Howard Smith III recently won the North Carolina Education Lottery; the prize was a massive $10m (around £7m). Winning that sum of money usually means the winner is made for life. Aside from the potential of overspending (which is why most winners have counselling to prevent that eventuality), we will all start to plan how to spend it. Naturally, such a winner would ask their family what they would like to do with the money. Mister Smith, realising that such a life change would also affect their children. But the answer shocked the gleeful father. The son of lottery winner Howard Smith got his order in early – a Ferrari.
Son of Lottery Winner Wants a Ferrari – But Wait…
So what’s the problem? It’s a perfectly reasonable request to make for a new car. After all, these cars start in five figures with most being around $200,000. That’s chicken feed to a $10m winner. No, the problem is that the son of lottery winner Mister Smith is just five years old. In North Carolina, he will not been old enough to drive for another ten years. That’s a lot of expensive Ferrari sitting around waiting for a five-year-old boy to grow up. Mister Smith found the request amusing and said he would honour it.
But honouring the request for a Ferrari doesn’t necessarily mean buying his son a supercar. He said he would buy his son a toy Ferrari and a few other gifts to make up for it. However, the son of lottery winner may yet get his prize ten years or more from now. As for what to do with the rest of the money, Mister Smith is going to set up trust funds for his three children to ensure they have a secure future. In the long run, that will be better than a Ferrari.