Man hits $22 million jackpot and reveals why he kept it a secret from his own kids

Winning a lottery is a dream come true for many, and while people make grand plans about what they would want to do with the money, one man decided to keep his win to himself and not disclose it to anyone. A caller on The Ramsey Show talked to Dave Ramsey, a financial advisor, and explained why he took such a decision, an excerpt of which was uploaded on TikTok from the (@daveramsey) account. 

In the video, the caller begins by telling Ramsey how he won a "multi-state lottery drawings with a group of coworkers."

"I haven’t told anyone, uh, besides my wife and one sibling," he says. He says he won close to $22 million and decided to keep to himself. He talks about how he learnt a few things which barred him from sharing the details of his lottery with anybody. He read, he says, that all those who have won lottery have gone bankrupt within 10 years.

"And one of the things they all said was, you tell too many people and you get too many people at your door asking for this, that, and the other thing, asking for handouts. Expecting you to pay for everything," he says.

This was one of the main reasons why this caller and his wife has made a "conscious decision" to not share it with anybody and simply keep the amazing news a secret. "We haven’t even told our two teenage children. And now I know that sounds strange, but we just don’t want them to grow up to be waiters, you know, waiting for us to die so they can get our money," the caller adds. 

He talks about how he wants his son to grow up and become somebody on his own. "I’m not gonna keep it from them forever, but like… Our parents, we haven’t told any of them," he adds. After this the caller mentions that they also inherited a lot of money from his wife's great uncle who passed away. 

The host then asks if the caller was still working to which he says yes. He says that most of the money is still intact as they received all of it after they had already paid off the mortgage and were not looking to change their cars either.

"My house was paid off before I won this. My wife and I really have no desire to move. We had just paid cash for two Toyotas before we won this. And we still have them. We’re not looking to upgrade to anything. Perfectly fine cars," he adds.

Ramsey praises the caller for being wise with his money. "I think you’re just being wise because what you’ve discerned is that some of the people in your life could not handle the equation," he says.

Many took to the comment section of the TikTok video to talk about the situation, "This man is very intelligent and has amazing relationship with his wife. Kudos," reads one comment, while another jokingly asks, "How does it feel to be gods favorite."

Besides not telling anyone about it, there's also a few other smart things to do, like engaging a lawyer as well as a financial advisor, which the caller said he did. One can also create a spending and investing plan which can help you with the sudden spurt in your finances. Another wise thing to do is fund a private foundation which will also reduce the large tax bite, as pointed out by Forbes. Also, just like the caller emphasized, having a team can really help guide through issues that can arise with sudden wealth. 

For more such videos, follow, (@daveramsey) on TikTok.