Is it too much? UK EuroMillions ticket-holder wins £111.7m

[arknor]

A million has been a lot for a while, even more so now and it does seem crazy to say that.

Back in 2005 a colleague of mine won £980k on the lottery.

He paid off his parent's mortgage, bought a house for himself and his partner, bought a separate house to rent out, 2 new cars (himself and his partner, both were under 50k) & when on a couple of holidays. Beyond that no overtly extravagant spending.

During this time, other than some unpaid leave for the holidays, he continued to work and it was less than 18mth before the money was gone & he was back living on his pay-check.

Granted he was mortgage/rent free every month but still. Sensibly he was putting the rent income into a fund to pay for future repairs etc to the rental house.

you realise 1 million in 2005 is the equivalent of Today*£ 2,061,933 today right? because of inflation


you laterally proved my point that 2.5-5mil is a more realistic figure for most people to retire and enjoy life.


you realise even a pretty standard 3 bed house even in the north east is around 230k+? 1 mil is not a lot anymore. its not the same as 20 years ago.


Its life altering sure, but its not the huge sum of money it once was, if you think 1mil is enough now, you thought 500k was enough in 2005. pure facts

The monthly interest earned on £1 million will vary depending on the interest rate, but here's a breakdown for a few common annual rates: at 3%, you'd earn £2,500; at 4%, £3,333.33; and at 5%, £4,166.67

sounds like a lot right? you could easily live on that, until the gov starts taxing you.

Step 3: Tax Calculation​

• First £12,570 → Tax-free
• Remaining £37,430 → Taxed at 20% = £7,486 tax per year
• Take-home income: £50,000 - £7,486 = £42,514 per year (~£3,543 per month)

The higher rat of 4167 per month quickly becomes 3,543

Total Monthly Costs Estimate​

Expense	Low (£)	High (£)
Income Tax	624	624
Council Tax	79	183
Utilities	200	400
Food & Essentials	200	500
Total Costs	£1,103	£1,707

So after tax and essential bills, you’d have ~£1,800–£2,400 per month left to spend or save.


not bad I guess, but theres probably other expenses I didn';t think about..

20 years ago you;d be atleast twice as well off one a mil, do you even get the whole million? or are there taxes on that lump sum too?

that's assuming you never touched the one million to buy a house or something. I guess you could slowly buy with the interest.

your probably living in a pretty standard 3-4 bedroom house though, the only thing that really changed is you can afford not to work, but then your daily expenses likely go up a lot.


that's assuming you don't pay the 40% tax rate which is borderline and realistically you'd probably be in the 40%

• £50,271 – £125,140 → 40% (Higher Rate)

your still going to be budgeting and working out what you can afford to buy each month.

your standard of living realistically probably wouldn't improve much, you just wouldn't have to work.

in reality you likely have a partner, and maybe kids, then it really isn't a whole lot, one of you is still working surely. if not both part time jobs.

also your likely struggling to beat inflation, so your income is dwindling slowly.


look at our economy right now, it's probably going to get a whole lot worse.

 

[Tombstone]

Its life altering sure, but its not the huge sum of money it once was, if you think 1mil is enough now, you thought 500k was enough in 2005. pure facts

Definitely right that its not the huge sum it once was, 1m would however be enough for me

 

[arknor]

Definitely right that its not the huge sum it once was, 1m would however be enough for me

well you'd be an idiot to turn down free money... well almost free.

but 1mil really isn't what it once was, all game show prizes etc seem to be the same as they were 20 years ago even though we have had 100% inflation since then

google is telling me the minimum wage went from 5.05 to 12.21 which just shows how much spending power was lost in that time.


if you had 1 mil 20 years ago, and lived on the interest, you''d be getting slowly squeezed until you eventually have to get a job, or make big sacrifices.

that 1 mil would need to have turned intro 2mil but you'd only have 840k total interest in that time before taxes and living expenses.

Maybe your house value would have gone up, but you'd have to downsize to unlock any money.


even as a single person living off 1 mil you;d eventually need to get a job, unless you had a much higher income than 5% sure it's doable in the stock market, but its a big risk at the same time.

Maybe its possible to get much higher than 5% interest on a mil though. (chatgpt claims lottery winnings are tax free in the UK so you would get to keep the whole mil)

 

[Tombstone]

well you'd be an idiot to turn down free money... well almost free.

but 1mil really isn't what it once was, all game show prizes etc seem to be the same as they were 20 years ago even though we have had 100% inflation since then

Very true, its a very situational thing, I have no mortgage to pay off, no major outgoings, no need to buy houses or cars for anyone, I've travelled the world already, covering 34 countries, so have no need for travel as I've already ticked off all the places I want to visit and dont have several decades ahead of me that I need to make secure, so for me, 1m would be enough to be very comfortable one could even argue that winning dozens and dozens of millions would be wasted on me

 

[bainbridge]

Haha I'm £2.50 richer than you suckers

 

[aVdub]

Haha I'm £2.50 richer than you suckers

Well I won £2.90 so made a dizzying 40p profit

You've won £2.90 on EuroMillions!​

Wed 26 Mar 2025

Congratulations! You've won £2.90 on EuroMillions ticket number: *********** on Tue 25 Mar 2025.

