An old man in Japan won $3.8 million in the lottery. He kept the money from his frugal wife so he could live a fancy life for a short time. The man, 66 years old and only known as “S,” used to work for a big production company and now lives in Tokyo with his wife on a $2,000-a-month income. With the high cost of living in the city and the added responsibility of paying for their two children’s schooling, the couple had saved $174,000.
S went to a nearby coffee shop in the mornings to read the newspaper and then bought a few $2 lottery tickets. He was told one day that he had won a lot of money and needed to go to the bank. He found out there that he had won the big prize of 600 million yen. He was shocked by the news. “This doesn’t seem real.” The South China Morning Post reported that he said, “The number is so big, I’m even a little scared.” He then said that, given the low chances of winning, he saw it as just “an experience.”
Spending spree in secret
S didn’t tell his wife the truth because she was very strict about money and would only let him have an old, cheap car. Instead, he told her he had won only $32,000 to pay for home improvements. He actually spent 11,000 yen on a fancy car, several stays at fancy hot spring spas, and travel all over Japan over the course of six months.
To keep from being caught, he wore old clothes, stayed away from his normal group of friends, and took the subway every day to the parking lot where he kept his new car. But his secret pleasure soon turned into guilt and loneliness. When he traveled, seeing other families made him think of his own, and the lonely death of his father after a split and debt came back to him. S thought that his pain was caused by the wealth he didn’t deserve.
“I would feel good about this money if I had earned it myself.” “But having money that comes to me without any work makes me remember bad things and shakes my life,” he said.
Finally, S talked to a financial planner about what to do with his wins. He decided to put almost $3.2 million into insurance and name his wife and children as the receivers. He hopes that the money will protect their finances after he dies. He wants the money to give his family peace of mind after he dies.
Online people are talking about the man’s story.
One person who saw this online said that sudden wealth doesn’t usually make people happy. Instead, it can cause a clash of beliefs and an identity problem.
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