying property etc, who needs to know?

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orlangodseye@reddit

Only tell my friends who I ask randomly to the pub one day if they don't turn up no money for them 😂

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itsaslothlife@reddit

Tell people you won (so you don't have to keep a secret) but say it was only a modest amount - enough not to share but that a splurge here and there would be expected. 30k for example. Buy property overseas so when you go on holiday you can truthfully say "oh I'm just treating myself to a week in the sun" and it doesn't look suspicious. Spend on something flashy but practical like a car or a caravan. so that you can believably say "oh I don't have much left after getting the cayenne but I do love that car"

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banshee-of-reddit@reddit

I already have a secret pact with my father. He pretends to win a much smaller amount on my behalf and gifts me a 'million'. He gets all the glory, and it protects me from the wrong people finding out, especially my toxic in-laws.

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Deep-Factor2781@reddit

I find it mad how many people would keep at to themself. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if i saw my family slogging away in a 9-5 while i was hoarding all this wealth. What i would do is set up a business where all my family members (that i like) can get involved.

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pinkzebraprintbikini@reddit

This is why I would admit I won the million on a scratch card. It's enough to give modest but life changing money to very very close relatives ( I have a smallish family and live in a cheap area of west Yorkshire) But not big enough money the godparents, great aunts, half cousins expect a slice. Xmas gifts can be fancier though.

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robster9090@reddit

If I won 50mil I’d be giving close family 500k-1mil then I’d fuck off and live some where nice

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Proper_Necessary_378@reddit

I wouldn’t even tell my parents. They’d tell my aunts and uncles and then soon i’m getting phone calls from cousins I haven’t seen in 15 years. I’d pay off the mortgages of all my family members and tell them I won £1m or something. I’d buy myself a new house and spend maybe £100k on cars (no super cars, it’s a dead giveaway) and invest put the rest in low yield low risk investments.

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pinkzebraprintbikini@reddit

I would tell everyone apart from my partner we won one million on a scratchy. That's enough to explain the new house away and a modest holiday apartment somewhere.

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pinkzebraprintbikini@reddit

I won a million in a scratch card. I wouldnt tell anybody the real figure ever.

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Selkie2202@reddit

Stage 1 - tell literally nobody. Stage 2 - invest sensibly. Stage 3 - make a crypto investment and go full cryptobro, everyone will think you are full of shit and it would give you a brilliant cover story for cars, trips, holidays etc.

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_Rookwood_@reddit

I would go public just so that the press can get a picture of me ten years down the line. "Euromillions winner WASTES £50M win on DRUGS in just TEN YEARS" -- insert: *picture of me sweeping the streets next to one of me popping a bottle of champagne*

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Mischeese@reddit

Easy! We have very uninterested Boomer parents. My in-laws haven’t asked us a question about ourselves since about 2004. My parents would be a little harder, however we only see them about once a month and they never visit our house because they can’t be arsed. Our friends are scattered all over the country, so they wouldn’t be a problem either. We could go to our graves with £50m and no one would notice.

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Craigothy-YeOldeLord@reddit

I'd tell my family I won one of those 1 million raffle things you get on the ticket, tell them I bought 3 properties, one for me and the other 2 to rent out as a passive income. I then put a mortgage on my property and I'm using that money to pay for my new car, my holiday and nice stuff I'll buy in the near future, then if anyone asks for money I'll tell them no fucking way and ask them to mortgage their house to give their family money and see how silly they feel suggesting it.

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TheWeirdDude-247@reddit

These sensible takes ain't going to win you the lotto! Where's the gold chains, supercars, mansion, drugs, prosti....escorts, gambling, holidays etc within 5 years you out looking for work as the bank reposses the house.

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gogginsbulldog1979@reddit

If I won that much, I wouldn't care who knew - I wouldn't be staying in my current town. I'd be off to another country, leaving all those people behind. I play the lottery each week and I've always told my girlfriend that if I do win, I'm happy to buy a house and do all the sensible things, but I need a week to myself. This week will be spent in a rented house with a kilo of pure cocaine, which I'll sniff until I go complete Colonel Kurtz. Only when that kilo's gone and I'm snorting bits of carpet will I return to normal life.

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negged0014@reddit

Would probably move to California and start all over. People will know you're filthy rich though as I doubt you'd want to keep working.

