“My Lottery Dream Home” is a reality television series that was launched in 2015 on HGTV. The show features some of the big lottery winners in the country who are looking for their dream homes and sharing the search with the rest of us. It gives us a look at what might happen if one of us wins a huge lottery jackpot and decides to upgrade. There are lessons to be learned by watching the show because winning the lottery doesn’t make all of your problems go away, it just solves the financial ones if you’re wise with your winnings. Here are five life lessons that the show can teach us if we’re open to learning.
1. Americans value prestige in the home they own
“My Lottery Dream Home” is an HGTV reality show that amounts to a lifestyle show. Since only lottery winners are featured on the show, it’s a bit exclusive and stars only a small group of people. Most were not wealthy prior to their wins so the money that they have to invest in a home is considered to be “new money.” As they look for their dream home, it becomes apparent that Americans, in general, are looking for homes with a prestige value. The thought of upgrading is a nice one, but this show follows the same premise as many other home acquisition reality shows. It’s about buying a dream home that sets you above your previous standards. We’re not attaching any judgment value to this statement one way or the other. It’s a fact that many Americans equate their level of success with the beauty and functionality of their homes, and this isn’t a bad thing. It’s a great feeling to know that you can upgrade to a higher standard of living.
2. It’s nice to celebrate the good fortune of others
When someone who hasn’t had a lot of money suddenly becomes wealthy, it’s a happy occasion. Instead of being jealous of their good fortune, we should be happy for them and celebrate the fact that someone from the middle class, and in some cases even lower in financial status wins the lottery. It gives them a chance to improve their lives by finding a new home in a good school district so everyone in the family benefits from the windfall. Although the odds are stacked against everyone who purchases a lottery ticket, inevitably, someone will win it. We see people who star on “My Lottery Dream Home” who had little in the way of resources before their big win change their lives for the better. The most important lesson that we can learn from the show is that it’s important to be happy for anyone who experiences a turn of good fortune instead of being envious.
3. You have to be wise when dealing with realtors
We see the realtors helping to find the three dream homes for the newly wealthy clients they serve trying to talk them into increasing the amount of money they’re willing to spend on a new dream home. This is a standard tactic and even though you have a million dollars or more, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to spend the majority of it on a new home. There are other considerations to be made such as property taxes and upkeep on a larger and more expensive home. Once a couple states the amount that they are willing to pay, they likely have very good reasons for this. It shouldn’t matter how much a person can afford, once they’ve made a game plan, it’s not great to try to tempt them to spend more and this is one aspect of the show that has received some negative reviews from viewers. Whether you’re a lottery winner or not, when you’re looking for a new home, don’t let anyone talk you into spending more than you’ve already budgeted for a home. Remember, they’re getting a commission on the sale so the higher the price, the more the agent makes. Stick with your original plan and don’t be talked into something you’re not financially prepared for now and in the years to come.
4. Family comes first
As we were looking through a slide show of the homes and the lottery winners who purchased them, we also came across the reasons why they chose the homes that they did. Overwhelmingly, we found that the new homeowners made their choices with their families in mind. In one case, a man who won the lottery had promised his late father that he and his sister would always take care of one another. He found a cabin in the woods so the siblings could share it for holidays and other events in fulfillment of his promise to his dad. Another man bought a property to make a safe and fun play area for his grandchildren and the list goes on. We see that for most of these hardworking Americans who come into a windfall of money, their primary concern is for sharing their good fortune with the family to make everyone’s life a little better.
5. We all crave a little positivity
As David Bromstad shared in an interview, the main reason that people tune in to the HGTV “My Lottery Dream Home” is that it is a positive show and we’re all looking for something uplifting in our lives. Even though we’re not the ones who have won, it’s great to see that it’s something that is at least possible. Viewers who watch these HGTV programs, for the most part, are hard-working middle to upper-middle-class Americans and they’re not wealthy. Most of the homes on the show are well out of the price range of the average blue-collar worker, but we love seeing what’s out there and dreaming. These programs are positive and uplifting and this is part of the reason why so many tune-in on a regular basis.
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