Dream to nightmare

Many Spaniards will have their fingers and toes crossed today hoping beyond hope that the Christmas Lottery will bring them good luck.

The newspaper Informacion though warns us of the dangers that sudden wealth can bring.

1. It can generate envy among the people around who want to take advantage of your luck by asking to borrow money or demanding gifts.

2. It can tempt you into buying luxury; cars, houses and fancy clothes. And then what? You end up with a whole load of things you don't need and still you are not happy.

3. You can lose real friends and at the same time gain new ones who are only interested in your new wealth.

4. It is tempting to stop work and become a person of leisure but that can become tiresome after awhile. At least when we are young we need a purpose in life, a reason to get up in the morning.

5. Seizing the opportunity to start a business is a bad idea because inexperience can mean that you can lose money and, most importantly, feel unsuccessful if all goes wrong.

The advice is to:

1. Keep calm and do not tell anyone outside your inner circle. Above all, you must control the urge to tell the world about your news. If you do, it will only be a matter of days before sacks full of begging letters arrive at your doorstep.

2. Do not make radical decisions during your initial rush of joy.

3. Put the money in a bank trust ASAP.

4. Act as if nothing had happened and continue with a "normal" life.

5. Most important;- tell your family and friends that the money is being managed by an asset manager .That makes it easier to say no when they ask for things.