What if you win the Lottery? Bill Dendy has helped others.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Close to a billion dollars in the Mega Millions drawing.
Have you got your ticket yet? Bill Dendy joins is
now financial strategist, just in case you hit on maybe
what you ought to do with that money. But first,
let's talk about these odds. Bill, welcome in, Thanks for
being here. Man.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
It's astronomical odds. I mean they say we have more
a greater chance of dying from a shark attack on
land than winning the lottery.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Apparently you haven't seen Sharknado.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
I mean, I pity the person who actually does die
from that shark attack on land, but I throw them
into the boat and they give you a good bite
and you don't. But the odds are astronomical. The challenge
is that many people because the odds are so bad,
thing that well, nobody can win. But you see the winners.

(00:48):
There's always somebody winning. And I've had the joy of
working with three lottery winners in my career, and I
tell you some of the stories and myths around lottery
winners are dead wrong. For instance, you heard that, well,
the lottery winners are unhappy.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Have you heard that? Oh, I've heard that, Yeah, you
hit the lottery. It ruins your life, your kids become
heroin addicts, and everybody dies.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
I've heard that not the ones I worked with, I
tell you, the lottery made them very happy. In fact,
I think it's like magnifies who you already are. So
those who you know are reasonable with money and management,
lottery is a blessing to them. Winning the lottery is
a blessing to their family, maybe their whole community. Yeah,
but if you're already kind of messy, those are the

(01:29):
ones you see on reality TV because winning the lottery
and having that much money lets you get extra special messy. Well,
and that extra special messy that's one that ruined my life.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
I've also heard that winning the lottery only accentuates how
you are larger. So if you're you know, careless with
money or is frivolous with money, that'll just be magnified
by one hundred million dollars. But if you're responsible with
money or know what to do with money, then that'll
exemplify and magnify that same thing exactly right. So when

(02:02):
let me ask you about you know, the odds obviously,
and I heard comedians say one time, you know, it's
crazy to me how people run to the borders, and
you're if you're in a state like Alabama that does
not have a lottery, to buy lottery tickets, thousands of
people will go get tickets before the drawing tonight. It's
like they go only go into the lotteries A billion dollars,
like the ten million dollar lottery jackpot's not good enough
for them, you know. So it doesn't change the odds

(02:24):
of you winning because there's only a you know, finite
you know amount of combinations on the lottery balls. It's
just it increases your odds of having to split it
with other people. But I got to tell you, I'm
willing to split you know, a billion dollars. But with
that said, your thoughts on what people ought to do
immediately upon hitting the lottery. I've talked to lawyers and
I've got a plan if I ever hit so is

(02:46):
first thing hire professional to help.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
You, absolutely, And I tell you that the three professionals
will be your attorney, their CPA, and your financial advisor.
And I guess one reasons in Texas I've ended up
a couple lot of winners is being an attorney and
a CPA and a financial advisor all wrapped up in
one it makes it one stop convenient shop. But I
tell you the thing you probably don't want to do

(03:11):
is tell everybody you know that you won the lottery.
I think that's caused more grief for a lot of
folks because people you haven't talked to family members that
are distance. I mean, the person who sat behind you
in second grade will give you a call and have
a small need or our project or an investment opportunity
for you. And it's not just the family and the

(03:33):
friends which are scary, but you're also now a subject
for the criminal element. I said, hey, we've had a
lot of money over here. You attract attention you don't
want as well. And so some states will allow you
to anonymously claim the ticket, and so you talk to
the attorney ahead of time, find out if this particular
situation will allow you to be anonymous. If it does

(03:56):
allow you to be anonymous, you be anonymous. The second
thing is how do you take the money? And now,
generally your lotteries are deciding now on the front end,
but for a while, with interest rates as low as
they were, it made sense to take the lump sum
when rates got higher, or maybe take the payout over
twenty years. But either way, with this number, you're not

(04:17):
going to lower your tax brackets by spreading those payments out,
because tax rates is going to hit the top bracket,
right right, So, and a lot of people think maybe
taxes will be on their way up in the future,
that maybe the government might not ever get their act
together and realize that we have to pay back this debt.
The only what they can do is raise taxes. So
lot cbas are saying, well, gosh, at that level, just

(04:38):
go ahead paying taxes and be done with it. And
taxes be about forty one percent plus any state income tax.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Yeah, you hit a billion dollars, you hit a billion
dollar lottery. Boohoo on the taxes. I mean, take your
four hundred million and go I mean, is that not
enough for you? Right? I had an attorney tell me
one time, if you want to stay anonymous with this,
come to us. We'll set up a trust and we'll
have a representative from the law firm that handles the
trust collect the money for you. It's a trust winning ticket,

(05:07):
it's not an individual winning ticket. So you complete completely
stay anonymous, and you know, of course, there's a small
fee for the long firm to help set those up
for you. But you know, so have you heard of
people setting up a trust to handle this money so
the person's not I guess you know out that's it.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
That's exactly the way people s technolgics on it. Yeah,
and that is a very helpful thing.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
What part of the world do you live in, Bill, Dallas, Texas?
Have you got your ticket? Yep?

Speaker 2 (05:35):
I hate a minute, but the staff we all go
in together. And that's another thing. If you're going on
with the staff, make sure you make copies of those
tickets before everybody goes home.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
I'm going to give how many.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
Stories of your heard? Yeah, that winning ticket was not
the one we bought together, but the one I bottle
my own.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
All right, I'm going to venmo you twenty dollars today,
send me pictures of the tickets you buy for me,
and we'll be in touch soon when we hit together.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
Will you stay you continue to work or will you retire?
You got one of the best jobs ever, so I
can see you working even after winning. But not a
single person I work with continued to work after hitting
the lottery. Yeah, tell me you want to make sure they
stayed on a couple of weeks to make sure they.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
Really want tell me you've won the lottery with tell
me you've won the lottery without telling me you won
the lottery. Tune in Monday, and if I'm here, I
did not hit the lottery. And John Mounce is out too,
He just said, because I'll probably give him enough to
say see you later. No, I like what I do.
You're right, so I'll probably do this because I think
it's fun. It's not really a job. Well, Bill, yeah,

(06:32):
answer your phone when I call you in Ben William,
all right, And I didn't not. I was not expecting
the reaction to be laughing about that idea. But okay,
good luck tonight with your ticket.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
Thank you, sir, and the same to you.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
All right, take care, all right, seven fifty two Alabama's
Morning News. You know you have better odds becoming an astronaut.
I was looking at some of the odds in comparison
to what's going on. One in twelve million chants of
becoming an astronaut, one in ten million you become the
president of the United States, one in eleven thousand of
winning an oscar, the odds of winning this lottery tonight.

(07:07):
I think it's like completely out of control, like one
in you know, forty million. It's ridiculous the chance of
hitting this lottery. But I am going to end mobile.
I'll tell you that