{"id":131108,"date":"2012-06-19T10:17:06","date_gmt":"2012-06-19T14:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?p=131108"},"modified":"2012-12-26T16:04:03","modified_gmt":"2012-12-26T21:04:03","slug":"the-price-of-winning-the-lottery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/06\/19\/the-price-of-winning-the-lottery\/","title":{"rendered":"The Price Of Winning The Lottery"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Article:<\/strong> Lottery winner Craig Henshaw paid a big price for his millions<\/a> by Sam Chung in The Toronto Star.<\/p>\n

The Text:<\/strong> The shock of winning $21.4 million in a lottery was nothing compared to the jolts Craig Henshaw felt later.<\/p>\n

They were not pleasant.<\/p>\n

The story of Craig Henshaw, multi-millionaire, began one day last September when Craig Henshaw, high school teacher, went digging through his pockets for the $35 he had left to pay for some groceries. He had just enough cash to get him through the rest of the week, before the first paycheque of the new school year would come through.<\/p>\n

He handed over the cash, plus a 2-month-old Lotto Max ticket. It had been plastered to the side of his fridge while he had spent the summer backpacking in Europe with his girlfriend.<\/p>\n

Loud bells and alarms went off. The phone on the lottery machine began to ring.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, I thought I\u2019d won $21,000,\u201d Henshaw, 43, says. \u201cThen the lady on the other end of the phone chuckled. It turned out that the digital readout on the ticket machine didn\u2019t have enough space for all the digits.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, Mr. Henshaw, you\u2019ve won $21 million!\u201d the lady told him.<\/p>\n

The rest of the day, Henshaw says, was \u201csurreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the thrill of the millions evaporated quickly. Over the next few weeks his world became a whirlwind of broken friendships and financial scams.<\/p>\n

Henshaw couldn\u2019t even return to his cozy loft apartment after collecting his cheque. He spent the first few weeks living in a hotel, mainly in an attempt to duck the media and stalkers.<\/p>\n

\u201cSix hours after I won, some scam artist had already managed to get my credit card number. The charities started hammering me immediately,\u201d Henshaw says, smacking his fist into his hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy email inbox was full, and my phone was flooded with text messages. People were asking me to pay off student loans. I got 365 texts in the first day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eight months after his windfall, Henshaw is in a reflective mood as we sit in a pub for an interview. Five years ago, I was a student in his classroom at Markville Secondary School in Markham, where he taught woodshop and technology.<\/p>\n

Teaching was his passion, and still is. But as odd as it sounds, the money did get in the way.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of his lottery win, what hurt most, he says, was the reaction from his colleagues. Teachers whom Henshaw considered friends were suddenly badgering him to pay off their credit-card bills. His school board email was completely flooded.<\/p>\n

The workplace environment became toxic. After a decade of teaching, he made the decision to resign.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, I\u2019ve had to say goodbye to about 25 per cent of my friends because they were acting really inappropriately,\u201d Henshaw says. \u201cThey were asking for money, and being really pushy about it. The friends who I really cherish didn\u2019t really care at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really sad day for teaching,\u201d says Don Henshaw, Craig\u2019s father. \u201cHe was a born teacher. It was all he ever wanted to do, and now he had to leave teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing about teachers is that you\u2019ll always be a teacher. That\u2019s just who you are,\u201d Craig says. \u201cI could always volunteer. I always taught for the sheer joy of it, and getting a paycheque was just a bonus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consequently, Henshaw now wrestles with his identity. As a teacher, he spent most of his life working hard, more enamored with the passion of being an educator than earning a paycheque. Like many, he worried about his student loans, credit-card debt, and making ends meet until the next payday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to be the guy who bought no-name cheese, and suddenly I could buy everything in the house just by snapping my fingers. How do you process that? How do you get used to it?\u201d Craig says. \u201cI know a lot of people will say that those are the problems of the 1 per cent. Well, yeah, but I\u2019m still part of the 99 percent. I just have a bunch of money all of a sudden. I didn\u2019t get any sleep at all that first month. I have to figure out who Craig Henshaw is. I\u2019m still working on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henshaw\u2019s desire to educate is evident in the way he has spent his winnings thus far.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s set up education funds for his nieces and nephews. His cleaning lady, whom he described as being on the lower end of the economic spectrum, will be returning to school thanks to his financial aid.<\/p>\n

