Winners of HGTV’s Dream Home + 250k Now Broke
Posted October 9, 2006 by Chuck
Posted in:
Personal Finance
Personal Finance
Pretty sad story about the winners of last years HGTV Dream Home Sweepstakes are about to go broke because they actually decided to live in the house they won instead of selling it like all the other past winners. They ended up having to take out a loan to pay off a $672,000 tax bill that came with their prize.
Some of the story makes you cringe though, $5,000 on Christmas presents; $2,000 for scuba lessons; an $1,800 go-kart are some of the purchases they decided to use their money on. And the fact that they own 7 vehicles! Definitely a sad story of poor money management.
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I remember seeing that house (heh…it had an indoor elevator) and enjoy watching those annual HGTV dream house shows. But even before considering the tax impact of such a prize, what dawned on me was what sort of costs and staff would be required to maintain such a mansion! I’m not the type who has a maid, and cleaning those vaulted ceilings is more work and effort than I can imagine!
how about SEVEN cars/suv’s! THAT IS INSANE…The guy is out of touch with the reality…its a shame what happend to this guy and his family, but mistakes were made all over the place…