We've paid this prize into your National Lottery account.


Might go out this weekend.

 

[Mujja]

If I won, I promise to share it all equally with my forum followers which is currently 0 at the moment

You now have 6 followers, including me

 

[Reuben klang]

you realise 1 million in 2005 is the equivalent of Today*£ 2,061,933 today right? because of inflation


you laterally proved my point that 2.5-5mil is a more realistic figure for most people to retire and enjoy life.


you realise even a pretty standard 3 bed house even in the north east is around 230k+? 1 mil is not a lot anymore. its not the same as 20 years ago.


Its life altering sure, but its not the huge sum of money it once was, if you think 1mil is enough now, you thought 500k was enough in 2005. pure facts



sounds like a lot right? you could easily live on that, until the gov starts taxing you.

Step 3: Tax Calculation​

• First £12,570 → Tax-free
• Remaining £37,430 → Taxed at 20% = £7,486 tax per year
• Take-home income: £50,000 - £7,486 = £42,514 per year (~£3,543 per month)

The higher rat of 4167 per month quickly becomes 3,543

Total Monthly Costs Estimate​

Expense	Low (£)	High (£)
Income Tax	624	624
Council Tax	79	183
Utilities	200	400
Food & Essentials	200	500
Total Costs	£1,103	£1,707

So after tax and essential bills, you’d have ~£1,800–£2,400 per month left to spend or save.


not bad I guess, but theres probably other expenses I didn';t think about..

20 years ago you;d be atleast twice as well off one a mil, do you even get the whole million? or are there taxes on that lump sum too?

that's assuming you never touched the one million to buy a house or something. I guess you could slowly buy with the interest.

your probably living in a pretty standard 3-4 bedroom house though, the only thing that really changed is you can afford not to work, but then your daily expenses likely go up a lot.


that's assuming you don't pay the 40% tax rate which is borderline and realistically you'd probably be in the 40%

• £50,271 – £125,140 → 40% (Higher Rate)

your still going to be budgeting and working out what you can afford to buy each month.

your standard of living realistically probably wouldn't improve much, you just wouldn't have to work.

in reality you likely have a partner, and maybe kids, then it really isn't a whole lot, one of you is still working surely. if not both part time jobs.

also your likely struggling to beat inflation, so your income is dwindling slowly.


look at our economy right now, it's probably going to get a whole lot worse.

well you'd be an idiot to turn down free money... well almost free.

but 1mil really isn't what it once was, all game show prizes etc seem to be the same as they were 20 years ago even though we have had 100% inflation since then

google is telling me the minimum wage went from 5.05 to 12.21 which just shows how much spending power was lost in that time.


if you had 1 mil 20 years ago, and lived on the interest, you''d be getting slowly squeezed until you eventually have to get a job, or make big sacrifices.

that 1 mil would need to have turned intro 2mil but you'd only have 840k total interest in that time before taxes and living expenses.

Maybe your house value would have gone up, but you'd have to downsize to unlock any money.


even as a single person living off 1 mil you;d eventually need to get a job, unless you had a much higher income than 5% sure it's doable in the stock market, but its a big risk at the same time.

Maybe its possible to get much higher than 5% interest on a mil though. (chatgpt claims lottery winnings are tax free in the UK so you would get to keep the whole mil)

If you try to live off the interest on the cash, insanity.

£1m worth of property.

A bare minimum of £50,000 income from our £1m portfolio = £46,768.62 after tax paid by divs

=£3,897.38 a month the equivalent of a ~£68k salary.

Average house price in 2005 = £150k, 2025 = £290k

Rent has also doubled.

Obviously have insuarance, up keep etc but it’s defo possible to retire and live comfortably from £1m today

 

[Diddums]

you

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[Malevolence]

£202m this Friday. Think I might have a flutter, you never know. Well, I do know - I'll win the √0 as always.

 

[dowie]

If I were to win I probably wouldn't tell anyone, just quietly get a new car and after a while move to a new house so that no one links the move to a big win.

Yeah, no need to tell anyone (aside from maybe immediate family), also the house doesn't need to be some mansion either.

There was a story recently about a big rollover winner who went public - they'd given away tens of millions to family/friends and had set up charity initiatives - I guess when it gets to the hundreds of millions people can afford to give away a big chunk, make any friends/family who might ask for money very happy and have some third party foundation to direct any begging requests to.

I always wondered how people manage this kinda wealth, I don't think I'd bother investing, it's more than enough for me to live out the rest of my life in insane fantasy levels of indulgence but are there safe savings accounts for the mega rich?

