JEFFERSON COUNTY (KBMT) - As we get ready for a staggering $485 million Powerball lottery drawing, a Southeast Texas lottery winner is sharing his story on how to be a responsible winner.
Wednesday night's Powerball jackpot is the third-largest in the game's history and the fifth-largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history.
Unlike other lottery horror stories in which someone goes from rags to riches back to rags, Salvador Salazar Jr. is still a multimillionaire, almost four years after winning the Texas Lotto.
Salazar was just 18-years-old when he bought a quick-pick ticket at Dos Amigas convenience store at Franklin and Avenue C, just blocks away from his home in the Avenues neighborhood in Beaumont.
Salazar's ticket was the winning one, he ended up claiming one lump sum payment of $15 million.
Salazar, who had to drop out of high school to support his daughter, told us, "I'm doing way better than what I was."
Salazar is now the father of three, and lives in Hamshire on 115 acres. He built a house for him and his young family, and another house next door for his parents.
Salazar had this advice for future lottery winners, "Be smart with it, don't got out and spend it, just cause you have it."
Salazar practices what he preaches. He has saved more than spent. He said, "I just try to keep it as long as I can to pass it on to my kids. I don't want them growing up the same way I grew up, struggling, my dad and my mom, living paycheck to paycheck, I just want a better life for them than what I had."
Salazar still plays the lottery and plans to buy a Powerball ticket Wednesday. He also still works. He and his dad own a construction business.
Source: http://www.cbs19.tv/story/28087873/southeast-texas-lottery-winner-gives-advice-on-staying-grounded-after-becoming-an-overnight-multimillionaire