Henshaw believes people should be given a chance to learn. Instead of donating chunks of money to charities, he has opted to set up scholarship funds at his alma mater, the University of Western Ontario.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to call it the Craig Henshaw Nice Guy Award. I want to give it to people who are enrolled in an arts program, that do a lot of graphics work,\u201d Craig says, chuckling. \u201cYou know, the ones that always show up early and stay late at the art openings, and they do stuff to make the community a better place. Then there\u2019s going to be the Craig Henshaw Nice Girl Award, which will be the same thing, but for the girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with a near-limitless amount of cash, Henshaw hasn\u2019t embarked on the spending spree many people fantasize about. He now lives in an inconspicuous apartment in downtown Toronto. Nothing about his residence or wardrobe screams the fact that he\u2019s a multi-millionaire. He has assigned himself a steady allowance that\u2019s enough to enjoy life, but modest enough that it wouldn\u2019t turn heads.<\/p>\n

Mike Nadal, a career counsellor at York University\u2019s Schulich School of Business, approves of Henshaw\u2019s modest spending strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two rules,\u201d said Nadal, a former financial advisor who spent four years advising high-net-worth clients. \u201cThe first is not to lose the money. The second is not to forget rule number one.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was easier said than done on that day he picked up his cheque from the Lotto office.<\/p>\n

The first thing he did with the money?<\/p>\n

\u201cI took everyone out for a celebratory dinner at a steakhouse. I didn\u2019t know my credit card number had been stolen yet, so my card was declined,\u201d Henshaw says. \u201cI had to turn to my father and ask him for his credit card to pay for the meal.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s learned much since then.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bank people were really good. They listened for about a month straight. They asked me what I was comfortable with, and told me about the risks with my now-portfolio.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t get thrown into the business, you know. It\u2019s not like, \u2018Oh, and I want a thousand dollars on this\u2019 or anything. What they do is take your money and invest it. Essentially, I don\u2019t even get my money,\u201d Henshaw says, with a bemused smile. \u201cI get an allowance. It\u2019s not a huge amount, but it\u2019s enough to comfortably enjoy life.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has also bought him the time re-establish some family relationships.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent the last 20 years working my ass off to try and be somebody, and I neglected my family,\u201d he says. \u201cNow I get the chance to try and re-establish all of the relationships that I used to wish I had time for.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen my father and mom more in the last six months than I had in years. I was always working. But now I have the time to spend with my family. My parents are in the sunset years of their life, and I want to make that sunset bright-orange.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henshaw has heard that it takes about a year for the stress of a lottery win to settle. \u201cI\u2019d like to travel,\u201d he says. \u201cNext winter, I just want to take a month and be a beach bum somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Craig Henshaw and I have been sitting in a dimly lit pub on the Danforth on a rainy Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

At the end of our interview, Craig calls for our bill. I offer to pay, but my former high school teacher will have none of it.<\/p>\n

He slices off $70 from a small ball of bills and lays it down on the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey, don\u2019t worry about it,\u201d he says, laughing. \u201cI\u2019m unemployed. I can afford it!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Article: Lottery winner Craig Henshaw paid a big price for his millions by Sam Chung in The Toronto Star. The Text: The shock of winning $21.4 million in a lottery was nothing compared to the jolts Craig Henshaw felt later. They were not pleasant. The story of Craig Henshaw, multi-millionaire, began one day last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[259],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Price Of Winning The Lottery<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Far from freeing him, the money one man won wound up pushing him to a decision to quit the job he loved.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/06\/19\/the-price-of-winning-the-lottery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Price Of Winning The Lottery\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Far from freeing him, the money one 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