Threat 1: Gambling (The Biggest Trap)#

This might sound dumb from the outside. You just made a crazy amount of money, why on earth would you risk it trying to make more in a risky way?

Well, this weird habit of overnight millionaires happens partly because of who these people are in the first place. Think about it: folks who make tens of millions super fast are often risk-takers by nature. This could mean buying way too many lottery tickets, dumping their entire savings into a company about to crash, or just choosing to start a business in a risky new area instead of getting a safe job with a steady paycheck and health insurance.

But the huge problem with gambling when you have this much money is that it has no limits. You might actually be surprised how hard it is to spend the kind of money we’re talking about here. Seriously, imagine you had $100 million and only 24 hours to blow it. What would you even do?

Buying fancy stuff like houses, planes, cars, and mega yachts actually takes quite a bit of work! There are lengthy papers to sign, checks to clear, legal steps… it’s a whole process. Plus, these things often hold their value. If you spend your $100 million on a mansion, you’re not broke; you’ve just swapped cash for real estate.

Now, take that same $100 million to Las Vegas and play hard over a weekend? You can lose it all.

Here’s an example: The highest-limit blackjack table open to the public in Vegas is reportedly at Caesar’s, with a limit of $500,000 per hand**. Let's say you play perfectly using basic strategy and the dealer deals about **50 hands an hour**. Statistically, you could expect to lose around **$1 million every 60 minutes.

Sure, you might win sometimes. But you could also lose way more than that perfect statistical guess! And get this: if you’re playing a regular game betting $500,000 a hand, chances are they’d offer you a private table where you could bet pretty much as much as you wanted.

So yeah, gambling is a giant NO. You got rich through good fortune; don’t push your luck trying to get even luckier this way.

Threat 2: Getting Sued#

Unfortunately, if you suddenly become a high-profile millionaire, you become a big, juicy target for people who like to sue others. This could be anyone from old business partners to former spouses.

You do have one advantage here: you can definitely afford fantastic lawyers. But sadly, those top-tier lawyers might end up costing you more than any settlement. At maybe $2,500 an hour that the top firms charge, you could easily pay out more in legal fees just fighting the case than you would have by settling it quickly.

Threat 3: Conspicuous Consumption (The Least Dangerous, Believe It Or Not)#

You might have thought this was the biggest trap – spending all your money on fancy stuff. After all, there are tons of expensive things out there! But as we hinted before, it’s actually surprisingly hard to spend this much money at this level.

There’s a story about a German billionaire who actually complained that “money gravitates to those with money.” He found that if he bought a limited edition Ferrari, it didn’t lose value like most cars; collectors would pay more for it each year. He bought multiple holiday homes, and they all went up in value. His private jets were written off as business costs. And his super yacht? It actually made money by running charter trips when he wasn’t using it.

Speaking of yachts, yeah, you can totally “Airbnb” these massive boats through special charter brokerages. That particular example, a super yacht charter, could set you back around $500,000 per week. This does show you can still spend your way to being broke through consumption, but you really, really have to work at it. You can’t just buy things that hold value; you have to focus on buying experiences that leave you with nothing afterward (well, besides memories and, you know, a fulfilled life and all that).

So, if you avoid these three big traps – gambling, getting sued, and going absolutely wild buying fleeting experiences – your wealth has a much better shot at lasting for generations. But, as we said, that can be easier said than done.

Step 1: Don’t Open Your Mouth!#

Seriously, don’t tell anyone about anything, at least not yet. Keep everything as quiet and low-profile as possible until you’ve finished everything else on this list.

• If you’re a lottery winner, stay anonymous if your state allows it.
• If your lottery doesn’t allow anonymous winners, hire a lawyer to claim the prize for you.
• If they don’t even allow that, do like the still-mysterious A. Campbell did: mask up to collect your prize. (Kinda easier to pull off these days, so you’re in luck there).

If you made your money through something more “conventional” like trading on Robinhood instead of the state lottery, try really hard not to brag about those massive gains to your friends and family. Bragging anonymously on the internet is generally fine, though, as long as you’re pretty sure nobody will take you seriously or be able to figure out who you are.

Why this step is crucial: Step one is all about not attracting the nasty attention that can lead straight into those three traps we just talked about (gambling, lawsuits, overspending spurred by external pressure).

Step 2: Get Good Legal Assistance#

As soon as possible, find some excellent legal help. There are law firms that specifically handle big windfalls like lottery winnings, and they have decades of experience setting up the right structures to make sure you and your money are legally protected. This step directly leads into…

Step 3: Protect Your Assets#

This is where you set up those things you hear rich people talking about: Company and Trust structures. The reason wealthy folks use these so much is precisely to separate themselves legally from their money.

Think of a Trust as a legal entity. It can hold assets, like a big pile of cash. Or it can get more complicated and hold things like shares in a company, which then holds the pile of cash. This complex setup is probably what the fancy lawyers from Step 2 will recommend.

This type of trust usually involves two key roles:

• The Trustee: This person decides what the trust does with its assets.
• The Beneficiary: This is the person who gets paid the money from the trust.

Oh, and guess what? The Trustee and the Beneficiary can be the exact same person. And that person can be you.

What this structure means is, if someone tries to sue you personally, you can honestly say, “Oh, I don’t have any money.” When they point to that trust and the company with millions in it, you can say, “Oh, that over there? The trust owns the company that has the money. I don’t own it personally; I just control what it does (as Trustee) and benefit from it (as Beneficiary).”

Now, you might wonder, why add a company on top of the trust? Good question! Trusts are great, but they usually can’t just sit on cash forever. They’re often legally required to pay out a big chunk of their cash every year to their beneficiaries. This rule is there to make sure trustees (the decision-makers) don’t just hoard the money and prevent the beneficiaries (like the famous “trust fund babies”) from getting their third ski trip to Aspen this winter.

But for you, this rule is a problem. It means at the end of the year, a large part of that lovely trust money would have to be paid out, landing right back in your personal hands – making it vulnerable to lawsuits again.

However, if you give all that money to a company that’s owned by the trust, the company gets to decide if it’s going to pay dividends this year, and if so, how much. That money then goes to the trust, which then pays you. You now control the flow and keep the big pile of money safe from personal lawsuits. Congratulations, you’re now getting paid like almost every other truly rich person, and you even got a quick lesson in how trust funds work!

Step 4: Invest That Money Wisely#

Money just sitting there loses value over time thanks to inflation. If your money isn’t making more money, you will eventually spend it all, even if it takes a long time.

So, take that protected pile of money and find some good investments. Nothing too crazy, remember? You’re here to preserve the money, not try to double it overnight. That “no gambling” rule totally applies to the stock market too!

Step 5: Set Up a Budget You Can Live Off Indefinitely#

The goal now is to live forever (or indefinitely, anyway) just off the returns from your investments. The common wisdom on this is that your yearly spending budget should be somewhere between two to five percent of your total invested assets.

There’s a video from Economics Explained about the financial independence movement that explains the rules behind this in much more detail. (I can’t put the link here, but that’s the video referenced).

Step 6: Find a New Place to Call Home#

We’ve talked about nationless elites on this channel before, and now it might be your turn! You need to pick a country that offers a good quality of life but won’t hit you with nasty taxes on your global income.

Popular spots among folks called financially independent nomads or global elites (depends on who’s talking!) include:

• Monaco
• Lichtenstein
• Singapore
• The Bahamas
• Bermuda

Don’t worry if these places sound a bit small or cramped. You typically only need to live there for six months and one day out of the year to avoid those taxes back home. After that, you’re free to travel the world with your money, which is now safe, working for you, and practically limitless!