Lottery couple blow £50k in eight months: life lessons for when you have more money than sense

Viva Naija seems to be all doom and gloom today, but there just seems to be nonsense news all over the place. Examine, if you will,  the story of this unemployed UK couple who won £50,000 on the lottery in 2014 and blew it all within 8 months. The lottery couple are now broke, unemployed and pleading with the general public as they face eviction from their flat for non payment of rent.

According to Yahoo News, Jamie and Abbie Hort blew their fortune on holidays, designers clothes and a giant TV and now all they money’s gone. The lottery couple want their income support and housing benefit to be paid again but officials have refused to give them any more handouts.

Mr Hort said: “When we first won the money, we were very excited and we helped sort our family out with some money and went shopping. We had no other income source so the money was going on things like food. Sometimes we were spending £70 a day on food. We were a bit silly with it, it could have lasted a lot longer, I’ll admit that. But all we want now is some help.”

A bit silly? £50,000 in eight months and you term that as “A bit silly”?? I know British understatement is legendary, but this pair are just taking the mick. Also, looking at the size of them, I don’t think they spent £70 a day on food, and from the looks of their pallor, it certainly doesn’t look like they spent it on steamed fish, broccoli and freshly squeezed orange juice either.

Now here’s the conundrum: the government simply does not believe that the lottery couple spent this money within this short time-frame and have declined their benefits until they can prove that they are broke with receipts. I’m looking at their faces and instantly I know they will not have receipts for a lot of the things they’ve done. Receipts for helping out family and friends? For taking the kids to Nando’s? How can?

The Lesson to be learnt from Lottery Couple

It would be so easy to say “serves them right,” laugh and point, but the truth is: without sound financial knowledge and consultation, if the money had been £100k, this lottery couple would still have blown it within that time-frame.

The euphoria of free money, not worrying about bills, and finally being able to do right by family and friends is a heady one, and will exhaust the funds faster that water runs through ones hands.

We just had the discussion here on Viva Naija about how a fool and his money are soon parted and the importance of sound financial management, and here we go with a real-life lesson.

Birds of a feather flock together

I’m nobody special. I write words and people read them and laugh; hopefully learn a little too – no big deal. But I am blessed with amazing friends that were picked specifically because I aspire to their characteristics. They encourage me to grow daily simply because of who they are and what they do. One’s circle of friends is so key: you should be able to – by three or less degrees of separation – know lawyers, doctors, writers, artists, businesspeople, athletes, and so on. Not just because you can learn from them, but so that every need in life can be met by someone who understands you or has walked your path. It is dangerous to be the biggest boi/gal you know. Where do you go to when you need help?

The lottery couple are now broke. But that could be any of us and if you can’t successfully manage £5000, you will definitely mismanage £50,000 and £50 million.