How many people have won big so far this year?<\/p>\n
Lotto NZ keeps an up-to-date online record of the yearly winners, which showed, so far in 2026, 11 people have hit the Powerball jackpot.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, 27 people have become millionaires through buying a ticket, and 184 prizes of more than $100,000 have been won so far this year. <\/p>\n
A further $100,000 has been won through Instant Kiwi\u2019s $5 50x cash multiplier.<\/p>\n
What should you do if you win?<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
A lotto retailer. (Source: Lotto NZ)<\/p>\n
For those lucky enough to hit the jackpot tonight \u2013 Lotto provided advice on how to manage a life-changing win.<\/p>\n
Shared experiences from previous winners boiled down to four major points: Think first about what to do with the money; consider privacy; get advice from professionals; and do some of the things you\u2019ve always dreamed of.<\/p>\n
Lotto NZ said the first thing a winner should do is make sure the money went into an interest-bearing bank account, so the money could earn interest while a winner considered what to do next.<\/p>\n
A phone number was typically provided for a person at the winner\u2019s bank who had experience dealing with Lotto winners \u2013 and could help in the short term with what to do.<\/p>\n
It also said most winners told only their immediate family.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce most of your winnings are secured in an interest-earning account, take some time to come back down to earth before you make any bigger decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cUse this time to start planning what you want to do with your money in the long term. Having a plan in place will help keep you from making too many spur-of-the-moment decisions, which could impact your future goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mornings headlines in 90 seconds include weather chaos in the South Island, Police reopening cases around concerns of an officer and a toddler found alive in a US morgue. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
Lotto NZ said a sample plan could include immediate next steps, the steps in a month, three months, six months and one year.<\/p>\n
Beyond this, it said longer term questions could include: \u201cWhat have you always wanted for your life and the people around you? What are the things you value most?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe priorities you set will ultimately be what lead you to achieve this end goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlways ask yourself \u2018why\u2019 you decide to do something \u2013 this will help keep you on track when setting your priorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you have an idea of your goals and priorities, it\u2019s a good time to meet with your financial adviser, who can help you put them into action.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lotto NZ added this was just a starting point, and goals and priorities might change over time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to revisit and amend your plan to reflect new priorities as they emerge.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lotto NZ\u2019s Powerball jackpot is $23 million tonight \u2013 giving those who enter a chance of winning big.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,244,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-515141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-personal-finance","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}