I think the reason people lose it all is because they don't know the difference between income and capital. They get an amount of money, immediately think "I am rich" and start living the way they think a rich person lives.
$5,000,000 is the kind of money most people think makes them extremely rich. And it does make you very rich, if you're smart with it. But by the time you've paid off $200,000 mortgages for a couple of dozen family and friends you're down to the last $200,000 and suddenly you don't even have enough for an Italian supercar.
The other thing people are very prone to forget is that initial purchase is just part of the cost of the "rich lifestyle". If you buy that $500,000 Ferrari you've got yourself an awesome car but don't be thinking you can maintain it for the same kind of money that used to keep your Ford Focus on the road. It drinks gas, servicing is more frequent and more expensive and insurance will probably cost quite a lot too. The huge mansion you always wanted comes with much higher property taxes, heating and cooling costs, maintenance and insurance costs and so on.
One way to look at things is to take a lump sum and consider it as an annual income for life. If you take that $5,000,000 from before and figure that statistically you've got maybe 50 years left to live, that means you've effectively got $100,000 you can draw down from it every year without running out. Chances are for most of us that's more than enough to replace our salary, which means we can quit our job and do what we want rather than what pays the bills. Did you always want to spend more time serving at church? Now you can. Wish you could have helped take the kids on that adventure weekend? Now you don't have to worry about getting up for work on Monday morning. Want to help that single mother you know who does her best but really struggles? Chances are with $100,000/year without even getting out of bed you can spare some cash to help her with her bills. That older person who is desperately lonely? You've got the time and money to take them somewhere for the day, even if it is just a visit to the park or the seaside and a stop at the cafe afterwards.
Got particular skills that would be hugely useful to the church or to non-profits you support? Great - you don't need to sell to the highest bidder now, you can focus your skills in places they will do wider good rather than earn enough to pay the bills. Maybe you can be a web designer for the local churches, or help with the administration of the shelter for domestic abuse victims, or landscape the gardens at the hospice for terminally ill children. No matter if they can't pay, you can do it for love rather than for money.
Of course you could just buy yourself a mansion and a Ferrari and stick a metaphorical two fingers up at the world. But there's so much good you could do if you won a stack of cash on the lottery. It's just another way we can set ourselves apart from "the world".