Yeah, as mentioned earlier you could invest in gilts if you wanted - in the US there is an annual income vs lump sum option via an annuity, no reason why you couldn't purchase an annuity here too or put it into a trust at arm's length if you wanted that (or just some portion of it) - then you can go crazy and splurge with 'only' a few million a year while your fortune is largely protected (save for being eroded by inflation if you're splurging the millions in interest/bond coupons each year.)

As for what others with that level of wealth do - I've worked at a couple of private client stockbrokers years ago but at the centimillionaire level people can look at opening their own private family office, that's basically the min level of wealth for that sort of thing - essentially they set up a company to manage their wealth and employ investment professionals or indeed accountants, tax advisors, lawyers... whatever - I know one guy who worked for one as a Chartered Surveyor even - the family had a lot of property wealth so part of his role was actually to be a surveyor but also part of his role was (property) investment focused - they're incredibly secretive though, this guy wouldn't tell people anything about the identity of the actual family.

Also, 200 million (current jackpot) is an insane amount of liquid wealth to have - I don't mean as in stating the obvious that 200 million is a big number but more that particularly wealthy people often have lots of their wealth tied up in a business or businesses or indeed farmland/estate, property etc. Someone worth say 50 million might have a house worth a couple of million but most of it in their business - they've maybe 'only' got a few million in their stock portfolio, 500k in an ISA and maybe some five-figure or low six-figure amount in cash savings & current account at any point in time.

For someone to have 200 million+ in cash, bonds & publicly traded shares(not in their own company) they'd perhaps more likely be a billionaire or multi-billionaire. I guess tech founders who successfully exit a unicorn and some people working in commodities, hedge funds or private equity can end up with that sort of liquid 9-figure net worth without being a billionaire but it's highly unusual. For Brian the shelf stacker at Asda to end up with that amount, in cash, overnight from a lottery win is crazy and perhaps makes it all the more important that winners get referred to advisors - I'm not sure if that happens in the US which is maybe where most of the horror stories of winning go bad emerge from.

 

[Gerard]

Well I won £2.90 so made a dizzying 40p profit

You've won £2.90 on EuroMillions!​

Wed 26 Mar 2025

Congratulations! You've won £2.90 on EuroMillions ticket number: *********** on Tue 25 Mar 2025.

We've paid this prize into your National Lottery account.


Might go out this weekend.

I hate that email , always some piddly amount. Send me it if I win 50 grand or something, not when I've won £3.

 

[arknor]

me

is this not considered bullying and just pathetic? why would you even do that? yes I'm autistic and I post like a retard, I never read what I typed before pressing submit.

deal with it. my points were still valid.

 

[Diddums]

is this not considered bullying and just pathetic? why would you even do that? yes I'm autistic and I post like a retard, I never read what I typed before pressing submit.

deal with it.


your aware I self harm and take antri depressants btw? or you never read those posts in the mental health thread? maybe THINK before you bully people? maybe your post is supposed to be some dumb innocent throw away comment on the internet, but what impact does it have? why would you do that?

BTW I;m literally in a good mood today.. just saying maybe be more aware when your taking the pee out of people?

I wish you could understand the restraint I'm practicing to not do the same again with this post. I really do.


Regardless, it was just a humorous post with no offense intended. Stop being such a fanny.

 

[arknor]

I wish you could understand the restraint I'm practicing to not do the same again with this post. I really do.

dood I;m autistic and dropped out of school at 14, the way I post isnt about to change any time soon.

I honestly don;t see how making fun of the disabled does anything for you.


isn;t it even one of the autism traits?

 

[Nitefly]

dood I;m autistic and dropped out of school at 14, the way I post isnt about to change any time soon.

I honestly don;t see how making fun of the disabled does anything for you.

isn;t it even one of the autism traits?

He would have said the same to me or anyone else for the same reason (levity lols) - don’t worry about it

 

[Derek W]

I think it's funny reading comments that winning 1 million is not that much. Granted most of the comments instantly state that if you buy this or that then the million will be gone in no time. Working with a bit of compound interest on investments over time and locking away some of it into your pension your wealth will grow quicker and you'll be able to retire earlier or have the opportunity to do more things over time. Of course spend some of it to enjoy the here and now but I'd call being more comfortable and being able to retire early 'life changing'

If anyone's read atomic habits, be the fireman / janitor and not the investment banker

 

[Diddums]

dood I;m autistic and dropped out of school at 14, the way I post isnt about to change any time soon.

I honestly don;t see how making fun of the disabled does anything for you.


isn;t it even one of the autism traits?

As @Nitefly says, I'm not singling you out, I just have a habit of being a smartass to everyone. Just messing around, don't take it personally

 

[happy_2008]

£200m is just insane, would imagine that would also likely to bring problems too though

 

[Richard - London]

£200m is just insane, would imagine that would also likely to bring problems too though

Only 142m left after you buy this apartment

Check out this 5 bedroom apartment for sale on Rightmove

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