The around-the-water-cooler discussion is always “what would you do if you won the lottery?”, and while everyone comes up with ludicrous spending ideas, it’s good to have the best of both worlds and spend wisely. Right?

This is what Matt Myles has done – showing composure and restraint that would make a Buddhist proud – after he had won £1,000,000 (R18,000,000) in the Euromillions lottery.

Myles immediately set aside £900,000 to invest for the future and promises that “he won’t change” because of the money. Pretty damn mature for  a 27-year-old!

But, let’s remember, he IS only 27, so it’s not all business for Myles, as he decided to use the remaining £100,000 on a globe-spanning holiday with his brother and best mate, which included a trip to Indonesia, a stop-off at the World Cup in Brazil, and many more glorious locations they’re still to hit.

Myles also hopes to train as an airline pilot when he returns home to England, and will ditch his after-hours factory job.

Nice one!

We asked Michael Furter over at Consequence Private Wealth if he thinks Myles did the right thing:

Sounds like he’s actually being quite sensible. No point not enjoying it and living it up a bit now, but good idea to hold the instant gratification to the £100k. If he can do that then he’s on the right track.

Once he’s had his fun though he should be careful about rushing into any business ideas with friends as he’s likely to be the only one actually putting capital in, which may also mean he’s the only one bothered to see a decent return.

We’d advise he takes his time considering options and in the meantime invest in a diversified and accessible investment platform to get his money working for him.

It’s interesting to consider from an SA perspective – his £900k would now translate to around R16.3M. Assuming a fairly moderate average net investment growth rate of 10%pa, he’d have R100M by age 47 and a staggering R260M by age 57. That of course assumes he is disciplined enough to leave the capital untouched, and let compounding growth work its magic. It’s certainly a lower risk option but we’ve seen that the lure of flashier business options and the need to fund lifestyle expenses can erode clients’ capital quickly.

Let’s hope Matt is the more disciplined type.

[consequence.co.za]

Check out the full story on the Daily Mail.