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Why sudden wealth will not make you happy

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Lotteries are booming as a way to generate income without taxation, a prime example being Hong Kong's newly introduced soccer betting draw. Big-prize quiz shows guarantee massive viewer ratings. E-commerce, property, the stock exchange, music, sports, publishing and other sectors are making people wealthy overnight.

The phenomenon of sudden wealth has even led to the creation of a new industry - consultants who cater to the needs of those suffering from 'affluenza'.

Of course, many of us would gladly welcome the opportunity to deal with such a problem. And many newly rich people unconsciously 'cure' themselves by rapidly spending their way back to their old way of life, using their windfall as an excuse to live a larger-than-life .

Viv Nicholson, whose rags-to-riches story was told on the stage of the London theatre, illustrates the phenomenon. She won the equivalent of millions at the age of 25, in 1961. She married five times, rode around in a pink Cadillac, hit the bottle and ended up penniless. Most people are more modest in their ambitions than Viv Nicholson, perhaps. But the percentage of wishful high-fliers among lottery winners is high.

The world over, most ticket buyers - and therefore winners - are working-class people who live and work in modest neighbourhoods. When they win, their world turns upside down. They are ill-equipped to handle the new situation. They do not know whom to trust. Not are they prepared for what is likely to happen in their relationships.

Not much information is available on this subject, and the newly rich are becoming increasingly secretive because of the consequences they fear, such as harassment by strangers, exploitation by swindlers or vilification in the press. Many receive so many requests for money for seemingly worthy causes that they are hounded from their homes. One now anonymous lottery-winning couple in Ohio, reports Money magazine, was inundated with calls. They became frightened about robberies and stressed about managing their new wealth, and their children progressively lost all their old friends.

Choices expand and decisions are unavoidable. If lottery winners quit work and buy a new house in a fancy neighbourhood, they become alienated from their previous friends and family. They do not really fit in with their new neighbours, either. They can stay where they are and share their wealth. But then they are often relegated to the status of a free meal ticket and they begin to doubt the sincerity of those around them. Most studies of sudden wealth are limited to lottery winners who have volunteered to talk about their experiences, creating a sort of natural selection of the disgruntled and exploited.

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