Don't Skip This Step To Protect Yourself After Winning The Lottery

Winning the lottery is something that just about everyone has dreamed of at some point in their life. With advertisements for massive jackpots going up on billboards around the country, and some of the largest wins reaching into the billions, it's only natural to think about what you would do with the money if the winds of fortune blew your way.

Plenty of ideas probably come to mind when it comes to spending this money. However, the logistics of actually taking possession of a major lottery win should also be at the forefront of your mind. The reality is that lots of pitfalls lie on the road ahead for those who have won the lottery. There are the financial elements to consider –- like your now-potentially enormous tax burden -– to navigating the actual claim process. For small wins, you can often write your details on the back of the card or ticket and submit it in the mail, or even bring it back to the store you bought it from. While, for major payouts, other steps must be taken to claim your prize. However, all of this hinges on actually maintaining possession of the winning ticket. Therefore, there's one particularly important step that you shouldn't ignore when planning the course of your life post-lottery victory, and that's making a copy.

The first thing you should do when discovering that you've managed to pick the correct sequence of winning numbers for the lottery is to make copies of your winning ticket. If you lose your ticket without any backup copies you won't be able to claim your prize. Winning a significant lottery payout only to lose the money because you failed to protect your ticket from loss or damage is, without a doubt, even worse than not having won at all.

The first step here is an easy one. Pull out your phone and take a picture of your ticket right away. Making a digital copy of your winning lottery ticket doesn't have to be convoluted or difficult. However, once you've taken a picture or scanned the ticket, you'll want to store it in a secure digital space. It's perfectly fine to keep a copy on your phone, but make sure you add another copy to your cloud storage solution, and ideally place it behind encrypted protection. In the same way that you don't want to lose your ticket, you also don't want to have the details of your victory stolen. In addition, make physical copies and store them in a safe place. If you have a safe or lock box at home this is a great opportunity to use it. Alternatively, it might be a good idea to invest in a safety deposit box, at least temporarily. If you wake up as a lottery jackpot winner one morning, what's a few extra bucks thrown down on a secure place to store your golden goose for a few days or weeks, right?

After you've taken steps to ensure that you won't lose your winning ticket, it's important to take some time to explore your options. First of all, a major financial windfall from lottery winnings is a transformative event. Plenty of people have won big playing the lottery and then ended up broke as a result of poor planning and lackadaisical money management. If you've won a particularly large prize, speaking with a financial professional is likely a critically important step that you should not ignore.

You'll also want to familiarize yourself with the rules in your state. In many places across the country, winners can claim their prize anonymously (sometimes this can depend on the actual amount won). California, however takes a completely opposite approach, preventing all winners from remaining anonymous. With that said, if you are in a state that allows it, you should consider staying anonymous if you win the lottery. This choice allows you to protect your identity and avoid any potential problems that may arise from others knowing you've suddenly banked a huge payday. However, it's worth noting that once you submit your winning ticket, decisions like this can't be altered in many cases. This means you'll want to understand the full set of rules and requirements in your state before taking any action. This will allow you to chart the best course forward both in your claim process and as it relates to managing the winnings in your bank account later on.