Who hasn't imagined winning the Powerball and having your whole life change in an instance? Here to break down how we should smartly handle lottery winnings is certified financial planner Bobbi Rebell.

<div class="block">Who hasn&#39;t imagined winning the Powerball and having your whole life change in an instance? Here to break down how we should smartly handle lottery winnings is certified financial planner Bobbi Rebell.</div>
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Stretching Your Dollar

Expert: What to Do If You Come Into Money 

Let's talk about a fun topic, right? Who has not imagined winning the powerball and having your whole life change truly in an instant will be amazing if you won. But what should you do in that scenario? It's a very, very important question. So here to break down how we should smartly handle this once in a million lifetime chance of winning the lottery certified financial planner, Bobby Bobby, thanks for coming on. Thank you so much for having me. Ok. So of course, we know hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. What is the number one thing that viewers need to know if they get that lucky ticket? Yes. Well, you know that you're getting it. So just first of all, stay calm, take a deep breath, keep your emotions in check and then take a picture yourself with that lottery ticket and put that lottery ticket somewhere very safe. And then a lot of this advice also applies to any kind of windfall that you get. But you want to be discreet, you don't want to be making a million phone calls and telling everyone what's going on and you don't want to splurge. You want to take a beat and kind of absorb what's going on. Right. I see it. Avoid getting emotional, be discreet as you mentioned and don't splurge immediately, immediately, immediately, let me grab some fun later on. We'll get to that. We'll get to that good, good. Well, before we get to the fund, what are the actions that you should take? Where should you put that money? And should you be speaking with a financial planner? You got it. You should absolutely be speaking with a financial planner and other relevant professionals. So for example, you want to make sure that you set things up in the best possible way in terms of taxes because this money is taxable. So do you want to take it in a lump sum or do you want to take it basically as an annuity where you're going to get a continuous stream of payments for a given amount of time, you also want to update relevant documents. So for example, you might have a will, you might now be a little bit vulnerable to lawsuits. So you might want to get some kind of umbrella insurance or speak to professionals and make sure that you have the protection that you need in that way. And the other thing that you might want to do is even though you may have a bigger budget, you still want to make sure that you have a budget. You want to be mindful, take a step back look at the big picture and make sure that you understand what's coming in, what's going out because you do want to watch what's going out, about 70% of lottery winners file for bankruptcy within just a few years. So, this is real. Right. I say, watch what's going out because it can be very precarious. Absolutely shocking. Right. That, that very figure that you provide. What about taxes? Because we hear the sticker price and it seems astronomical. I mean, even after taxes very, very lucrative, but should people expect that those earnings, that lot of numbers pretty much in some places cut in half? Yes, it is probably cut in half because what people don't always realize is your tax rate is also going to skyrocket. And that's why it's so important that really from the get go, you speak to a tax professional and understand what your options are because there are certain things that they can recommend and they will maybe at least cushion the tax impact immediately. Again, you might want to spread the payments over time. You're probably at this lottery, you're going to be in the highest tax bracket probably forever if you handle things well, but at least you can, you know, moderate the tax impact as much as possible. Ok. So I know you talked about the importance of setting up a budget, anything that you do, even if you somehow come into almost a billion dollars in cash from the lottery. So when it comes to the fun stuff. Yes. Splurging. Yes. How do you approach that? So, I want everyone to redefine splurge. The first thing you want to do is really gift yourself being debt free gift yourself, setting up an emergency fund. And that financial security is so important because as we discussed, so many people end up with nothing after this amazing windfall and I don't want that for anyone. So it's really important to kind of play defense before you play before you really go out and play with the money. And then you're going to get approached by a lot of people to support them, people are going to have their hands out. So you want to be mindful of being really smart about that. Think very deliberately. Do you want to set up trust for the people that you care about so that the money is going to be there for them, but also protected? And you have professionals involved. Do you want to think about, you know, how you're going to set up a charitable fund? Perhaps? Maybe you want to set up a donor advised fund. Maybe you want to tell people who are coming to you with their hand out. Well, I'm going to invest the money so that it will last longer and I can give you more for a longer period of time rather than just splurge right there and then you can go shopping. I like that. Ok. So we just have about 30 seconds left, Bobby in terms of finding the right financial professional who's best for you. How do you make sure that you're on the same page? So it's really important to have those conversations with them. Make sure you may choose from a few different people, you know, meet with people. It's not, it's not a bad idea to, to literally just like with a doctor, you can get a second opinion. People may have different approaches and this is someone that you're going to work with probably for an extended period of time. So, really take your time, don't rush into anything, don't be afraid to get friends opinions, but also make sure that they have the right credentials, make sure that they are a fiduciary, which means they have to put your interests above their interests, above everything. Really, especially when a billion dollars, almost a billion dollars is the, we're buying our tickets right after the show. All right. Thank you so much for that, Bobby.