What To Do When You Win The Lottery!

     Every Neopian dreams of being rich beyond their wildest imagination, swimming in Neopoints and being able to buy any usuki or paint brush or battledome weapon they want, never having to visit the Soup Faerie ever again. This dream is realized by very few, and honestly even hitting the lottery won't give you that type of ease, but it will get you one step closer. If you can manage your winnings well then you could set yourself up for a very prosperous future. This guide is all about what to do with the money that you do win from the lottery, and how to grow that fortune into something better.

     First things first, the lottery is drawn daily and the prize is determined by how many tickets have been purchased. Each player can buy up to 20 tickets per day, and win extras through random events or Dice-A-Roo. You select six numbers, between 1 and 30, and hope that you match the winning numbers. The winner of the lottery is whoever matched the most numbers that day, this guarantees a daily winner. Sometimes there are multiple winners! The biggest way to make sure you are the big winner is by matching all six numbers, but occasionally someone wins on their own with five numbers matched. If no one matches five numbers, then typically a lot of people win with four matched numbers.

     Because the prize is determined by the amount of tickets sold, it varies daily. Right now it tends to hover around 1,200,000 NP as the max jackpot. If you are the solo winner, you get all of it! But if you have to split the jackpot up, you could walk away with only 10,000 NP or even less.

     Lottery tickets cost 100 NP each, so buying your maximum of 20 per day will cost 2,000 NP. A small price to pay for a shot at over a million NP! So let's say you get really lucky and win 1,200,000 NP all to yourself, what do you do with it?

     1. Stay calm!

     Winning a large sum of money is really exciting and you'll be tempted to run out and buy all the expensive items you've been looking at for years. This is a quick way to go broke! There is an old saying: you need money to make money. This is so true and so please, please take a few days and just sit on the money without spending it. Tuck it away in your bank account and collect interest on it before you do anything else, let the adrenaline wash away. This will give you some time to breathe.

     2. Make a list!

     Make a list of all the items you want with the money, from most expensive to least expensive. This will give you a good idea of all the money you actually need to get the things you want, and help you build a plan for the future. This will keep you organized and help you prioritize your wishlist. It's great to publish this on a petpage where you can keep track of it easily and show off your progress.

     3. Spend a LITTLE bit!

     Winning the lottery is no fun if you can't spend it. You'll be tempted to spend it all, but that will hurt you in the long run. Take around 200,000 NP of it and buy yourself one or two nice things you've been eying. This will get the spending out of your system and you'll feel good about having accomplished something. The remaining million will be used to grow your fortune.

     4. Invest!

     The idea of using money to make money is very real. You'll want to invest this money wisely in order to grow it. Buying stocks when they are 15 NP is a great way for growing it long term. Make sure to buy your 1,000 stocks daily.

     Using the money to (conservatively) play Food Club is also a good idea. A lot of people make great guides on how to always come out on top with Food Club. Read those and use this money to make safe bets.

     If you have a knack for the item market, you can try investing that way. Buying up things like rare stamps or books when they are first released, after a plot or something, and holding onto them for a long time while they gain value. This is riskier if you aren't used to how the item market works, and also can take a long time for a financial return.

     You can also continue to grow this money at the bank, but the interest rate isn't as great as other investments. You should always keep a majority in the bank though so the tax beast doesn't try to swipe some of it! You never know what random events will take hundreds of thousands of NP away from you.

     5. Don't gamble!

     Just because you won once, doesn't mean you'll win again. The lottery is a low cost game and can pay off, so it probably won't hurt you much to continue this. But things like nerkmids, treasure maps, the slots...those games can bleed you dry very quickly and don't really reward enough to make it worthwhile. This is the fastest way to run out of money next to just spending it all.

     6. Don't give it away!

     When you win the lottery, your username is published on the results page. This is great because you'll get a burst of fame, a trophy, and an avatar! But it can also mean people will start to neomail you and beg for some money. Ignore these neomails, don't even bother responding. You won the money fair and square, why should they get a cut? Worry about yourself first.

     7. Have fun with it!

     Don't stress yourself out too much over the winnings. At the end of the day, you just won over a million neopoints!! Do whatever makes you happy with it, some people would prefer to just spend it over investing it. I recommend investing because it'll make you more money, but if you've been waiting years for a certain paint brush that'll use up all your winnings...go ahead and buy it! You can make this money back by playing games, selling items, and battling in the battledome. It's only around a million neopoints, not something crazy like the Moehog Skull from the spooky scratchcards.