Before you get ahead of yourself though you may want to take a look at these SCORCH Lotto Winner Survival tips. It’s a statistical fact that the majority of Lottery winners end up broke after a few years, not just in T&T but across the world. I’m sure someone you know can give a story of a lottery winner who went from rags to riches and right back to rags. You really don’t want to be the guy or gal to add to those stories. Following these simple tips would go a long way to ensuring you and your family will be set for life, if done really well, for generations to come as well.

1. Slow down and Lay Low

So you check your ticket and realize you won. Your first thought is you need to celebrate, slap your boss, quit your job and perhaps run naked in the streets. HOLD UP! Take some time to yourself and plan exactly how you’re going to go about things. If your current situation will allow it, sit with your immediate family who you trust and plan out your next move. By no means tell people who you think will talk your business, because before you know it you’re being bum-rushed for hand outs.

Also change nothing about your lifestyle within the first 6 months. Don’t quit your job, look for a new house in Westmoorings or  buy a brand spanking new fully loaded Range Rover. Take a week off from work to process things. Set aside a fixed amount of money to celebrate with because it is only natural you will want to, but don’t go over board. Save all the big purchases for later on.

2. Get Professional Assistance 

Chances are you’re not a financial adviser or have a financial back ground so you’re going to need some professional  help. If you already have one great, if not, you’re going to need to go through the process of picking one or two or three as the case may be. While some people think they can manage their own finances and budget for themselves, if you really want to maximize your earnings and your family’s future it’s advisable you get professional assistance.

Just make sure and do back ground checks and hold your cards close to your chest, you will want to interview a few candidates before you settle on one.

3. Splurge on Yourself – Within Reason

Let’s say you’re 22-30 years old and you win $14 million. The last thing you should do is fall into a partying, no holds barred lifestyle, because that’s a slippery slope. Just think about how you lived before, and enhance it bit by bit, no need to make a big jump. Your fist step should be to pay off all your debts, if you have non, pay off your parents’ debts at least. Don’t make it an every weekend ritual to be in the club or partying , be it in Trinidad, Miami or wherever,  that’s a sure fire way to blow your money fast. You can spend your money but look at your immediate needs first.

Once you have established fixed income flows from your winnings you can begin to budget with guidance from your adviser. Your wealth is now secure so you can address your wants. You will have a fair idea how much your investments will be bringing in on a monthly basis so you can put a ceiling on your spending

Due poor planning and overzealous spending, 70% of lottery winners live to see themselves lose all of their money [source].

The reality is that 70 percent of all lottery winners will squander away their winnings in a few years,” the Connecticut financial advisers said in a news release. “In the process, they will see family and friendships destroyed and the financial security they hoped for disappear.

I’m pretty sure the figures are similar for Lotto winners here in T&T. Don’t be the guy who went from washing his car with Moet to driving a taxi, all within a few years.

4. Be careful of being too Charitable.

There is the story of Janite Lee, who won over USD $18 million in the Missouri Lottery, after just eight years, she was down to a mere $700! What made her story different and kind of sad is that it wasn’t excessive spending and splurging that led to her being broke, rather it was her excessive giving. Now we’re not saying that winning the lottery means a good person must become a miser and hang onto his or her money, but give within reason. If you were always a philanthropist at heart this may be the opportunity for you to set up your own charity.

Setting up a charity will streamline requests and narrow your focus immediately. If there is a cause you’re passionate about go for it, but go about it the smart way.

5. Lump sum or Annual Payments?

This decision will be up to the individual winner. Which ever you choose, the main thing is to have a plan. If you’re confident in your ability to manage your lump sum well and grow it over time by all means do it.

Good Luck to everyone who will be playing the Lotto later on this evening. Just remember SCORCH Magazine is a NGO and we take donations!

-PEACE!

For those of you who may not know a hashtag is a word or prefix with the symbol ‘#’ before it. Short messages on microblogging social networking services such as Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, or Google+ may be tagged by including one or more with multiple words linked.

For example I may Instagram a picture with a friend from a party and have this caption exhibit A: @scorchmag #SCORCH #DuckWork was of the chain can’t wait for the next one. We had a time.

Another person may make a similar post but their caption will be much much different.
exhibit B: @scorchmag #SCORCH #orginal #pumping #machine #trinidad #islandlife #_uckwork #besties #freinds #bff #love #off #the #chain #donthate #lovorrrfff #sexytrini #donthatemecauseimbeatiful #BLAH #BLAH #BLAH. #cant #wait #for #next #one….

