"If I had a million dollars, I'd buy me a house, or a super car, or diamonds galore?"

So goes the catchy song now used on TV used to promote the State of New York lottery tickets. While we know the odds of winning the Megabucks are stacked against us, we almost always are lured into imagining that "this time, if I play it again, it could happen". We are allowed to dream about being rich, aren't we?

Sudden wealth in the form of cold hard cash can come from many different sources, not just gambling winnings; inheritances, stock options, lump sum pension pay-outs, life insurance settlements after losing a precious friend or life partner, high profile divorces, personal injury awards and other grievance type lawsuits, the meteoric rise (and fall) of superb athletes' careers.

Statistically, the sad reality is that almost all recipients (careful, cautious and conscientious in other ways) of this type of largesse, not only fail to plan carefully for the future, but manage to run through the money rapidly, sometimes in a matter of few months.

Consider the track records of professional boxers, movie stars, football, soccer, and basketball stars, Silicon Valley stock option whizzes, recording artist megastars and so on. Of that collective group, very few names stand out as financially successful businesspeople who anticipated from the beginning that their start would not shine forever.

Other celebrities such as Billy Joel, Lauren Hutton and others have all had enormous sums disappear over the years. Mr. Joel was betrayed by a trusted brother-in-law financial advisor; Ms Hutton, by a long-term boyfriend; others by the very cohorts who made them initially famous.

All are still working to ensure financial independence when the songs don't survive, plastic surgery can no longer resurrect a modelling career, and there are is no stamina for fights to be fought. (Lauren insists she has never been 'under the knife': maybe because she can't afford it.

What would we do if a pile of money, the green kind (US dollars), dropped into our laps? What constitutes a fortune? The concept of rich is a very personal definition. $30,000 may be a fortune to one family. Invested wisely, it may be the difference between a marginal retirement and a decent quality of life. For another family, whose annual travel budget alone may be close to $200,000, $1 million is pocket change. It all depends upon the needs (and wants) of the individual. Unfortunately, the end results are all too often driven (or coerced) by the needs and wants of everyone else who knows him/her, the new source of money, the family financing money machine.

When families receive sudden windfalls, what really happens? Over the next three weeks, I will introduce three true stories from my practitioner case files; names and circumstances have been altered. These cases are not about Bermudians.

The size of the deer (and the truck with the rifle) rack counts. This time of year is hunting season in the Northeast. It is not uncommon to see large racks, one rack (antlers) prominent on a deer head, lying inert off a truck tailgate and the other rack holding various rifles and shooting gear, proudly displayed through the truck rear window. New Englanders are tough, individualistic, realistic people. In the more northern regions, there has never been consistent reliable public transportation. Many jobs pay little more than minimum wage.

Thus, owning a functioning vehicle to get to work and a rifle ? to bag a deer each season ? may mean the difference between bare subsistence and some level of comfort. The winters are hard, bitingly cold, and (speaking from experience) just too-long-to-endure. It was in this environment that a young woman involved in a vehicular accident some years ago was finally awarded a personal injury settlement of about $40,000. In context at that time, this sum represented a very, very large down payment on a new double wide trailer while leaving a decent savings cushion for emergencies. This sum represented a real chance to achieve financial independence.

Her last car had been ruined in the crash. In the interim she was driving an old clunker, which constantly disassembled itself, often making her late for work or missing days altogether. But not too worry; her latest boyfriend was handy with temporary repairs, getting it back on the road again each time. Heck, he was even handy with a rifle.

Her attorney hands over the cheque. Euphoric, she heads immediately to the nearest car dealership and chooses a gleaming new pickup truck, top of the line, fully accessorised. And she pays in cash.

The truck is registered in his name, as he needs it for his construction work. Less than a week later, without a note of goodbye, he is gone for parts unknown. The consolation prize; about $3,000 and a freezer full of deer meat.

Why aren't we happy about all this money? We humans are amazing creatures.

We can conceive ideas, make plans and put dreams into action ? on paper. But when faced with receiving a large sum of cash, human emotion takes over. We feel guilty even though we earned / deserve it; we feel depressed; we are vulnerable to poor advice; and, we don't make rational decisions.

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