Tribulations of the suddenly wealthy

Posted Dec 29th 2007 9:17AM by Peter Cohan
Filed under: Rich in America, Personal Finance

The New York Times reports that getting wealthy all of a sudden can be a problem. But of all the problems one could face, I think it's a pretty high class one.

Here are three examples:

Ken Jennings won $2.5 million ($1.5 million after taxes) -- after prevailing in 74 consecutive Jeopardy games. He moved into a bigger house in Seattle and now designs board games.
Laurel Touby sold website MediaBistro for $26 million and found that her $11 million share was not enough to afford a private jet.
Elwood Bartlett, a Maryland accountant, won $84 million in a lottery last summer -- $33 million after taxes. He gave away $200,000 to the Special Olympics but gets lots of requests for more charity.

One financial adviser recommends they splurge with 5% to 10% of the money. Jennings' Advice? "put your money somewhere not idiotic and leave it alone as much as possible."

What do you think these sudden wealth winners should do?

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.

Tags: Elwood Bartlett, Ken Jennings, Laurel Touby, MediaBistro, Special Olympics, wealth, windfalls