#SIGH

Now bear with me here, originally hashtags were used as a means of grouping such messages, since one can search for the hashtag and get the set of messages that contain it. So hashtagging “SCORCH” and “Duckwork” would have sufficed. We alos understand that the use of the hashtag has expanded to express feelings, moods or a relationship eg. “It’s Monday!! #excited #sarcasm”; COOL, but some of you act like you sat down with a thesaurus and typed out all the different ways of saying a single feeling or word. STOP!

Yes, it is your twitter or your instagram but the idea of posting on a social media site is to communicate to others; by over hashtagging it not only makes your post unreadable but it is just extremely annoying.Hashtags are just one of those things where less is more.

Let SCORCH be the first to inform the masses before Molly finds you- ‘the unsuspecting innocent’, FIRST!

After seeking out some of Molly’s closest friends we got a bit of insight into who Molly really is. Essentially, she will spend 4-6 hours with you, under her influence you may feel like the happiest person in the dance, no one can bring you down, you’re confident, sociable and the life of the party. Music sounds and feels indescribably good and you catch yourself touching up the most random of objects and people for example a bottle of rum and yuh ex! You experience such mental and physical euphoria that you are convinced you are in a magical utopia! Molly’s buddies (who are of course biased ), have led us to think that she sounds fun for people looking for a new way to roll… BUT as with everything that sounds too good to be true, we knew there had to be a catch…We took it upon ourselves to do some further ‘investigations’.

1. She is in the country illegally so rolling with her will be a scene.

2. Like most women, Molly, has a dark side. When liming with Moll’s you may experience increased heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature. You’ll start ‘wigging out’ with the jitters and start to feel very dehydrated.

3. Guys..you may not be able to get frisky with anyone after Molly…if you know what I mean.

4. The main cause of death after liming with Molly is Hyponatremia (low sodium levels after drinking too much water).

5. After a night with Molly you may wake up with feelings of depression, paranoia and fatigue (all the happy juice in yuh head run out for a week)

So there you go. We heard about the new girl in town and felt it our civil duty to do some research. After meeting some of Molly’s friends and enemies, we can safely say…We’ll pass on meeting this new bird.

Please note: MDMA is a banned substance and we are in no way shape or form advocating the production, sale, purchase or use of same.

To some females, operating a water gun is not that easy. For some others, it’s so easy that it’s hard to explain.

Who: Every female’s barrel comes preloaded but she just has to be familiar enough with the workings of her gun to bypass the trigger guard.

When: Operating a gun always it has to be done in a safe, contained environment. If she’s in a shooting range alone, she just has to ensure there are no valuables to be damaged by the discharge of the ammunition. When practicing shooting with a partner she obviously doesn’t want to shoot towards any region that can cause sight or hearing-impairment.

Where: We recommend anywhere with a piece of foundation plastic/ tarpaulin to protect from stray bullets/water.

Why: Just because you can dammit!

How: A female who is familiar with observing others firing their guns on the Internet are usually more likely to know how to fire when the time comes. She knows how to load the barrel, she has the perfect grip and having a magazine is optional. Once she’s not too tense and is comfortable with the feel of the weapon in her hand, she will surely be able to fire, on aim…everytime.

If she hasn’t dedicated the necessary time to do the self-education of the ins and outs of shooting, things will be more difficult, but have no fear…not impossible (we do recommend observing others before practising yourself). The trigger is the most important piece of the gun to become comfortable with if you want to learn to shoot. You have to touch the trigger at exactly the right angle with the right amount of force for an adequate amount of time. Beware though, you may end up discharging before you anticipated.

Trust us, once you get the hang of shooting… with or without a magazine, you won’t be able to stop.

Couldn’t get your ass on a bus huh? Once again – SUCKS TO BE YOU.

Props to all the crews that made it out to the SCORCH BEACH PARTY.

Tribe, Caesar’s Army/Matthew X, Funky Monkey, YUMA, Yellar Direct, Faded, Island People, CIDI, Rave, Bliss and Mood Swings the pump was EPIC.

Props to the Oxygen Production Crew for shooting and editing this vid.
Camera 1 – Robert Brathwaite
Camera 2 – Marc Loregnard

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