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terryjuicelawson@reddit

People who go for the public option are nuts. Maybe suits real larger than life people who want the bubbly, the picture with the cheque, big show off moment and want to gift family a million quid without even thinking beyond that. There are ways of casually shrugging off becoming independently wealthy I guess, something about an inheritance, sale of property, payout from work - basically anything that doesn't say *lottery* as to many their eyes open up and they just think free money, give me some or it isn't fair. Something that would be awkward to pry. I know someome who apparently did well on some shrewd purchases and sales of property in Eastern Europe. Went down to part time work, then just quit. He could have been a winner, who knows. You can still give the image of staying fairly frugal, I don't want six cars and a mansion anyway. I would do up this house well and sell it on, that would be a lot of hard cash in itself as we bought over a decade ago.

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LondonCycling@reddit

Honestly, unless you either don't spend 90%+ of it, or you abandon your friends and family and move far away, you're not hiding this amount of money. Unless you're going to start a new life somewhere, you pretty much have to tell some people. Trying to hide a few million is one thing; but trying to hide £50m would probably be more stressful than giving a few hundred grand each to some family members and friends and enjoying the money. If you don't spend it, sure, you could invest it in a property portfolio or whatever, but this is all a bit useless if you don't spend it; you're just setting up inheritence to your children who are then the ones who will have to go public.

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I_am_Reddit_Tom@reddit

I'd carry on working then in a few months say I'd won some thing like £3-5m.

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troy_mambo@reddit

I just wouldn't tell people, other than those closest to me. I earn good money anyway - not "live like a multi-millionaire" money, but good enough that people wouldn't bat an eyelid if I suddenly moved to a bigger house or something. I'd probably just start a business in my field, and employ people on decent wages, seeding it all from my winnings in the background. A kind-of social laundering of the money.

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vientianna@reddit

I think the struggle trying to keep it secret would be worse than just telling people. There were some euro millions winners a few years back who set up a charitable trust with employees who dealt with all applications for sponsorship and donations etc. The trust used a portion of their winnings to fund things and they didn’t really have to deal with any of it. I’d do that - just direct anybody looking for money to that team and stay out of it

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AdrenalineAnxiety@reddit

I would tell my mum and my two best friends, as I would be sharing some money with them. But I wouldn't tell anyone else and I'd keep the same lifestyle, so I don't think anyone would notice. I'd probably shop at M&S or Sainsbury's instead of Aldi but no one's rummaging through my rubbish, I would get a new car but just a family one, people would assume that was leased and within my means. I'd go on a few more holidays a year.. and not in a caravan in the rain for once.. but I don't post my holidays on social media or anything so my neighbours wouldn't know where I was going.

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dyinginsect@reddit

I wouldn't go public. I'd tell most people I know that I'd won *some* money, but only my very, very closest family how much. I genuinely don't want a big spending, flash lifestyle. I want a house with a nice garden and enough money to not need to work and to be able to help my kids into adulthood and help my family through life. People around me would see I had more than before but whether I had £50k or £50m in the bank, I'm never going to be dripping in diamonds and taking extended flash holidays and the like. With that sort of money I'd look into setting up something meaningful. My brother works in the co operative world, I work with people with challenged lives, we both get worried about climate change and the effect on food production and the like. I think I'd like to explore how viable setting up co ops in the 'new ways of producing food' sector which give chances to people who have had difficulties in life which would mean other employers are less likely to do so. I could just tell people yeah, got a chance to set up a business, it's doing well, I'm fine for money now.

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Proof_Housing_6492@reddit

If I win the Euromillions I'm getting a visa and moving to Alaska. I've always wanted to live in Alaska.

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walnutwithteeth@reddit

I wouldn't go public ever. That's just opening yourself up to being pestered for money. My spouse would know, as would my parents and sibling. That's it. Given I wouldn't be the type to rock up to an event in a Lambo, and I'd still rather a house that is built to a human scale rather than a palace, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch. At worst, if someone did clock the change in circumstances, I'd say I came into some money. That's it. No one is entitled to know my business.

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All_within_my_hands@reddit

These are not the only two options. You can "not go public" in the sense of the Lotto not advertising you have won and yet still tell your family and friends.

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