There's no harm in preparing for a potential big lottery win!
Many of us take precautions and prepare for unexpected events. We have first-aid kits stocked and readied in case anyone in the family, or on the road, is injured, to quickly take care of any wounds until a doctor can look at them. We set up emergency kits with candles, flashlights, and batteries in case the power goes out. Let’s not forget about kits in case of snowstorms, tornadoes, and hurricanes. We need to be prepared for the unexpected. Well, why not have a kit ready to go in case you win the jackpot in the lottery?
Prepare a Bug Out Kit
Just as with severe weather and other disasters, the chances of such weather or of hitting the jackpot in the lottery are slim, but these things do happen, and they can happen to you. So you should set up a Lottery Bug-Out Kit in preparation for that big win. It will make validating the ticket and receiving the cheque that much easier.
A bug-out kit is basically a bag or suitcase that contains the dire essentials needed to sustain yourself for about three days. For your lottery bug-out kit, it will contain the essentials for you to keep a low profile while you get your ticket validated and paid. Your kit will contain a variable amount of material related to your potential jackpot win.
What to Pack
The first thing your kit will contain is an envelope, or several, of multiple copies of both the front and back of your signed lottery tickets in case the originals are lost, stolen, or damaged. The original tickets should be kept in a secure place aside from your kit so you can check them to see if any are big winners and have them available for presentation and validation at the lottery office. Although most lotteries specify that payment will only be made on the presentation of the actual winning ticket, having copies at least gives you some sort of legal claim to the win.
Next, you will need a set of clothes, as you won’t be home for a few days. You will also either have documents or a phone number for a pre-arranged place with a relative you can stay at, or info on a hotel or motel room you can get quickly without any hassles.
You will next require a list of people in the financial industry you can trust for when you go to get your cheque cashed. If you are going to your bank, have the number for your, or a, financial advisor and the manager so that you can let them know you have won and how much the prize cheque will be. This way, you can get the cheque cashed without a hassle and get the money put into several different accounts and products to spread it around. You really don’t want all of your winnings sitting strictly in your chequing account.
Finally, you will need a phone tree list of the people you need to call to inform them of the win. Friend, relative, someone you can trust to keep it quiet. They may need to feed your pets or water your plants while you are away.
Preparing a lottery bug-out kit is a good precautionary move to ensure you have things set up and ready to go if you happen to win the lottery.