The Most Unusual Things People Bought After Winning the Lottery (and What Winners Really Spend On)
Everyone has a lottery fantasy purchase. For some it's a beach house; for others it's a private island, a vintage car collection, or buying the local diner so it never closes. A handful of real winners have made purchases strange enough to become legends. But the research on what winners actually spend money on is, in its own way, even more surprising.
Your Neighbors Might Spend More Than You Do
When someone wins the lottery, you'd expect the biggest change in spending to happen in the winner's house. Research suggests the effect can ripple next door.
A study by economists Sumit Agarwal, Vyacheslav Mikhed, and Barry Scholnick, published in 2020, examined lottery wins in Canada. They found that when someone won a larger lottery prize, their close neighbors became more likely to borrow, spend on visible goods, and even file for bankruptcy in the following years.
We call this the neighbor splash: the way one person's windfall can nudge the people around them into spending to keep up. The unusual purchases after a lottery win aren't always made by the winner.
Unusual Purchases That Made Headlines
Lottery winners who go public sometimes become famous for eye-catching spending. A few of the most widely reported types:
1. Private racing and entertainment venues
Michael Carroll, who won £9.7 million in the UK National Lottery in 2002 at 19, was widely reported to have used his mansion's grounds for banger racing — a form of stock car demolition racing. It became one of the most memorable examples of an unusual lottery purchase in UK media.
2. Private jets
Several high-profile U.S. winners have been reported buying private aircraft. It's a classic example of a purchase with enormous ongoing costs: fuel, pilots, hangar fees, and maintenance can drain a fortune long after the purchase price.
3. Entire businesses they loved as customers
Winners have been reported buying restaurants, bars, and shops they used to frequent — sometimes to save a local favorite from closing. It's romantic, but running a business is a very different skill from enjoying one.
4. Homes for everyone
Some winners buy houses not just for themselves but for parents, siblings, children, and friends. It's generous and meaningful, but it often comes with property taxes and upkeep costs that someone must keep paying.
5. Sports teams and sponsorships
Local sports sponsorships and donations to hometown teams are a recurring theme in winner stories, especially in close-knit communities.
6. Very ordinary splurges
Some of the most charming reported purchases are tiny: a new mattress, a dishwasher, a dental visit that had been postponed for years, or simply paying off a mortgage and a car loan. For many winners, "unusual" means doing something they'd put off for decades.
What Research Says Winners Actually Spend On
Headlines focus on extremes. Studies of large groups of winners show more moderate patterns.
Winners don't always stop working
A well-known study by economists Guido Imbens, Donald Rubin, and Bruce Sacerdote, published in 2001, looked at Massachusetts lottery winners. They found that winners did reduce how much they worked and earned — but many kept working, and a meaningful portion of winnings was saved rather than spent immediately.
Housing and cars are common first purchases
Across many studies and winner surveys, housing, vehicles, and paying off debt show up again and again as the most common early uses of lottery money.
Visible goods rise
Research on windfalls, including the Canadian neighbor study, suggests that spending often increases on visible goods — cars, home improvements, and other items others can see.
Why Winners Buy Unusual Things
Understanding the psychology helps explain the headlines.
| Driver | Example |
|---|---|
| Delayed dreams | Finally buying a childhood dream car |
| Identity change | Purchases that match a new "rich person" identity |
| Generosity | Houses for family, gifts for friends |
| Novelty-seeking | Experiences and hobbies previously out of reach |
| Mental accounting | Treating windfall money as "fun money" |
Economist Richard Thaler's concept of mental accounting is especially relevant: people treat money differently depending on where it came from. Windfall money often feels like a separate, less serious account, which makes big, unusual purchases feel easier to justify.
We call this the found-money filter: the tendency to judge a purchase less carefully when it's paid for with money that feels like a gift from luck rather than earnings.
The Purchases Financial Advisors Worry About Most
Unusual purchases aren't always bad. The ones that most commonly cause trouble tend to share one feature: high ongoing costs.
- Multiple large homes (taxes, insurance, maintenance)
- Aircraft and boats (fuel, crew, storage, repairs)
- Businesses without experience (payroll, losses, legal risk)
- Collections that are hard to sell (art, cars, memorabilia)
- Large loans to friends and family (often never repaid)
A useful rule many winners are advised to follow: don't make major purchases until months after claiming, once a long-term plan is in place. See What to Do After Winning the Lottery.
What Would You Buy?
Here's a fun exercise. Write down your top three lottery purchases, then next to each one write the annual cost of keeping it. The purchases that still excite you after that exercise are probably the ones you'd truly enjoy.
For more daydreaming, read What Would You Do If You Won the Lottery?.
Key Takeaways
- Headline purchases like private jets and racing venues are memorable because they're uncommon.
- Research shows most winners pay off debt, improve housing, buy vehicles, and help family.
- Many winners keep working, according to a study of Massachusetts lottery winners.
- Neighbors of larger winners may borrow and spend more, according to research on Canadian lottery wins.
- Purchases with high ongoing costs — homes, aircraft, businesses — cause the most trouble.
Quick Answers
What do most lottery winners buy first?
Across studies and winner surveys, common early purchases include paying off debt, buying or upgrading a home, and buying a vehicle. Many winners also give money to family. Headline-grabbing purchases like private jets or racing venues are memorable precisely because they're uncommon.
Do lottery winners stop working?
Not always. A study of Massachusetts lottery winners by Guido Imbens, Donald Rubin, and Bruce Sacerdote found that winners reduced their work and earnings on average, but many continued working. Decisions about work vary widely with prize size, age, and personal goals.
Why do lottery winners overspend?
Windfall money often feels different from earned money, a concept economists call mental accounting, which makes big purchases easier to justify. Pressure from others, identity changes, and purchases with high ongoing costs, like homes, aircraft, and businesses, can also drain winnings faster than expected.
Where Lottery Spending Is Heading
More states allowing anonymity and more winners receiving professional guidance should reduce the most dramatic spending stories. Our prediction: the next decade's memorable "unusual purchases" will be experiences and digital assets rather than objects — space tourism seats, bespoke travel, and online businesses — while the quiet majority of winners will continue to do the sensible, unglamorous things research already shows they do.