Winning a million-dollar lottery jackpot is a life-changing event, unless you're Robert Stuart.
Stuart, a 65-year-old tractor-driver from Kennebunkport, Maine, won a $100,000 prize from a scratch-off ticket he bought in early September. That win might have been more thrilling, but he had already won a $1 million jackpot from another Maine Lottery scratch-off ticket in May.
You would think that winning $1.1 million in a matter of five months would lead to some major splurges, but Stuart tells The Boston Globe that not much has changed for him despite his seven-figure winnings.
"Ain't nothing really different," says Stuart, who still lives in the same "aging trailer" in Kennebunkport, according to The Boston Globe. "I do the same thing over and over."
Stuart even continues to work 11-hour shifts at a local concrete contractor, where he drives a front-end loader tractor. In fact, Stuart tells the Globe that he waited a week to hand in his million-dollar winning ticket in May — not because he wanted some time to process the win, but because that was the earliest his work schedule would allow, to give him enough time off to drive 1.5 hours to the Maine Lottery headquarters in Augusta, Maine.
Stuart also declined to hire any lawyers or accountants to help him manage his newfound wealth — which many experts recommend doing — opting instead to consult his bank's free financial adviser. "Why should I pay those guys?" Stuart says.
One improvement Stuart did make to his trailer after winning the lottery was to replace the home's windows, though he tells the Globe that he got a good deal on the windows through a friend of his son. Otherwise, Stuart's primary splurge is occasionally ordering a lobster roll — instead of his usual cheaper option, a burger or hot dog — at Arundel Market, the local deli where he stops for dinner most nights after work.
"It's only $10.99 with fries," Stuart says of the lobster roll. "Pretty big, too."
Stuart's family members tell the newspaper that he's happy in his routine and that he's never been the type to seek extravagant purchases. "That's how we were brought up," Stuart's sister, Becky Gosselin, tells the Globe.
But, that's not to say Stuart wasn't excited to win the lottery in the first place. "I couldn't believe it. I was flabbergasted. That's something you dream about," Stuart told lottery officials in a statement after his million-dollar scratch-off win in May.
Stuart, who won both of his big prizes from $25 scratch-off tickets, said in May that he "started shaking" after scratching off the first winning ticket and saw how much he'd won.
At the time, Stuart made it clear he didn't want a new home. "My family keeps telling me to buy a new one, but I like my current one," said Stuart, whose wife of 37 years, Christine, died two years ago. "I've lived there for a long time and it just needs a few things fixed."
Stuart also gave some of his winnings to his three children, but he's saving the rest of it while continuing to work for the foreseeable future.
Stuart is far from the only lucky person to claim multiple lottery wins, with CNBC previously reporting on repeat winners like a married couple from Massachusetts that's won three times (for a total of $3 million) between the two of them.
Harvard statistics professor Mark Glickman has told CNBC Make It that winning the lottery once does not change the odds of winning again.
"If someone already wins the lottery, then the chance that the person wins the lottery a second time will be exactly the same as the probability they win the lottery if they had not previously won the lottery before," Glickman says.
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